potluck-eval

potluck

TODO: fix exercise solution visibility!

Code for automatically evaluating Python programming tasks, including a flask WSGI server for handling submissions.

Specifications API design by Peter Mawhorter.

Server design by Peter Mawhorter, Scott Anderson, and Franklyn Turbak.

Based on codder program by Ben Wood w/ contributions by Franklyn Turbak and Peter Mawhorter.

Dependencies

The core evaluation code depends on the jinja2, pygments, markdown, importlib_resources, beautifulsoup4, and python_dateutil packages.

Optional dependencies (get them using e.g., python -m pip install potluck-eval[test]):

• [test]: Tests depend on pytest, and you can run them using tox if you want.
• [expectations]: Integration with optimism is available to require and grade student unit tests.
• [turtle_capture]: Full support for capturing turtle drawings requires the Pillow package (version 6.0.0 or later), as well as a Ghostscript installation (which is not simply a PyPI package and needs to be installed manually). Support for other image-producing code is possible, but would also require Pillow.
• [synth]: Integration with wavesynth is available for capturing audio produced by that package. Support for other audio libraries is not built in but is possible.
• [server]: If you want to run the potluck_server WSGI app, you'll need flask and flask_cas, as well as redis. If you're running the WSGI app on a server without a windowing system but still want to be able to evaluate submissions that use graphics (notably submissions which use the turtle module), there is support for using xvfb-run (which would have to be installed separately as it's not a PyPI package).
• [security] For full server security, you should also install flask_talisman, and flask_seasurf, but these are not required for running the server and won't be used if they're not present (although this introduces some extra security vulnerabilities).
• [https_debug] If you want to use a self-signed certificate for HTTPS while hosting the WSGI server locally for debugging purposes, you'll need pyopenssl. This is inconvenient, so it's not recommended unless you want to develop the server side of things.
• [formatting] For better formatting of markdown instructions, pymarkdown-extensions can be installed; it will be used if present, and the most important feature it provides is indented fenced code blocks so that they can be placed into list items.

Installing

To install from PyPI, run the following command on the command-line:

python3 -m pip install potluck-eval

Confirm installation from within Python by running:

>>> import potluck

Once that's done, you can perform run the built-in tests on the command-line:

python -m potluck.tests

Note that if you get a command not found error, the potluck_eval script might not have been installed somewhere that's on your command line's path, which you'll need to fix to get the tests to run.

If you want to see what evaluation looks like yourself instead of just running automated tests that clean up after themselves, in your installed potluck directory inside of site-packages there's a testarea directory; inside testarea/test_course/fall2021 you should be able to run the following commands:

potluck_eval -t functionsTest --rubric
potluck_eval -t functionsTest --instructions
potluck_eval -t functionsTest -u perfect
potluck_eval -t functionsTest -u imperfect
potluck_eval -t functionsTest --check

The first command creates a rubric for the "functionsTest" task in the rubrics directory, and the second creates instructions in the instructions directory. The third and fourth commands will evaluate the provided test submissions for the same task, creating reports as reports/(im)perfect/functionsTest_TIMESTAMP.html where TIMESTAMP is a time-stamp based on when you run the command. The fifth command runs the specification's built-in tests and prints out a report.

If the tests pass and these commands work, then potluck is properly installed and you can start figuring out how to set up your own evaluation area and define your own tasks. The documentation for the potluck.specifications module describes the task-definition process and provides a worked example that shows off many of the possibilities; you can find that example specification at:

potluck/testarea/test_course/fall2021/specs/functionsTest/spec.py

Evaluation Setup

Once potluck is installed and working , you'll need to set up your own folder for evaluating submissions. The potluck/testarea folder contains an example of this, including task specifications and example submissions (note that it's missing a submissions folder because all of its submissions are examples, as the potluck_config.py there notes). You can test things out there, but eventually you'll want to create your own evaluation directory, which should have at minimum:

• tasks.json: This file specifies which tasks exist and how to load their specifications, as well as which submitted files to look for and evaluate. You can work from the example in potluck/testarea/test_course/fall2021/tasks.json.
• A specs folder with one or more task sub-folders, named by their task IDs. Each task sub-folder should have a spec.py file that defines the task, as well as starter/ and soln/ folders which hold starter and solution code. These files and folders need to match what's specified in tasks.json.
• A submissions folder, with per-user submissions folders containing per-task folders that have actual submitted files in them. Note that if you're going to use the potluck_server WSGI app, this can be created automatically.

If you're going to use the potluck_server WSGI app, your evaluation directory will also need:

• potluck-admin.json: Defines which users have admin privileges and allows things like masquerading and time travel. Work from the provided example potluck/testarea/test_course/fall2021/potluck-admin.json.

Finally, to run automated tests on your specifications (always a good idea) you will need:

• An examples folder with the same structure as the submissions folder.

Running potluck_server

To set up potluck_server, in addition to an evaluation directory set up as described above, you'll need to create a ps_config.py file in a directory of your choosing (could be the same as the base evaluation directory if you want); there's a rundir directory inside the installed potluck_server directory which has an example of this; in addition to ps_config.py, secret and syncauth files will be created in the server run-directory if not present.

For testing purposes, you will not need to change the ps_config.py file from the defaults supplied in ps_config.py.example, but you'll want to edit it extensively before running the server for real. When running in a real WSGI context, you'll also need the potluck.wsgi file that's present in the potluck_server/rundir directory.

Once ps_config.py has been created, from the potluck_server/rundir directory (or whatever directory you set up) you should be able to run:

python -m potluck_server.app

to run the WSGI app on a local port in debugging mode. It will print several messages including one or more prompts about running without authentication, and you'll have to press enter at these prompts to actually start the server, after which it should provide you with a link you can use in a browser to access it.

NOTE THAT THE POTLUCK WEB APP ALLOWS AUTHENTICATED USERS TO RUN ARBITRARY PYTHON CODE ON THE SERVER!

In addition to this, in debugging mode the server has no authentication, and is only protected by the fact that it's only accessible to localhost. Accordingly, you will need to set up CAS (Central Authentication Server) via the values in ps_config.py to run the server for real. If you don't have access to a CAS instance via your company or institution, you can either set one up yourself, or you'll have to modify the server to use some other form of authentication. It is also strongly recommended that you install the flask_talisman and flask_seasurf modules, which will be used to provide additional security only if they're available. If pyopenssl is installed alongside flask_talisman, a self-signed certificate will be used to provide HTTPS even in debugging mode, mostly just to maximize similarity between debugging & production environments.

In debugging mode, you will automatically be logged in as the "test" user, and with the default potluck-admin.json file, this will be an admin account, allowing you to do things like view full feedback before the submission deadline is past. With the default setup, you should be able to submit files for the testing tasks, and view the feedback generated for those files (eventually, you may have to modify the due dates in the example tasks.json for this to work). You can find files to submit in the potluck/testarea/test_course/fall2021/submissions directory, and you can always try submitting some of the solution files.

See the documentation at the top of python_server/app.py for a run-down of how the server works and what's available.

To actually install the server as a WSGI app, you'll need to follow the standard procedure for whatever HTTP server you're using. For example, with Apache, this involves installing mod_wsgi and creating various configuration files. An example Apache mod_wsgi configuration might look like this (to be placed in /etc/httpd/conf.d):

# ================================================================
# Potluck App for code submission & grading (runs potluck_eval)

# the following is now necessary in Apache 2.4; the default seems to be to deny.
<Directory "/home/potluck/private/potluck/potluck_server">
    Require all granted
</Directory>

WSGIDaemonProcess potluck user=potluck processes=5 display-name=httpd-potluck home=/home/potluck/rundir python-home=/home/potluck/potluck-python python-path=/home/potluck/rundir
WSGIScriptAlias /potluck /home/potluck/rundir/potluck.wsgi process-group=potluck

Security

Running the potluck_server WSGI app on a public-facing port represents a significant security vulnerability, since any authenticated user can submit tasks, and the evaluation mechanisms currently do not use any sandboxing, meaning that they RUN UNTRUSTED PYTHON CODE DIRECTLY ON YOUR SERVER (even if they used sandboxing, which is a target feature for the future, they would be vulnerable to any means of circumventing the sandboxing used).

You therefore need to trust that your CAS setup is secure, and trust that your users will be responsible about submitting files and about keeping their accounts secure. If you can't depend on these things, DO NOT run the web app.

Even if you do not run the web app, and instead collect submissions via some other mechanism, the evaluation machinery still runs submitted code directly. You will need to trust the users submitting tasks for evaluation, and watch out for accidental mis-use of resources (e.g., creating files in an infinite loop). It's not a bad idea to run the entire evaluation process in a virtual machine, although the details of such a setup are beyond this document.

Documentation

Extracted documentation can be viewed online at: https://cs.wellesley.edu/~pmwh/potluck/docs/potluck/

You can also read the same documentation in the docstrings of the source code, or compile it yourself if you've got make and pdoc installed by running the make docs script on the command-line (note that shenanigans are necessary to prevent pdoc from trying to import the test submissions).

Changelog

• Version 1.2.36 cleans up a few minor things and adds config for disabling self-granted extensions at the course level. Also adds 'pastecanary' CSS support for hidden text that gets 'added in' when copy-pasted. This is potluck version 1.2.16 and potluck_server version 1.2.24.
• Version 1.2.35 improves handling of long experience answers in the grade sheets, improves sorting when multiple course numbers are present in the roster, and makes grades more visible on the dashboard (before the due date) and on the evaluation page. It bumps potluck_server to 1.2.23. It also fixes some bugs:
  • A bug with Loop checks that require list comprehensions specifically.
  • A bug with harness descriptions that grabs the wrong paragraphs. This bumps potluck to version 1.2.25.
• Version 1.2.34 disables self-granted extensions, bumping potluck_server to 1.2.22.
• Version 1.2.33 replaces AllOnes with ManyOnes(1000) for input when importing modules, allowing us to crash earlier when a module requests too much input on import (typically none should be requested!). This also bumps potluck version to 1.1.24
• Version 1.2.32 tweaks potluck_eval resource limits to fail more gracefully in several cases.
• Version 1.2.31 brings potluck adds resource limits in the potluck_eval script. These should probably be confiurable, but for now it's all-or-nothing based on a switch.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.30 adds the missing 'redis' dependency into the 'server' extra dependencies, and adds an 'all' extra dependency that includes all optional depedencies. It also includes potluck_server version 1.2.21 which fixes str/bytes flask_seasurf issue on Python 3, and specifies utf-8 encoding for file reading in storage.py to hopefully fix decoding issues with 'ascii' default locales. Makes importlib_resources import optional on Python versions that have importlib.resources built-in.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.29 is potluck_server version 1.2.20 which disables authentication for the starter code download route.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.28 fixes the CSS highlighting issue in exercise extension forms in the extension manager. It also adds support for universal tracing. This is potluck_server version 1.2.20 and potluck version 1.2.23.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.27 fixes column alignment in copied table contents for gradesheets. This is potluck_server version 1.2.19.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.26 adds grade override mechanisms for individual exercises and for exercise groups. This is potluck_server version 1.2.18.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.25 fixes a print formatting bug, and also has an ugly patch for the image-tabs-don't-work bug in image comparison feedback. It's potluck version 1.1.22.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.24 fixes a bug in 1.2.23 that prevents exercise detail views from working entirely; this is potluck_server version 1.2.17.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.23 adds a chronological list of all exercise submissions to the exercise detailed view; this is potluck_server version 1.2.16.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.22 fixes percentage displays on the full gradesheet, adds category classes to them for color. Also shortens grade item titles to regularize column widths in the full grade table, and hides students whose section is set to "hide", along with exercise groups and/or projects which have "hide" set to true. This is potluck_server version 1.2.15.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.21 fixes some JS issues (like +24h buttons not working on evaluation pages) and adds a full-course gradesheet view (link is on the dashboard before the quick links for admins). This is potluck_server version 1.2.14 and potluck version 1.1.20.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.20 fixes one bug in 1.2.19. It includes potluck_server version 1.2.13.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.19 fixes bugs in 1.2.18. It includes potluck_server version 1.2.12.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.18 fixes bugs in 1.2.17. It includes potluck_server version 1.2.11.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.17 includes potluck version 1.1.19 and potluck_server version 1.2.10 which clarify/simplify the "at least N" messages for partial completion language and also show full eval info before the initial deadline to get rid of the "at least partially complete" confusing language. The new potluck_server version also empowers config values, letting them come from per-course task info in almost all cases, and in many cases letting them come from individual tasks, projects, or exercise groups within a tasks.json file. Server config and defaults in the code still provide default values.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.16 includes potluck_server.storage version 0.3.1 which fixes a bug in v0.3 that always causes an internal server error. I need a better testing setup T_T
• potluck_eval version 1.2.15 includes potluck_server.storage version 0.3. Turns out I hadn't been version bumping that file for a while even though plenty of changes have occurred ^.^; In any case, this fixes a bug that resulted in an internal server error when certain None grade values were explicit.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.14 includes potluck version 1.1.18 which adds a return to capture_file_contents for chaining.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.13 includes potluck_server version 1.2.9; it's a bugfix for issues in 1.2.8.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.12 includes potluck_server version 1.2.8, which fixes exercise deadline handling so that extensions (and other deadline adjustments) can retroactively change the lateness of particular exercise submissions.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.11 fixes a bug where the extension manager would show initial extension values from the person viewing the page, not from the student whose extensions were being managed (student extension values were still saved properly). It also fixes a floating point division error for servers running Python 2.7 which causes inaccurate pset combined grades to show up in some cases on the gradesheet. It also sets the default expectation level in the meta submodule to 0 to work with the new flat reports that are sortable. It also adds sorting functionality to reports instead of just instructions/rubrics.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.10 makes the amend_exercises function more robust in the face of missing credit info.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.9 ensures that the exercises route displays exercises for the target user, not the logged-in user. Also adds a mechanism for hiding psets from the dashboard via tasks.json. Also adds extension management for exercises, and factors deadlines into points calculations for exercises. Also adds exercise IDs to the dashboard.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.8 fixes an integer-point division issue in computing credit fractions when running the server on Python 2. It also adds solution links for exercise groups to be displayed only after the deadline to those who have a "complete" or better evaluation. Added gradesheet views for exercise groups. Added +/- 24-hour buttons for extensions in the extension manager.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.7 adds a stderr error message to the potluckDelivery output when the server indicates that a submission is not complete, and redirects GET requests to route_deliver to the dashboard. It also adds percentages to the dashboard for exercise groups, updates the exercise format within exercise groups in tasks.json to a list of dictionaries so that ordering is preserved. The former dictionary-of-exercises format won't crash things but isn't fully supported any more.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.6 fixes a bug in 1.2.5 with safe_join that affects older versions of Python/werkzeug/flask. It also pushes potluck version to 1.1.16, which adds custom categorization to the rubric and makes a flat metric the default. This breaks some of the prep stuff but we'll fix that later.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.5 fixes a bug in 1.2.4 that should have been caught by basic testing T_T.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.4 disables CSRF for route_deliver and also fixes some python2-specific errors with deliver and improves some delivery error messages. It also gets rid of outcome-count-checking when outcome counts aren't specified in tasks.json, and introduces an author info timeout for potluckDelivery. Plus, deliverOutcome will now automatically grab code with a mark matching the suite name even if grabCode isn't specified, as long as optimism is available. Finally, an attempt was made to improve backward compatibility for cases where 'exercises' may not be defined in tasks.json, and/or where the concepts file is missing.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.3 re-fixes the flashes-instead-of-errors idea form 1.2.2 that still wasn't implemented correctly. It also introduces timeliness overrides and puts timing info below problem set IDs to save space on the dashboard.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.2 fixes the flashes-instead-of-errors idea form 1.2.1 that wasn't implemented correctly.
• potluck_eval version 1.2.1 adds a version number to the potluckDelivery script. It also turns some exceptions into flashes for missing concepts in exercise configuration to make typos less punishing.
• potluck_eval version 1.2 brings things up-to-date with optimism 2.7.4, and represents a major shakeup to the potluck server's handling of grades + feedback, hence the new minor version number. Full feedback is now displayed during the initial submission period, and timeliness points separate from task points are assigned based on presence/absence of an initial submission and an eventual at-least-almost-complete revision (or initial submission). It improves display for finalized unsubmitted pooled tasks (no longer marked as issues if any task in the pool was submitted). It also adds a file potluckDelivry for delivering exercise results via function call, and a whole exercise category on the dashboard w/ details view to collect, store, and display those results. Gradesheet for exercises is not present yet, but should be coming along soon.
• potluck version 1.1.14 makes single-loop dictionary and set comprehensions matchable with a default Loop object, and adds set comprehensions to the relevant pattern variables.
• potluck version 1.1.13 upgrades the returns_a_new_value harness to match the report_argument_modifications harness in reporting positions of arguments rather than their names.
• potluck version 1.1.12 includes Try and With Check sub-classes in specifications.py (although these have severe limitations) and fixes validation.py to be up-to-date with optimism version 2.6.4. It also sets the default subslip to be equal to the number of sub-rules, meaning that by default, any match is considered partial if the syntax we're looking for was found. It also adds some tests for try/with matching to the mast tests, including one that fails for now because pattern vars in the 'as -name-' position of an except block aren't supported. Try/except matching in general is extremely fragile...
• potluck version 1.1.11 includes better support for testing optimism tests cases defined within specific functions, via a testing harness in the validation sub-module.
• potluck version 1.1.10 includes generator expressions and dictionary comprehensions when matching loops generally and comprehensions specifically. The wording of rubrics for these is also improved. Also sets the default behavior of DontWasteBoxes to ignore loop variables.
• Version 1.0/1.1 brings potluck up-to-date with optimism 2.0, and adds a validation mode for checking test cases against solution code. Some improvements to resubmission and admin-based submission on the server are also included.