CSC/ECE 517 Spring 2023 -E2326 Refactor questionnaires controller.rb

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Background

In Expertiza, Questionnaire is the superclass for all kinds of questionnaires and rubrics—rubrics for evaluating submissions and teammate contributions, and taking quizzes and surveys. All of these are subclasses of Questionnaire. questionnaires_controller.rb is charged with creating, displaying, and managing Questionnaires. Because it is used so widely, malfunctions could cause bugs in many parts of the system; hence it is especially important that the code be clear.

Project Purpose

In recent years, questionnaires_controller.rb has been refactored repeatedly. It is a lot clearer than it used to be. But rough edges still remain. question.rb contains a large number of constants. It is not clear what they are used for. There is a questionnaires_controller, but no questions_controller. The questionnaires_controller creates Question objects. This is not elegant, because a controller should only create objects of one type, the type of objects it controls.

Design

Tushar

 #  File/Function Change Proposed Rationale Commit Link
1 method add_new_questions() Store the used default value to some kind of constant in questions.rb, so that they can be changed without refactoring code There are many literals used in the code and can change in future, so it is better to separate them Will be added later
2 File questionnaires_controller.rb Move save_all_questions(), delete_questions(), save_new_questions(), save_questions() To be consistent with SOLID principle, these methods belong in questions_controller.rb Will be added later
3 file questionnaires_controller.rb Refactor following vague method names There are confusing function names like save_all_questions() , save_new_questions() , save_questions() and save() Will be added later
4 method save_questions() Change params[:question].keys.each to params[:question].each_key This will improve the performance and uses a single enumerator Will be added later
5 method create() Remove parenthesis around function call on line 72 Unnecessary parenthesis Will be added later
6 method save_all_questions() Find a way to refactor the code by using more variables or Procs that can be reused in questions_controller.rb The process of saving all questions with 2 nested do blocks is difficult to understand Will be added later
6 method create Move code related to creation of tree node to different function name create_tree_node() The create method is very big and this would help in readability and code reusability Will be added later
7 method questionnaire_helper() Change if/else to switch case and add default error checking to helper Code will be cleaner and there will needs to be catch all because there are no default else conditions/ error checks in factories as of now. Will be added later
8 method question_helper() Change if/else to switch case and add default error checking to helper Code will be cleaner and there will needs to be catch all because there are no default else conditions/ error checks in factories as of now. Will be added later

Ani

questionnaires_controller.rb

- Update the Create Method as it's too long and needs to be refactored. One way to do this is by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable methods. we can create separate methods to handle different parts of the creation process, such as one method to handle validation, one method to handle saving the questionnaire to the database, etc.

- Update confusing names: To avoid confusion, it's important to give methods and controllers descriptive names that accurately reflect their functionality and if there is another method with a similar name that performs a similar function, it should be renamed to avoid confusion. Ex. Create and Create_Questionare

- Unused methods should be removed. ( ex. create_questionnaire)

- Magic Strings should be declared globally or as a configuration: Magic strings, or hard-coded string values in the code, can be difficult to maintain and debug. To avoid this, we can declare them globally or as a configuration in the application. This makes it easier to manage and update these values in one place.

Factory methods for question and questionare

- previous PRs employed the Factory method for questions and questionnaire object creation which can be used for more readable code.

- There are no default else conditions/ error checks in factories as of now.

Jacob

  • Comments still need to be removed in create function
  • questionnaire helper needs to be case statement by type (checking same object 'type')
  • question helper needs to be case statement by type (checking same object 'type')
  • save_all_questions

Problems and planned changes

problems and planned changes

Important links

Github: https://github.com/Soultrekker21/expertiza

Test Plan

  • Make sure that current proposed changes don't break existing test cases.
  • Add unit test for newly proposed methods.
  • Shift existing test cases for questionnaire_controller_spec.rb to question_controller.rb corresponding to methods that are being shifted
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