CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2018/E1834 Improve email notifications
This page provides a description of the Expertiza based OSS project.
About Expertiza
Expertiza is an open source project developed using Ruby on Rails framework.Expertiza allows the instructor to create new assignments and customize new or existing assignments.The application allows students to submit and peer-review learning objects (articles, code, web sites, etc)[1].Expertiza supports submission across various document types, including the URLs and wiki pages.
Problem Statement
Implementation approach
1) Email sent when user is added as a participant to assignment :
When students' accounts are created by importing a CSV file on the Users page,they receive e-mails but not when user was added as a participant to the assignment. We added a method in the assignment_participant.rb file (model) to send mails when a participant is added to an assignment on the assignment page by importing a CSV file. We have also added a method in the course_participant.rb file(model), to send the mail when a Course participant is added by importing a CSV file. Both functionalities are implemented using the method from the MailerHelper class i.e send_mail_to_user().
https://github.com/expertiza/expertiza/commit/c17bb25827e43940cc9f253c04ee7343878298df
2) Sending email to reviewer when new submission is availble:
Added functionality to send email to the reviewer when new submission is available by making changes in the submitted_content_controller and assignment_participant model.The method handled boundary constraints like checking whether the round was valid and disabling email notification after the last round of review.
- assignment_participant.rb-> Code to check if it was the valid round
Firstly, fetched the topic_id from the SignedUpTeam class and got the next due date using the DueDate model Finally compared the round of the Due date with the number of review rounds of the assignments, to verify if its the final round. https://github.com/expertiza/expertiza/commit/e09761b7d8746f26485f264c7fd7936b8d956326#diff-ab934619c8e13cc78f27fbc38461a25b
Extra functionality of specifying the current review round and providing the direct link to reviewer in the mail itself also implemented in the submitted_content controller using the ReviewResponseMap and Response class.
- submitted_content_controller.
We mapped the reviewer_id and reviewee_id, fetched from participants, using the ReviewResponseMap class. For all such mappings retrieved, we are fetching the last response id, which is then passed as the URL suffix to redirect the reviewer to the appropriate page. https://github.com/expertiza/expertiza/commit/e9de954591975724e3dc549144185c00c7e5b0dd#diff-33d668958529875af7029d78e37aff60
3) Including a specific link for the deadline reminders email functionality :
Added a review_reminder_email method and mail_reviewers method in the delayed_mailer.rb file which implemented the functionality for sending deadline reminder mails which includes a link on where to gon to perform the specific task.
#delayed_mailer.rb
def mail_reviewers
email_list = []
reviews = ReviewResponseMap.where(reviewed_object_id: self.assignment_id)
reviews.each do |review|
participant = Participant.where(parent_id: self.assignment_id, id: review.reviewer_id).first
email_list << {'email' => participant.user.email, 'participant_id' => participant.id}
end
review_reminder_email(email_list, self.deadline_type) unless email_list.empty?
end
def review_reminder_email(email_list, deadline_type)
assignment = Assignment.find(self.assignment_id)
subject = "Message regarding #{deadline_type} for assignment #{assignment.name}"
for item in email_list
body = "This is a reminder to complete #{deadline_type} for assignment #{assignment.name}. \
Deadline is #{self.due_at}. Please visit https://expertiza.ncsu.edu/student_review/list?id=#{item.participant_id}\
If you have already done the #{deadline_type}, please ignore this mail."
Rails.logger.info item.email
@mail = Mailer.delayed_message(bcc: [item.email], subject: subject, body: body)
@mail.deliver_now
end
@count += 1
if @count % 3 == 0
if assignment.instructor.copy_of_emails
# if email is sent to instructor, notice that the link in that email will contain the '?id=' field of the last participant
@mail = Mailer.delayed_message(bcc: [assignment.instructor.email], subject: subject, body: body)
@mail.deliver_now
end
end
end
Corresponding changes in the background_email_reminder.rake file implemented. A method named send_reminder_mails implemented.
def send_reminder_emails(email_list, assign_name, due_date, assign_type)
due_date_string = due_date.due_at.to_s
subject = "Message regarding #{assign_type} for #{assign_name}"
for item in email_list
body = "This is a reminder to complete #{assign_type} for assignment #{assign_name}. " +
"Deadline is #{due_date_string}. " +
"Please visit https://expertiza.ncsu.edu/response/edit?id=#{item.response_id}"
Mailer.deliver_message({ :bcc => [item.email], :subject => subject, :body => body })
end
end
Testing
We have used Rspec for testing the email functionalities.Using the test driven development(TDD) approach, we have added an Rspec test which checks whether the mail is delivered to the expected receiver upon creation of the account for the student. We have created a new assignment_particpant_ spec file for the above purpose.The spec uses double and stub features of rspec gem to fake user login.
Since the smtp setting are set to test mode all mails go to expertiza.development@gmail.com and not the actual user.Hence when an email is sent the ActionMailer::Base.deliveries list gets updated.
context "when participant is added to assignment using csv" do
let(:row) do
{name: 'no one', fullname: 'no one', email: 'name@email.com', role:'user_role_name', parent: 'user_parent_name'}
end
let(:attributes) do
{role_id: 1, name: 'no one', fullname: 'no one', email: 'name@email.com', email_on_submission: 'name@email.com',
email_on_review: 'name@email.com', email_on_review_of_review: 'name@email.com'}
end
it "should send an email to the participant", :mailer => true do
allow(ImportFileHelper).to receive(:define_attributes).with(row).and_return(attributes)
allow(ImportFileHelper).to receive(:create_new_user).with(attributes, {}).and_return(double('User', id: 1, email: 'name@email.com', first_name: 'no
name', last_name: 'no name', name: 'no name'))
allow(Assignment).to receive(:find).with(1).and_return(assignment)
allow(AssignmentParticipant).to receive(:exists?).with(user_id: 1, parent_id: 1).and_return(false)
allow(AssignmentParticipant).to receive(:create).with(user_id: 1, parent_id: 1).and_return(participant)
allow(participant).to receive(:set_handle).and_return('handle')
# We need to verify the email was correct by checking its subject, from and to.
# In development/test mode, all mails go to expertiza.development@gmail.com and not actual user.to
expect { AssignmentParticipant.import(row, nil, {}, 1) }.to change { ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.count }.by(1)
email = ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.last
expect(email.from[0]).to eq('expertiza.development@gmail.com')
expect(email.to[0]).to eq('expertiza.development@gmail.com')
expect(email.subject).to eq('Your Expertiza account and password have been created.')
end
end
NOTE: All the mails except the ones for the reviewer which are sent to mailinator are sent to expertiza.development@gmail.com ,as this is already set in the development environment.
Additional Links
- Git pull link: https://github.com/expertiza/expertiza/pull/1253
- VCL deployment: http://152.46.18.165:8080/