CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2014/oss E1460 aua

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Expertiza - Refactoring StudentQuizController

Introduction

Expertiza<ref name="expertiza>Expertiza http://wikis.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php/Expertiza</ref> is a web application available to both students and professors. The Expertiza project is a system to create reusable learning objects through peer review. Expertiza supports team projects, and the submission of almost any document type, including URLs and wiki pages. Students can keep a track of their assignments, teammates and can conduct peer reviews on diverse topics and projects. It is an open source project developed on Ruby on Rails platform. More information on Expertiza can be found here. The source code can be forked and cloned for making modifications. ertiza with main focus of Refactoring the Users Controller.

Project Description

Classes : student_quiz_controller.rb
What it does : This class records the quizzes that the student has attempted and its progress and also submits grades for the essays in the quizzes attempted by the student.
What has to be changed :

  • change list to index (and others in the RESTful style)
  • Pluralize the class (StudentQuizzesController)
  • graded? - review boolean zen
  • Reduce the number of instance variables per controller action.
  • Change the instance variables to local variables if they are not being used in the view.
  • Modify methods to conform to RESTful style
  • Code cleanup by using string interpolation instead of concatenation, replacing '==' with eql? and :key =>'value' with key: 'value', modifying declarations of Arrays and Hashes,removing commented out code
  • Replace find_by with where to follow Rails 4.0 conventions

Modification to Existing Code

Pluralized the class name StudentQuizController

As per Rails convention the controller class names are sugested to be plural. This helps in generating RESTful routing URI helpers. Also, naming the classes as plural seems more natural and helps in understanding<ref>http://stackoverflow.com/questions/646951/singular-or-plural-controller-and-helper-names-in-rails</ref>. We used the refactor functionality in RubyMineto rename StudentQuiz controller class to StudentQuizzes.

The following files were modified and/or renamed. 

app/controllers/review_mapping_controller.rb
app/controllers/{student_quiz_controller.rb → student_quizzes_controller.rb}
app/helpers/student_quiz_helper.rb
app/helpers/student_quizzes_helper.rb
app/views/questionnaires/view.html.erb
app/views/{student_quiz → student_quizzes}/_quiz_form.html.erb
app/views/{student_quiz → student_quizzes}/_responses.html.erb
app/views/{student_quiz → student_quizzes}/_set_dynamic_quiz.html.erb
app/views/{student_quiz → student_quizzes}/_set_self_quiz.html.erb
app/views/{student_quiz → student_quizzes}/finished_quiz.html.erb
app/views/{student_quiz → student_quizzes}/grade_essays.html.erb
app/views/{student_quiz → student_quizzes}/list.html.erb
app/views/{student_quiz → student_quizzes}/take_quiz.html.erb
app/views/student_task/view.html.erb
app/views/tree_display/actions/_assignments_actions.html.erb
test/functional/{student_quiz_controller_test.rb → student_quizzes_controller_test.rb}
test/test_helper.rb
test/unit/helpers/student_quiz_helper_test.rb
test/unit/helpers/student_quizzes_helper_test.rb

The detailed changeset for this refactor can be seen here.


RESTful style implementation

  • Modifications to student_quiz_controller.rb :

The purpose of the list method in the Student Quizzes controller is to list all the quizzes that are available to this user for a particular assignment. RESTful guidelines state that a method that returns a list of all available objects, in this case the quizzes, should be named as index. Therefore, we renamed the list method to the index method in the controller and in all the files that had references to the list method of the student_quiz_controller (For e.g. :- The view finished_quiz.html.erb of the Student Quiz controller, the review_mapping controller.rb etc.).

Before Refactoring : 

def list
    @participant = AssignmentParticipant.find(params[:id])
    return unless current_user_id?(@participant.user_id)

    @assignment = Assignment.find(@participant.parent_id)

    # Find the current phase that the assignment is in.
    @quiz_phase = @assignment.get_current_stage(AssignmentParticipant.find(params[:id]).topic_id)

    @quiz_mappings = QuizResponseMap.where(reviewer_id: @participant.id)

    # Calculate the number of quizzes that the user has completed so far.
    @num_quizzes_total = @quiz_mappings.size

    @num_quizzes_completed = 0
    @quiz_mappings.each do |map|
      @num_quizzes_completed += 1 if map.response
    end

    if @assignment.staggered_deadline?
      @quiz_mappings.each { |quiz_mapping|
        if @assignment.team_assignment?
          participant = AssignmentTeam.get_first_member(quiz_mapping.reviewee_id)
        else
          participant = quiz_mapping.reviewee
        end

        if !participant.nil? and !participant.topic_id.nil?
          quiz_due_date = TopicDeadline.where(topic_id: participant.topic_id, deadline_type_id: 1).first
        end
      }
      deadline_type_id = DeadlineType.find_by_name('quiz').id
    end
  end
}

After Refactoring : 

def index
    participant = AssignmentParticipant.find(params[:id])
    return unless current_user_id?(participant.user_id)
    @assignment = Assignment.find(participant.parent_id)
    @quiz_mappings = QuizResponseMap.get_mappings_for_reviewer(participant.id)
end

Instance Variable Reductions

In Rails, data is shared between the controllers and views through the instance variables. The instance variabIes that are set during the execution a particular controller method are accessible to the view. Excessive usage of this standard method of data sharing between the controller and the view results in increased coupling between them. <ref>http://blog.remarkablelabs.com/2013/01/how-to-decrease-coupling-in-your-controllers-views-with-decent_exposure-for-better-maintainability</ref> Increased coupling results in several problems, including less maintainability of code, difficulty in code reuse etc. <ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coupling_(computer_programming)#Disadvantages</ref> Thus, we need to reduce coupling to the maximum possible extent and in this case it can be achieved by reducing as many instance variables as possible. Therefore, we have refactored our code in order to eliminate unused and unneccessary instance variables.

Before Refactoring

student_quizzes_controller.rb

In the take_quiz method, the following instance variables were removed Changed the quizzes instance variable to a local variable. Eliminated instance variable assignment which was not used anywhere. Eliminated local variable teams which was not used any where The unified diff of the changes made is shown below 

  def self.take_quiz assignment_id , reviewer_id
-    @quizzes = Array.new
+    quizzes = Array.new
     reviewer = Participant.where(user_id: reviewer_id, parent_id: assignment_id).first
-    @assignment = Assignment.find(assignment_id)
-    teams = TeamsUser.where(user_id: reviewer_id)
     Team.where(parent_id: assignment_id).each do |quiz_creator|
       unless TeamsUser.find_by_team_id(quiz_creator.id).user_id == reviewer_id
         Questionnaire.where(instructor_id: quiz_creator.id).each do |questionnaire|
-          if !@assignment.team_assignment?
-            unless QuizResponseMap.where(reviewed_object_id: questionnaire.id, reviewer_id:  reviewer.id).first
-              @quizzes.push(questionnaire)
-            end
-          else unless QuizResponseMap.where(reviewed_object_id: questionnaire.id, reviewer_id:  reviewer_id).first
-            @quizzes.push(questionnaire)
+          unless QuizResponseMap.where(reviewed_object_id: questionnaire.id, reviewer_id:  reviewer.id).first
+            quizzes.push(questionnaire)
           end
         end
       end
     end
+    return quizzes
   end
-  return @quizzes
-end

Code Cleanup

Code cleanup in the controller so that the code conforms closely to Rails conventions and enhanced readability of code.

  • Replaced String concats with #{} in paginate_list

Before Refactoring :

After Refactoring :
  • Replaced '==' with eql?

Before Refactoring :

After Refactoring :
  • Replaced :key =>'value' with key: 'value'

Before Refactoring :
  • Modified declarations of Arrays and Hashes

Before Refactoring : 

#index
 @letters = Array.new

#paginate_list
 paginate_options = {"1" => 25, "2" => 50, "3" => 100}

After Refactoring : 

#index
 @letters =[]

#paginate_list
 paginate_options = Hash["1" ,25 , "2", 50, "3", 100]
  • Removed unused methods like self.participants_in and commented out code.

Use of Routing Helpers

Routing helpers are a simpler alternative to the otherwise complex hard coded URLs which reduce the readability of the code.Routing helpers allow us to declare possible common routes for a given controller. Routing helpers have been implemented since they maintain consistency even if changes are made to the routing paths.

Before Refactoring:


After Refactoring 

def show_selection
      @user = User.where(name: params[:user][:name]).take
      if @user != nil
        role=get_role
        if role.parent_id.eql? nil || role.parent_id < (session[:user]).role_id || @user.id.eql?(session[:user]).id
          render action: 'show'
        else
          flash[:note] = 'The specified user is not available for editing.'
          redirect_to users_path  #Replaced URL with routing helper 
        end
      else
        flash[:note] = params[:user][:name]+' does not exist.'
      redirect_to users_path  #Replaced URL with routing helper
      end
    end


Replace find_by_.. with where in querying

Rails 4 conventions dictate the use of 'where()' over the use of 'find_by_...' methods while querying ActiveRecords. The code has been refactored to replace the usages of find_by.. with where().

Before Refactoring


After Refactoring

Replace controller method with a model method

Rails 4 conventions dictate the use of 'where()' over the use of 'find_by_...' methods while querying ActiveRecords. The code has been refactored to replace the usages of find_by.. with where().


Before Refactoring 

    @quiz_mappings = QuizResponseMap.where(reviewer_id: participant.id)


After Refactoring 

 @quiz_mappings = QuizResponseMap.get_mappings_for_reviewer(participant.id)




References

<references/>

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