langbox

Sandbox runner for coding challenges in multiple programming languages using Docker. Written in C# & Blazor for educational purposes at my university.

Overview

This application allows users to create various challenges using pre-defined templates in multiple programming languages. A challenge is consisted of an environment it runs in & a test file, that has to be run against a provided solution.

The solution provided by a user will be run in a sandbox using Docker. This project defines sandbox templates, that have to be build before attempting to run this application.

Building the application

Before running the application, there are some steps you have to do, in order for the application to run correctly.

Building sandbox templates

Requirements

• Docker

Sandbox templates are Docker images and they are located in the project root under directory SandboxTemplates. You will find instructions below on how to setup & build these images.

C# (MSUnit) template

Navigate to the SandboxTemplates/Lgbox-CSharp-MSUnit directory & run command docker build -t lgbox/csharp-msunit-template:0.1.0 . - after this step, this template will be available to the application.

Java (JUnit) template

Navigate to the SandboxTemplates/Lgbox-Java-JUnit directory & run command docker build -t lgbox/java-junit-template:0.1.0 . - after this step, this template will be available to the application.

Building & running using Visual Studio

Requirements

• Docker (with docker-compose installed aswell)
• Visual Studio (2019 or greater)
• .NET Framework
• PostgreSQL database

The application was developed using Visual Studio and so it has configured running tasks. Although the application can be run through the IIS Express task, there are several things that have to be set-up first:

• You have to build Docker images of sandbox templates, as explained in previous step
• You will have to run a PostgreSQL database. For local development, you can use the docker-compose.yml file to spin up only the database, using command docker-compose up db
• Using Visual Studio, you will have to specify a DATABASE_URL environment variable to the task you wish to run (for example, the IIS Express task) - this will have to point to a PostgreSQL database (example: postgres://postgres@db:5432/langbox)

Now you can run the application using IIS Express run task. This will automatically open a browser with the client application.