Tarpaulin

Tarpaulin is a lightweight course management tool that serves as an "alternative" to Canvas. It allows instructors to create assignments for their courses and students to submit solutions to those assignments.

System Diagram

UML Diagram

Entities

Users

Represents application users, each with one of three roles: admin, instructor, and student. Each role has different permissions for performing API actions, as detailed in the Tarpaulin OpenAPI specification.

Courses

Represents courses being managed in Tarpaulin, including basic information (subject code, number, title, instructor) and lists of enrolled students and assignments.

Assignments

Represents a single assignment for a course, with basic information such as title and due date, along with a list of student submissions.

Submissions

Represents a single student submission for an assignment, tied to the submitting student and marked with a timestamp. Each submission is associated with an uploaded file.

Actions

Course Roster Download

• Endpoint: GET /courses/{id}/roster
• Description: Allows authorized users to download a CSV-formatted roster for a course. The CSV contains a list of enrolled students.
• Example:

  "abc123","Jane Doe","[email protected]"
  "def456","Luke Skywalker","[email protected]"
  

• Implementation: The roster is generated on-the-fly from the database

Assignment Submission Creation

• Endpoint: POST /assignments/{id}/submissions
• Description: Allows authorized student users to upload a file submission for a specific assignment. The API should generate and return a URL for the uploaded file.
• Implementation: Store the file and generate a URL for later access, returned with submission details.

User Data Fetching

• Endpoint: GET /users/{id}
• Description: Allows users to view their own data, including the list of classes they are enrolled in (students) or teaching (instructors).
• Authorization: Only the logged-in user can see their own data.

Course Information Fetching

• Endpoints: GET /courses, GET /courses/{id}
• Description: Allows users to see information about all courses or a specific course, excluding details about enrolled students and assignments.
• Details: Fetch students with GET /courses/{id}/students and assignments with GET /courses/{id}/assignments.

Pagination

The following endpoints support pagination:

• GET /courses
• GET /assignments/{id}/submissions

Authorization

Many endpoints require authorization, implemented using a JWT-based authorization scheme.

Docker Specification

The API application includes a complete Docker specification, allowing it to be launched from scratch on a new machine using Docker Compose. This includes:

• Dockerfile: Specifies dependencies for the main API server.
• Docker Compose: Specifies each service in the API (e.g., database) and their interactions.

The specification should enable launching the API from scratch, including necessary database initialization.

Getting Started

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd <repository-directory>

2. Build and run the application with Docker Compose:

   docker-compose up --build

3. Access the API:

   • The API will be accessible at http://localhost:<port>.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.