/classroom

Classroom for GitHub automates repository creation and access control, making it easy for teachers to distribute starter code and collect assignments on GitHub.

Primary LanguageRubyMIT LicenseMIT

Classroom for GitHub

Build Status

Classroom for GitHub is a Ruby on Rails application designed to automate repository creation and access control, making it easy for teachers to distribute starter code and collect assignments on GitHub

Classroom for GitHub screenshot

How it works

Assignments are the core of Classroom for GitHub. Teachers can easily create an assignment and distribute it to students using a private invitation URL. Optional starter code can be provided for individual or group work. It's even possible to delegate assignment creation and management to co-teachers and teaching assistants by adding them as organization administrators.

Hacking on Classroom for GitHub

Get started

New to Ruby? No worries! You can follow these instructions to install a local server.

Installing a Local Server

First things first, you'll need to install Ruby 2.2.3. We recommend using the excellent rbenv, and ruby-build

rbenv install 2.2.3
rbenv global 2.2.3

Next, you'll need to make sure that you have PostgreSQL, Redis, and Memcached installed. This can be done easily on OSX using Homebrew

brew install postgresql redis memcached

You will want to set postgresql to autostart at login via launchctl, if not already. See brew info postgresql. Redis and memcached may be setup similarly via launchctl or setup project wide by using foreman, described below.

Now, let's install the gems from the Gemfile ("Gems" are synonymous with libraries in other languages).

gem install bundler && rbenv rehash

Setup Classroom for GitHub

Once bundler is installed go ahead and run the setup script

script/setup

Development environment variables

These values must be present in your .env file (created by script/setup).

ENV Variable Description
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID the GitHub Application Client ID.
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET the GitHub Application Client Secret.
NON_STAFF_GITHUB_ADMIN_IDS GitHub user_ids of users to be granted staff level access.

Testing environment variables

Classroom for GitHub uses VCR for recording and playing back API fixtures during test runs. These cassettes (fixtures) are part of the Git project in the spec/support/cassettes folder. If you're not recording new cassettes you can run the specs with existing cassettes with:

script/test

Classroom for GitHub uses environmental variables for storing credentials used in testing, these values are located in your .env file (created by script/setup). If you are recording new cassettes, you need to make sure all of these values are present.

ENV Variable Description
TEST_CLASSROOM_OWNER_ID The GitHub user_id of an organization admin.
TEST_CLASSROOM_OWNER_GITHUB_TOKEN The Personal Access Token for the classroom owner
TEST_CLASSROOM_STUDENT_ID Test OAuth application client ID.
TEST_CLASSROOM_STUDENT_GITHUB_TOKEN The Personal Access Token for the student
TEST_CLASSROOM_OWNER_ORGANIZATION_ID GitHub ID (preferably one created specifically for testing against).
TEST_CLASSROOM_OWNER_ORGANIZATION_LOGIN GitHub login (preferably one created specifically for testing against).

Running the application

Foreman is setup to manage redis, memcached, and sidekiq in development mode. Postgresql must be running prior executing foreman. It assumes that redis and memcached are not already running on the system. Alternatively, you may run script/sidekiq, if you you to have redis and memcached always running system wide. To execute foreman, and this application's dependencies, run:

script/workers

After that, you may start the rails server in a seperate terminal with:

script/server

And that's it! You should have a working instance of Classroom for GitHub located here

Deployment

We strongly encourage you to use https://classroom.github.com, but if you would like your own version Classroom for GitHub can be easily deployed to Heroku.

Deploy

Contributing

We'd love to have you participate. Please check out contributing guidelines.

Contributors

Classroom is developed by these contributors.

Shout out to GitHub Summer of Code student, Mark Tareshawty, from The Ohio State University for his work on Classroom for GitHub.