Classroom for GitHub

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

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 2.3.0. We recommend using the excellent rbenv, and ruby-build

rbenv install 2.3.0
rbenv global 2.3.0

Next, you'll need to make sure that you have Nodejs, PostgreSQL, Redis, Memcached, and Elasticsearch installed. This can be done easily :

• For OSX using Homebrew : brew install nodejs postgresql redis memcached elasticsearch
• For Linux : apt-get install nodejs postgresql redis-server memcached. For Elasticsearch, follow the instructions on their website.

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

If you are using Linux, configure PostgreSQL :

• Edit /etc/postgresql/9.3/main/postgresql.conf and uncomment #unix_socket_permissions = 0777
• Create a user and give him the rights to create a database : su postgres -s /bin/bash -c "psql -c 'CREATE USER classroom_user; ALTER USER classroom_user CREATEDB'" (Change classroom_user to the username that will run the classroom server)

Once bundler is installed (and PostgreSQL correctly configured for Linux users) go ahead and run the setup script :

script/setup

Production environment variables

ENV Variable	Description
AIRBRAKE_API_KEY	the API key for airbrake.io, if set Airbrake will be enabled
CANONICAL_HOST	the preferred hostname for the application, if set requests served on other hostnames will be redirected
GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_TRACKING_ID	identifier for Google Analytics in the format UA-.*
PINGLISH_ENABLED	Enable the /_ping endpoint with relevant health checks
MOTD	Show the message of the day banner at the top of the site

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, sidekiq, and elasticsearch in development mode. Postgresql must be running prior executing foreman. It assumes that redis, memcached, and elasticsearch are not already running on the system. Alternatively, you may run script/sidekiq, if you have to have redis, memcached, and elasticsearch 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 separate 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.

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.