CSC/ECE 517 Spring 2023 E2318: Reimplement Participants Controller
Introduction
Expertiza is an Open Source Rails application which is used by instructors and students for creating assignments and submitting peer reviews. Expertiza allows the instructor to create and customize assignments, create a list of topics the students can sign up for, have students work on teams and also review each other's assignments. Expertiza supports submissions across various document types, including URLs and wiki pages. The Source code of the application can be cloned from Github.
Background
In expertiza, there are two different models: Course and Assignment. Although an Assignment is a part of a Course, students can participate in a Course or an Assignment independently.
The ParticipantsController provides functionalities for listing the participants of a course or an assignment, adding a participant to a course or an assignment, updating the authorizations of a participant (can_submit, can_review, can_take_quiz), updating the handle of a participant for an assignment, inheriting course participants to its assignment, bequeathing assignment participants to its course and deleting a participant from a course or an assignment.
Project Goals
Reimplement the expertiza ParticipantsController as a Rails API while maintaining the existing functionality of the ParticipantsController.
Implementation
API documentation
# | Method | Endpoint | Description |
---|---|---|---|
1 | index | GET /participants/:model/:id
|
returns a list of participants of an assignment or a course |
2 | create | POST /participants/:model/:id
|
creates a participant in an assignment or a course |
3 | update_handle | PATCH /participants/change_handle/:id
|
updates the participant's handle for an assignment |
4 | update_authorizations | PATCH /participants/update_authorizations/:id
|
updates the participant's permissions for an assignment or a course depending on the role |
5 | delete | DELETE /participants/:id
|
deletes a participant from an assignment or a course |
6 | inherit | GET /participants/inherit/:id
|
copies existing participants from a course down to its assignment |
7 | bequeath | GET /participants/bequeath/:id
|
copies existing participants from an assignment up to its course |
Index
Purpose: Returns a list of participants of an assignment or a course
Description: This endpoint allows the user to request a list of all participants for the provided assignment ID or course ID. A success response renders a JSON with a list of participants that can be parsed by the front-end.
Path: GET /participants/index/:model/:id
Parameters:
# | Parameter | Expected Value |
---|---|---|
1 | model
|
One of these two strings: ['Assignment', 'Course']
|
2 | id
|
The unique identifier for an assignment or a course depending on the value of :model
|
Response:
Success { "model_object": model_object, "participants": participants, } status: :ok Failure { error: "Missing or invalid required parameters" } status: :unprocessable_entity
Create
Purpose: Creates a participant in an assignment or a course
Description: This endpoint allows the user to create a new participant for the provided assignment ID or course ID. A success response renders a JSON with the participant details. The user is required to provide a valid username as well as the appropriate permissions for the new participant. These permissions are [can_submit, can_review, can_take_quiz]
. Depending on whether the request is for an Assignment
or a Course
, a participant type is determined between an AssignmentParticipant
or a CourseParticipant
and an entry is made into the database accordingly.
Path: POST /participants/:model/:id/:authorization
Parameters:
# | Parameter | Expected Value |
---|---|---|
1 | model
|
One of these two strings: ['Assignment', 'Course']
|
2 | id
|
The unique identifier for an assignment or a course depending on the value of :model
|
3 | username
|
The unique username of the new participant being requested |
4 | authorization
|
A list of required permissions for the requested new particpant |
Response:
Success { "participant": participant, } status: :created When user does not exist { error: "User #{params[:user][:name]} does not exist" } status: :not_found When participant already exists in the assignment/course { error: "Participant #{params[:user][:name]} already exists for this #{params[:model]}" } status: :unprocessable_entity
Update Handle
Purpose: Updates the participant's handle for an assignment
Description: This endpoint allows the user to change their handle name for a given AssignmentParticipant
. An AssignmentParticipant
is one who is already enrolled in the assignment. A success response renders a JSON with the updated participant details. The user is required to provide a valid and available handle name.
Path: POST /participants/change_handle/:id
Parameters:
# | Parameter | Expected Value |
---|---|---|
1 | id
|
The unique identifier for an AssignmentParticipant
|
2 | handle
|
A valid, available handle name for the participant |
Response:
When handle change was successful { "participant": participant, } status: :ok When handle is already in use { note: "Handle already in use" } status: :ok Failure { error: participant.errors } status: :unprocessable_entity
Update authorizations
Purpose: Updates the participant's permissions for an assignment or a course depending on the role
Description: This endpoint allows the user to change the permissions for a given Participant
. The appropriate permissions for any participant are [can_submit, can_review, can_take_quiz]
. A Participant
is one who is already enrolled in an assignment or a course. A success response renders a JSON with the updated participant details and permissions.
Path: POST /participants/update_authorizations/:id/:authorization
Parameters:
# | Parameter | Expected Value |
---|---|---|
1 | id
|
The unique identifier for a Participant
|
2 | authorization
|
A list of permissions being requested for the participant |
3 | can_submit
|
A value for whether the participant can make submissions or not. |
4 | can_review
|
A value for whether the participant can create reviews or not. |
5 | can_take_quiz
|
A value for whether the participant can take quizzes or not. |
Response:
Success { "participant": participant, } status: :ok Failure { error: participant.errors } status: :unprocessable_entity
Delete
Purpose: Deletes a participant from an assignment or a course
Description: This endpoint allows the user to delete an existing participant from an assignment or a course. The user is expected to provide the valid participant ID. The participant is only deleted if they are not part of another team for a different assignment/course. This is to ensure that a participant enrolled in two different teams is not deleted from the list of participants. Deletion is only possible if the participant is only enrolled in only one team. A success response renders a JSON with a confirmation of the deletion.
Path: DELETE /participants/:id
Parameters:
# | Parameter | Expected Value |
---|---|---|
1 | id
|
The unique identifier for a Participant
|
Response:
Success { message: "#{participant.user.name} was successfully removed as a participant" } status: :ok When the participant is on another team { error: "This participant is on a team" } status: :unprocessable_entity Failure { error: "Failed to remove participant" } status: :unprocessable_entity
Inherit
Purpose: Copies existing participants from a course down to its assignment
Description: This endpoint allows the user to copy the existing participants from a course to the provided assignment in a single operation. Before this is carried out, validations are performed on 1) the existence of a course for the provided assignment and 2) non-empty list of participants already registered in the course. After these checks, the participants are copied from the course to the given assignment. A success response renders a JSON with a confirmation of the copy.
Path: GET /participants/inherit/:id
Parameters:
# | Parameter | Expected Value |
---|---|---|
1 | id
|
The unique identifier for an Assignment
|
Response:
When copy was successful { message: "The participants from #{source.name} were copied to #{target.name}" } status: :created When all the participants already existed in the assignment(no-op) { note: "All of #{source.name} participants are already in #{target.name}" } status: :ok When there were no participants for the course { note: "No participants were found for this #{source.name}" } status: :ok When there is no course for the given assignment { error: "No course was found for this assignment" } status: :unprocessable_entity
Bequeath
Purpose: Copies existing participants from an assignment up to its course
Description: This endpoint allows the user to copy the existing participants from the provided assignment to its associated course in a single operation. Before this is carried out, validations are performed on 1) the existence of a course for the provided assignment and 2) non-empty list of participants already registered in the assignment. After these checks, the participants are copied from the given assignment to its course. A success response renders a JSON with a confirmation of the copy.
Path: GET /participants/bequeath/:id
Parameters:
# | Parameter | Expected Value |
---|---|---|
1 | id
|
The unique identifier for an Assignment
|
Response:
When copy was successful { message: "The participants from #{source.name} were copied to #{target.name}" } status: :created When all the participants already existed in the course(no-op) { note: "All of #{source.name} participants are already in #{target.name}" } status: :ok When there were no participants for the assignment { note: "No participants were found for this #{source.name}" } status: :ok When there is no course for the given assignment { error: "No course was found for this assignment" } status: :unprocessable_entity
Assumptions
<TBD>
Test Plan
Since Expertiza has been originally tested with RSpec, we have continued to use RSpec to test out model. The participants_controller.rb depends on many methods and associations with other models. To test the methods in the participants controller, we have stubbed some of these dependent methods. To progress with our testing, we've added the associations in the respective sample model files since these were necessary for stubbing.
To run the tests, kindly pull from the repository and run bundle install to install the necessary dependencies. Once done, please run rspec participants_controller_spec.rb
.
Tests
Test ID | Test Description |
---|---|
1 | Test to check index with Assignment model and id |
2 | Test to check index with Course model and id |
3 | Test to check index with a non-existent id |
4 | Test to create a new participant |
5 | Test to confirm update handle request for a participant |
6 | Test to verify failure of an update handle request for a participant |
7 | Test to update authorizations for a participant |
8 | Test to verify failure of an update authorizations request for a participant |
9 | Test to inherit participants from a Course to an Assignment |
10 | Test to verify failure for inherit participants from a Course to an Assignment when course had no participants |
11 | Test to inherit participants from an Assignment to a Course |
12 | Test to verify failure for inherit participants from an Assignment to a Course when assignment had no participants |
13 | Test to destroy a participant |
14 | Test to verify failure of destroying a participant |
15 | Test to verify denying the destroy method for a participant who is on another team |
Contributors
- Saksham Pandey (spandey5@ncsu.edu)
- Devashish Vachhani (dvachha@ncsu.edu)
- Karthik K Jayakumar (kkunnum@ncsu.edu)
Mentor: Rucha Kolekar (rbkoleka@ncsu.edu)
Relevant Links
- Github Repository for new code: https://github.com/devashish-vachhani/reimplementation-back-end
- Github Repository for old code: https://github.com/expertiza/expertiza/blob/main/app/controllers/participants_controller.rb
- Pull Request: https://github.com/expertiza/reimplementation-back-end/pull/22
- Testing video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gR6adaEzAyWWg3z_s-aPbaxE2cscXDlP/view?ts=641f6906
- VCL Server: http://152.7.176.119