WJEC GCE Computer Science Unit 5 Software Development

Luca Huelle (1902) - Rougemont School (68362)

September 2020 - May 2021

The full project report (in .docx and .pdf formats) is available in the same directory as this file.

README last updated 16/05/2021

Requirements and installation

Download the code by navigating to the master branch of the GitHub project and clicking code (top right) and then Download Zip. Unzip the downloaded file into a folder of your choice.

Make sure that Python 3.8 or above installed on your system before running the program. You can check your version by running python --version from the command line.

Additional note on included run files

A \.run directory is included within the project's files. This directory includes several .run.xml files which can be used in JetBrains' IDEs (including PyCharm) to automatically execute the main.py file with certain command line arguments. They can therefore be ignored for typical use and are merely included for reference/further testing.

(NB: these .run.xml files use a, now deprecated, virtual environment to run the program.)

Usage

To run the application, navigate to the directory containing this README.md file and execute the command below:

C:\...\gce-unit-5>python main.py --show-gui

For further help with using this project's main.py file, run the following command.

C:\...\gce-unit-5>python main.py --help

Extra explanatory detail on the functions listed from this help command are provided below in Additional functionality.

Fully completed features

Many parts of this project are not fully complete (see the abundance of 'todo' / 'wouldbenice's in the source code).

Below is a list of the all the main features available to test and use in the latest version of the program. They should be mostly bug-free and working as intended. Feel free to experiment with these to get a feel for the program's capabilities:

• Fully Object-Oriented database (in data_handling.py) : each element in a subclass of Table is a subclass of Row (e.g. Student is a row object within StudentTable, which is itself stored in a Database object at runtime)
  • Relational database in third normal form with tables: StudentLogin, Student, Section, Resource and Staff
  • Saving data to text files for permanent data storage including autoload/save on program start/exit
  • Secure login detail storage with password salting + hashing (in password_logic.py)
• Flexible validation procedures (in validation.py) for all user input across application including emails, dates, etc.
• Sample unit tests (e.g. test_password_logic.py) which can be used to verify that certain procedures work as expected. (These are not fully complete and only partially cover the project.)
• User-friendly command line interface (with --help documentation) for running all operations (creating staff accounts, generating sample data and running the GUI application)
• Use of logging (to main_program.log) throughout program (GUI and CLI) for debugging and support purposes
• Scalable and modular tkinter Graphical User Interface framework (see ui/__init__.py for detailed, annotated implementation using layered Frames to keep program within one window). The complete GUI features are as follows:
  • Login functionality for students
    • Student dashboard to view an overview of current award progress and general information
    • Data entry for enrolment
    • Data entry and viewing for section start/in progress
    • Section evidence uploading - including marking evidence as an assessor's report. Evidence is saved in \uploads\student\id-??.
  • Login functionality for staff
    • Student overview table to view award progress of all students at a glance
      • View students in table by award level
      • Search by student name/username
    • View all stored data (including individual section data) for a selected student and approve/manage students on an individual basis
    • Add new students to the database with unique logins

Exemplar database

An exemplar database is provided alongside this project for easy trialing of key features. It includes several pre-filled-in student accounts at varying stages in their theoretical award.

The database is available in the program by including -f "(example)" in any commands (see Loading specific database files below for more information on using this argument).

e.g.

C:\...\gce-unit-5>python main.py -f "(example)" --show-gui

The usernames and current states for these pre-created accounts are included below. All accounts use the password Passw0rd.

• Staff account
  • staff_am
• Student accounts
  • student1 - not yet fully enrolled
  • student2 - enrolled but not yet approved by staff
  • student3 - one section in progress
  • student4 - evidence uploaded across 2 sections with 1 assessor's report

Additional functionality

Creating staff/admin accounts (--create-staff-account)

This operation can only be done from the command line in order to prevent students from registering themselves as a staff/admin user.

Begin an interactive terminal session to create a new staff user with the following command.

NB: Make sure that this is run from within a terminal environment (and not within an IDE) as passwords cannot be entered securely within the latter.

C:\...\gce-unit-5>python main.py --create-staff-account

Loading specific database files (-file-save-suffix SUFFIX)

The -f SUFFIX (or --file-save-suffix SUFFIX) argument allows custom database tables to be loaded. By default, no extra string is appended to table names on loading.

For example, not supplying the argument means the file ResourceTable.txt is loaded and later saved on program termination. However, if you instead run the following command.

C:\...\gce-unit-5>python main.py -f " (backup)" --show-gui

The file ResourceTable (backup).txt is loaded and later saved instead.

This is useful when using the program while maintaining multiple databases on the same computer or when loading test databases (see below).

(NB: always enclose suffixes in " and do not include - characters.)

Generating test databases (--populate-tables)

This program comes bundled with functionality to automatically populate student tables with random student accounts. This was mainly used for testing purposes.

The function clears all tables - except for Staff login details - and creates a specified number of students with random usernames, year groups and award levels - all with the password password.

Begin an interactive terminal session to generate random student accounts using the following command.

C:\...\gce-unit-5>python main.py --populate-tables

You can then use these newly generated tables in the application using the -f " (test students)" flag (in combination with any of the other commands detailed above or in --help).

e.g.

C:\...\gce-unit-5>python main.py -f " (test students)" --show-gui