automation.org

Automation of Open edX lab creation

Introduction

This document captures the automation of creating the file structure of an Open edX course from our existing lab structure.

Usage

• First create a directory with the lab name.
• Create a file named labspec.json inside that lab name directory.
• Put the structure of lab you want to convert in the labspec.json file.
• You can use this example labspec.json file and edit it to replicate the lab structure you want to convert.
• After creating a labspec.json file following the steps given in the <Create labspec.json file> section, put that labspec.json in the lab directory you created earlier.
• Finally create the Open edx Course with from the existing lab structure by running the command in next step from your terminal.
• python build/code/src/automation.py <Lab-Directory-Path>
• Compress the lab directory and create a course in Open edX Studio and import the compressed tar.gz lab directory to course you created in Open edX studio.
• After that copy paste the content in each subsection under experiments in a lab into the relevant subsections in the Open edX course you created with the Open edX studio (Creating a course with Open edX Studio).

Creating labspec.json file

• Inside the course object value replace the value of org, id, display_name, overview with Organization Name, Lab Id, Name of the lab, Description of the lab respectively.
• Inside the experiments object value enter the list of all the experiments in this particular lab.
• Inside the experiment object list value leave the first element unchanged which is the introduction subsection for this lab.
• Inside each experiment object replace the names of the subsections with the subsections in this particular experiment.
• Finally if you don’t use your brain too much you should be able to create the labspec.json document you need for the lab to be converted.

Design & Implementation

Directory Generator for Open edX lab spec

We are representing the directory structure of Open edX lab with a list containing all the directories.

import os, sys, json


LAB_DIRECTORY_STRUCTURE = [
    {'name': 'about', 'isDir': True, 'files': ['overview.html']},
    {'name': 'chapter', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'combinedopenended', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'course', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'discussion', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'drafts', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'html', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'info', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'peergrading', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'policies', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'problem', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'sequential', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'static', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'tabs', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'vertical', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'video', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'videoalpha', 'isDir': True, 'files': []},
    {'name': 'course.xml', 'isDir': False}
]

def directoryGenerator(labpath):
    print "Generating..."
    if not os.path.exists(labpath):
        os.makedirs(labpath)
        
    os.chdir(labpath)
    
    for i in LAB_DIRECTORY_STRUCTURE:
        if i['isDir']:
            os.mkdir(i['name'])
            if i['files'] != []:
                os.chdir(i['name'])
                for f in i['files']:
                    open(f, 'w').close()
                os.chdir('..')
        else:
            open(i['name'], 'w').close()
            
    os.chdir('..')
    print "Completed Generating!"



def labStructureGenerator(labpath):
    os.chdir(labpath)
    labspec = json.loads(open('labspec.json', 'r').read())
    print os.getcwd()

    course = open('course.xml', 'w')
    course_data = labspec['course']
    course.write('<course url_name="%s" org="%s" course="%s"/>'%(course_data['id'], course_data['org'], course_data['id']))

    os.chdir('about')

    overview = open('overview.html', 'w')
    overview_data = """<section class="about">
  <h2>About This Course</h2>
  <p> %s </p>
</section>""" % labspec['overview']

    overview.write(overview_data)
    os.chdir('..')

    os.chdir('course')
    experiments_list = labspec['experiments']
    experiments_metadata = """ """
    for experiment in experiments_list:
        experiments_metadata = experiments_metadata + ('\n  <chapter url_name="%s"/>' % experiment['name'].replace(" ","_"))
        os.chdir('../chapter')
        experiment_file = open(experiment['name'].replace(" ", "_") + '.xml', 'w')

        subsection_metadata = """ """
        for subsection in experiment['subsections']:
            subsection_metadata = subsection_metadata + '\n  <sequential url_name="%s"/>' % (experiment['name'].replace(" ","_")+"_"+subsection['name'].replace(" ","_"))
            os.chdir('../sequential')
            subsection_file = open(experiment['name'].replace(" ","_") + "_" + subsection['name'].replace(" ","_") + '.xml', 'w')
            subsection_vertical_data = """<sequential display_name="%s">
  <vertical url_name="%s"/>
</sequential>""" % (subsection['name'], experiment['name'].replace(" ","_")+"_"+subsection['name'].replace(" ","_") + "_" + "Unit")
            subsection_file.write(subsection_vertical_data)
            subsection_file.close()
            os.chdir('../vertical')
            unit_file = open(experiment['name'].replace(" ","_") + "_" + subsection['name'].replace(" ","_") + "_Unit.xml",'w')
            unit_file_data = """<vertical display_name="%s">
  <html url_name="%s"/>
</vertical>""" % ("Unit", experiment['name'].replace(" ","_")+"_"+subsection['name'].replace(" ","_") + "_Unit_html")
            unit_file.write(unit_file_data)
            unit_file.close()
            os.chdir('../html')
            unit_file_xml = open(experiment['name'].replace(" ","_")+"_"+subsection['name'].replace(" ","_") +"_Unit_html.xml",'w')
            unit_file_html = open(experiment['name'].replace(" ","_")+"_"+subsection['name'].replace(" ","_") +"_Unit_html.html",'w')
            unit_file_html.write("<h2>%s</h2>"%subsection['name'])
            unit_file_html.close()
            unit_file_xml_data =  """<html file_name="%s"/>""" % (experiment['name'].replace(" ","_")+"_"+subsection['name'].replace(" ","_") + "_Unit_html")
            unit_file_xml.write(unit_file_xml_data)
            unit_file_xml.close()
            os.chdir('../chapter')

        subsection_data = """<chapter display_name="%s">%s
</chapter>""" % (experiment['name'], subsection_metadata)
        experiment_file.write(subsection_data)
        experiment_file.close()
        os.chdir('../course')

    experiments_data = """<course display_name="%s">%s
</course>""" % (course_data['display_name'], experiments_metadata)

    experiments = open(course_data['id']+'.xml', 'w')
    experiments.write(experiments_data)
    experiments.close()
    os.chdir('..')

def generateLab(labpath):
    os.chdir(labpath)
    if os.path.isfile('labspec.json'):
        directoryGenerator(labpath)
        labStructureGenerator(labpath)
    else:
        print "Place a labspec.json file in the lab folder and give the absolute path of the lab folder"

if __name__ == '__main__':
    if len(sys.argv) != 2:
        print "Usage : python <Automation-Script> <Absolute Path of lab>"
    else:
        generateLab(sys.argv[1])