SkillBuilder

A web application for evaluating students' professional skills, such as teamwork and communication. The purpose of the SkillBuilder application is to allow instructors to assess teams of students in real-time using research-based or custom rubrics. Instructors can email students their results, as well as download the data for analysis.

SkillBuilder is implemented in three parts:

• A Back End Flask server.

• A Caching Redis server.

• A Front End React server.

Setting up and running with Docker and Docker Compose:

• UPDATE: Using Docker and Docker Compose should become the sole method for running this application locally as it solves dependency issues across all platforms! Also makes developing easier as there are now only two commands to worry about.

• Follow the link for instructions on downloading Docker Desktop: https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/

• NOTE: If you have an intel chip with Windows OS, you will need to go to the following link to install Docker Desktop: https://docs.docker.com/desktop/install/windows-install/

• NOTE: Make sure that there are no running frontend, redis, or backend processes as there will be port conflicts. To view if you have processes running on important ports, run the following and expect no output:

  lsof -i :3000,5050,6379
  

  If output, there is a chance you still have processes running and you need to use the following command to kill them off:

  kill <pid>
  

  There is a chance that your OS has an important process running on one of these ports that should not be terminated. In that case, change the port for conflicting processes in the compose.yml file. Make sure that you also update changed ports in the frontend or backend .env and anywhere else needed!

  Step 1: After following the instructions, ensure you have Docker Desktop open and running.

  Step 2: Open a new terminal and navigate to where you have this repository cloned.

  Step 3: Run the following command to ensure you have docker running:

  docker ps
  

  Step 4: Run the following command to build the images:

  docker compose build
  

  NOTE: To rebuild with new changes applied and ignore cached build run the following:

  docker compose build --no-cache
  

  NOTE: To view all of the build logs instead of the default summary run the following:

  docker compose build --process=plain
  

  Step 5: Run the following command to run containers from the images:

  docker compose up
  

  Step 6: Open a browser with the link http://localhost:3000 to see the frontend.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Python 3.12 and up.

• Homebrew 4.2.18 and up.

• Redis 7.2.4 and up.

• Node.js v21.6.1 and up.

NOTE:

• You WILL encounter issues when running both the Back End and Front End servers if you do NOT have installed the REQUIRED versions of Python and Node.js.

NOTE:

• Linux, Mac, and WSL Developers use python3.

• WINDOWS DEVELOPERS ARE NO LONGER SUPPORTED.

Installing requirements

• Follow the link for instructions on downloading Python:

  https://www.python.org/downloads/

• Follow the link for instructions on downloading Node.js:

  https://nodejs.org/en/download

• Follow the link for instructions on downloading brew:

  https://brew.sh/

• Once installed, run the following command with Homebrew to install redis:

  brew install redis
  

Setting up the Back End environment:

• Follow the instructions for setting up the virtual environment:

  Step 1: Ensure you are in the BackEndFlask directory by running the command:

  cd BackEndFlask
  

  Step 2: Create the virtual environment by running the command:

  python3 -m venv BackEndFlaskVenv
  

  Step 3: Activate the virtual environment by running the command:

  source BackEndFlaskVenv/bin/activate
  

  To Deactivate the virtual environment, run the command:

  deactivate
  

  To Remove the virtual environment, run the command:

  rm -r BackEndFlaskVenv
  

• In order to setup the environment for the first time, you will need to be in the /rubricapp/BackEndFlask/ directory and run the following command:

  python3 setupEnv.py -id
  

• This command will install all the requirements from requirements.txt, create a new database, and load the database with demo data.

Flag Meanings:

• -i install
• -d demo

NOTE:

• If you DO NOT run the above command with the -i and -d flags once, then the Back End server WILL NOT be initialized properly. If the Back End server is NOT initialized properly, then the Back End server WILL NOT run. IF the Back End server is NOT running, then the Front End server WILL NOT run properly either.

• In the case where you want to restart with a fresh new database, add the flag -r to reset the existing database. You WILL then have to rerun the command with the -d flag to load demo data.

Setting up the Front End environment:

• Follow the link for instructions on downloading Node.js:

  https://nodejs.org/en/download

• In order to install the required packages you WILL need to be in the directory /rubricapp/FrontEndReact/.

• Inside the Front End React directory run the following command to install all the Node packages for the project:

  npm install
  

NOTE:

• If you run npm install outside of the /rubricapp/FrontEndReact/ directory, it WILL cause issues.

• In the case where you run npm install outside of the /rubricapp/FrontEndReact/ directory, simply remove the created files package.json and package-lock.json and the directory node_modules. Ensure that you have correctly changed the current working directory to /rubricapp/FrontEndReact/ before attempting to run the command to install the Node packages.

Running the Servers after setup:

NOTE:

• You WILL need to run the Back End server first, the Redis server second, then the Front End server third.

• You WILL need to run the Back End, Redis, and Front End servers in different terminal windows.

Running the Back End server of the application:

• Use the following command for running the Back End server in the /rubricapp/BackEndFlask/ directory during regular use:

  python3 setupEnv.py -s
  

Flag meaning:

• -s start

Running the Redis server:

• Use the following command for running the Redis server:

  brew services start redis
  

NOTE:

• Run the following command to restart redis with Homebrew:

  brew services restart redis
  

• Run the following command to stop redis with Homewbrew:

  brew services stop redis
  

Running the Front End server of the application:

• Use the following command for running the Front End Server in the /rubricapp/FrontEndReact/ directory:

  npm start
  

• This command runs the Front End server in development mode. Open http://localhost:3000 or http://127.0.0.1:3000 to view it in your browser.

• Any changes made in the /rubricapp/FrontEndReact/ directory will be caught by the running Front End server, thus rerendering any opened tabs in your browser.

• You will also be able to see any compile warnings and errors in the console.

Running Pytest:

• For running pytests on the Back End server you will use the following command:

  python3 setupEnv.py -t
  

Flag meaning:

• -t test

Running Jest tests:

• For running Jest tests on the Front End server you will use the following command:

  npm test
  

• This command launches the test runner in the interactive watch mode. Make sure the version of react is 'react-scripts@0.3.0' or higher.

• Here is a link for learning more information about running tests:

  https://facebook.github.io/create-react-app/docs/running-tests