CSC/ECE 517 Spring 2024 - E2432. UI for participants.rb

This wiki page is for the description of changes made under E2432 OSS assignment for Spring 2024, CSC/ECE 517.

Description

The aim of this project was to enhance the user interface (UI) for participants in Expertiza, an online peer review application. Initially, the URL structure was modified to accommodate individual participants associated with specific assignment IDs. Furthermore, the UI underwent significant refinements to align with the underlying data schema, enhancing usability and functionality.

This is the design diagram for the UI implementation:

Design

URL Restructuring

Initially, our website's link to access participant information was straightforward /assignments/participants. This link served as a general entry point to view all participants across different assignments. However, as our project progressed, we recognized the need for a more refined system to handle participants associated with specific assignments. To meet this requirement, we revised the link structure to /assignments/{id}/participants, where {id} represents the unique identifier for each assignment. This adjustment enables us to access participant data within a particular assignment directly. By organizing participants in this manner, we enhance the clarity and efficiency of participant management within our application. It serves same for the student tasks as well.

Form Refinement

We noticed a mismatch between the fields in our form and the actual participant model. It turned out that fields like email, first name, and last name didn't align with the participant model structure. After examining the participant.rb file, we realized that the participant model was associated with the user model and included an assignment ID, as well as a separate role attribute.

To address the inconsistency, we refined the form by removing unnecessary fields and focusing on essentials. We replaced them with a dropdown menu near the user selection, populated with user options. Additionally, we included a separate dropdown for roles, allowing users to select the appropriate role for each participant. This setup ensures that roles are accurately associated with the model structure and maintains a direct link with assignment IDs. This streamlining reduces confusion and optimizes the creation process. Users can now efficiently assign participants with their respective roles, enhancing overall system efficiency and accuracy.

UI Restructuring

We changed how we handle participant creation to better match how modifications are made. Since modifying a participant is essentially like deleting and creating a new one, we removed the edit participant feature from the UI. Instead, we redesigned the UI to focus on a simpler approach to managing participants. This not only makes the system less complex but also makes it easier for users to understand and use. By simplifying the interface, users can navigate and interact with the system more smoothly, resulting in a better overall experience.

Database

For the database, we cloned and set up reimplementation backend by following the instructions given here :Backend Setup Instructions

Components

interfaces.ts : This file defines TypeScript interfaces for form-related props and fields used in React components, including options for form elements and Formik field props.

App.tsx : This file defines the main routing structure of the React application, configuring routes and their corresponding components, including authentication, user management, institution management, roles, assignments, participants, courses, and questionnaire sections.

participantColumns.tsx : This file defines helper functions to create columns for displaying participant data in a table, including features like sorting, filtering, and actions such as editing and deleting participants.

ParticipantEditor.tsx : This file contains a React component for editing participant information within a modal, including form inputs for name, email, role, institution, and email preferences, with validation and submission handling.

participantUtil.ts : This file provides utility functions and data transformations for managing participant data, including loading participant information, roles, and institutions, and transforming data for API requests and responses.

Participant.tsx : This file defines a React component for managing participants, including displaying participant data in a table, with options for editing and deleting participants.

ParticipantDelete.tsx : This file contains a React component for deleting a participant, presenting a modal to confirm deletion and handling the deletion request via an API call.

Files modified

List of changes

1. URL structure updated to /assignments/{id}/participants and /student_tasks/{id}/participants:

Initially, the URL was set as "assignments/participants." However, we updated it to "assignments/{id}/participants" because participants are closely tied to specific assignments. We changed by examining of the participant model, which indicated that participants belong to only users and assignments. As a result, each participant needs to be associated with a unique assignment ID. This adjustment ensures a more accurate representation of participant data within the system.

Two interfaces, IParticipantResponse and IParticipantRequest, facilitate communication for user selection. When a user selects a participant from the dropdown, their corresponding details are fetched from the backend. Upon form submission, the system uses the selected user's ID to associate the participant with the chosen assignment. This process simplifies participant management and improves system efficiency.

2. Edit participant functionality removed, as modification now entails deletion and recreation:

We have re-envisioned the participant management process for greater efficiency and user-friendliness. The previous functionality allowed for editing participants, which involved complex search queries across an extensive database of users and subsequent updates to fields. Given the complexity and resource intensity of this operation, particularly with a large number of users, we have observed that it's more streamlined to handle such changes through a deletion and recreation strategy. This method proves to be more straightforward and less error-prone than the in-place editing of user roles. As such, the edit participant feature has been deprecated. Now, modifications to participant information are handled cleanly and efficiently by removing the existing participant entry and creating a new one with the desired role and permissions, ensuring a clear state with each change and a more intuitive experience for administrators.

3. Participant User Dropdown:

Participant creation form is removed and a new dropdown menu has been added to the user interface. This allows administrators to select a user and assign them as a participant within the platform. The dropdown is a part of the enhanced user management system, which streamlines user role assignments.

4. Assignment Role Selection:

Radio buttons have been introduced for the assignment of specific roles. This selection mechanism enables a clear distinction between roles such as 'Participant', 'Reader', 'Reviewer', 'Submitter', or 'Mentor'. The purpose of these buttons is to facilitate the straightforward assignment of roles and ensure each user's responsibilities are clearly defined.

5. Simplified Email Preferences and Search Functionality Removal:

To avoid cluttering the user interface and to improve overall user experience, the email preferences feature has been removed. This change supports a more focused approach to user interaction, removing less frequently used options and emphasizing the platform's primary features. The search function was underutilized and contributed to interface clutter. The interface now has a more focused user experience with an emphasis on core functionalities.

Design Patterns

1. RESTful Design:

RESTful Design is an architectural style that emphasizes client-server communications that are stateless, cacheable, and layered. In the context of web development, it involves structuring URLs in a meaningful and hierarchical manner to reflect the relationships between resources.

By restructuring URLs to include specific identifiers for accessing participant information within assignments, the project adopts RESTful principles, making the application more intuitive and navigable. This method enhances the scalability and maintainability of the web services.

This design choice not only improves clarity for developers and users by making URLs self-descriptive but also facilitates better data management and access patterns within the application, aligning with modern web standards.

2. Strategy Pattern:

The Strategy Pattern involves defining a family of algorithms, encapsulating each one, and making them interchangeable. This pattern lets the algorithm vary independently from clients that use it, promoting flexibility in the application's functionality.

The form refinement in the project, where a dropdown menu is populated with user options based on the context (like the specific assignment), exemplifies the Strategy Pattern. It allows the selection mechanism in forms to adapt dynamically, improving the user interface and experience.

Employing this pattern enables the application to handle varying requirements gracefully, allowing for a modular approach to form configuration and interaction. This adaptability is crucial for applications that require a high degree of customization and flexibility in user input processing.

3. Facade Pattern (Simplified Interface):

The Facade Pattern provides a unified interface to a set of interfaces in a subsystem. It defines a higher-level interface that makes the subsystem easier to use, simplifying complex systems by providing a simple interface.

In the project, simplifying the participant management interface by removing the edit feature and focusing on streamlined participant addition and removal demonstrates the application of a simplified interface, akin to the Facade Pattern. This change reduces complexity for the end-user, making the system more accessible and user-friendly.

This approach enhances the user experience by reducing the cognitive load and making the interaction with the system more intuitive. It reflects a thoughtful consideration of user needs and system design, aiming to make complex processes as straightforward as possible for users.

Testing Details

We tested the pages manually

1. Manage Participants

Verify that the "Manage Participants" page displays correctly with all necessary options (delete, create) for the participants.
Ensure that participant details are presented in a table format.

2. Add Participant

Hover over the "Add Participant" icon located at the top right corner to ensure that the "Add Participant" is visible.
Select user from the user dropdown.
Hover over the tool tip of each role and check if the description is visible.
Select role of the participant i.e, either participant, reader, submitter or reviewer.
Click on the "Add Participant" icon.
Confirm that the newly created user is populated in the participants table.

3. Delete Participant

Hover over the "Delete Participant" icon present in each row of the participant table to ensure its visibility.
Click on the "Delete Participant" icon to trigger the delete participant popup window.
Verify that the delete participant popup window prompts confirmation ("Are you sure?").
Test the cancel button to ensure that it closes the delete participant popup window without performing the deletion.
Click on the delete button within the popup window and confirm that it deletes the participant and closes the popup window.
Ensure that the deleted user is removed from the participants table upon successful deletion.

Relevant Links

GitHub repository: https://github.com/mahathii/reimplementation-front-end
Pull request: https://github.com/expertiza/reimplementation-front-end/pull/39

Team

Mentor

Kalyan Karnati

Student Team

Anish Rao Toorpu (atoorpu@ncsu.edu)
Mahathi Kolishetty (mkolish@ncsu.edu)
Nitya Naga Sai Atluri (natluri@ncsu.edu)