Gradebetter

Gradebetter is a minimalistic grading server for individual classes and small organizations. It provides the following components in a single package:

• Frontend:
  • Create classes, assignments
  • Submit work
  • Automatically grade assignments
  • Receive grades
  • Download students' submissions
• HTTP backend and API
  • Modify student's grades
  • Access data

The project levers the following technologies:

• echo, for its HTTP server
• React
• sqlite, for its embedded database

Running From Binary

1. Download the latest release of the project for your architecture from the releases tab.
2. Once downloaded, unpack the server to the directory you would like to serve from.
3. Run ./gradebetter and visit localhost:8080!

Building + Running From Source

You will require:

• Go
• Node
• Yarn
• Make

Afterwards, building is straightforward.

git clone https://github.com/cs130-w22/Group-A3.git gradebetter
cd gradebetter
make
cd dist
./gradebetter

Grading Scripts

Grading scripts are a core function of Gradebetter. Each assignment must have one, but it isn't a strict requirement that each assignment have a distinct grading script.

Flexibility is given to the faculty in determining how much control to give the program on the host system. We recommend that programs be containerized or placed on a secure runtime to ensure malicious code does not run on the machine.

Grading scripts can be any program, script, or command compatible with the host machine's architecture, so long as they output test cases of the following format to stdout (including newlines):

### 		                  (Test ID, 000-999)
HIDDEN 	                  (if hidden)
  	  	                  (if HIDDEN, then only score is required)
NAME TestName
  	                      (if NAME is omitted, then all text
                           until the score is treated as a
                           message)
(comment or hint for students)
SCORE ##.# ##.# 	        (Weight, points)

The grading script is called with the following arguments:

• The directory in which the student's submission is located. The student's work will be provided in a .tar.gz archive titled work.tar.gz.

Example

An example grading script is provided below in POSIX shell. It checks that the student submitted a file named "report.txt" in their tar.gz.

#!/bin/sh
#
# grade_report.sh
#

chdir $1
tar xf work.tar.gz 1>&2

echo "001"
echo "NAME Report exists"
if [ -e report.txt ]; then
  echo "report.txt exists"
  echo "SCORE 1.0 100"
else
  echo "report.txt does not exist!"
  echo "SCORE 1.0 0"
fi

We can create an assignment with this grading script at an arbitary directory /home/gradebetter/grade_report.sh. After ensuring that it is executable by our Gradebetter user or the user the program is running under, we can use it in our Gradebetter interface. Then, we can upload some arbitrary submission to it.

Configuration

Core function of Gradebetter is carried out through its CLI.

$ ./gradebetter -help
Usage of ./gradebetter:
  -D    Reset SQLite database schema then exit (DROP ALL TABLES)
  -c filename
        sqlite database filename (default "gradebetter.db")
  -j uint
        Maximum number of concurrent test scripts running at a given time (default 1)
  -k key
        secret key to use in JWT minting (default "gradebetter")
  -p port
        port to serve the HTTP server on

Semver

This project follows semantic versioning, specifically the 2.0.0 spec. When the project receives a major version change, there will be breaking changes. Backwards compatability will be provided in a best-effort in the form of migratory scripts or utilities.

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Appendix: Diagrams

sequenceDiagram
  actor User
  User->>Handler: Upload work
  activate Handler
  Handler->>Runner: Run a job
  activate Runner
  Handler-->>User: OK
  deactivate Handler
  User->>Handler: Get live results
  activate Handler
  Handler->>Runner: Subscribe to job
  loop for each test case
    Runner-->>Handler: Result
    Handler-->>User: Test case info
  end
  Runner->>DB: Writeback all results
  activate DB
  DB-->>Runner: Complete
  deactivate DB
  Runner-->>Handler: Final score
  deactivate Runner
  Handler-->>User: Terminate connection
  deactivate Handler

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