Sendo83 / a-maze-ingly-puzzle

A-Maze-ingly Retro Route Puzzle

This is a JSON variant of the problem described by this blog post.

Problem

Write a program that will output a valid route one could follow to collect all specified items within a map. The map is a json description of set of rooms with allowed path and contained object.

Exercise starts with an input of:

• json representation of map
• starting room
• list of objects to collect

Room type allowed fields

  id: Integer
  name: String
  north: Integer //referring to a connected room
  south: Integer //referring to a connected room
  west: Integer //referring to a connected room
  east: Integer //referring to a connected room
  objects: List //of Objects

Object type allowed fields
  name: String //Object Name

Example

Map

{
  "rooms": [
    { "id": 1, "name": "Hallway", "north": 2, "objects": [] },
    { "id": 2, "name": "Dining Room", "south": 1, "west": 3, "east": 4, "objects": [] },
    { "id": 3, "name": "Kitchen","east":2, "objects": [ { "name": "Knife" } ] },
    { "id": 4, "name": "Sun Room","west":2, "objects": [ { "name": "Potted Plant" } ] }
  ]
}

Input

Start Room ID = 2
Objects To Collect = Knife, Potted Plant

Output

ID	Room	Object collected
2	Dining Room	None
1	Hallway	None
2	Dining Room	None
3	Kitchen	Knife
2	Dining Room	None
4	Sun Room	Potted Plant

Additional Goals

• TDD approach.
• Build a Docker container with runnable code inside so that we can mount a volume in it and test on different maps.

Usage

This software can be run through a Docker container sendo/amazeingly.

Once you pull the container you can attach a volume containing the map file to use and then run the software with a specific input, like this:

docker run --rm -v /host/path/to/map:/testMap sendo/amazeingly /testMap/map.json 2 "<object_to_collect>"

If you prefer to run it without a Docker container you could clone my github repository sendo83/a-maze-ingly-puzzle.

The software is based upon JavaScript and Node.js v6.3.11 (there is no guarantee that it will work with node previous version).

Once you clone the repository you should run:

npm install

This command will donwload all the needed dependencies defined inside package.json.

To run the software use the following command:

node /path/to/a-maze-ingly-puzzle/app.js /path/to/testMap "object_to_collect"

Here it is an example using a predefined map:

node app.js ./testMap/map.json 2 "Knife" "Potted Plant" "Cigarettes"

In order to run the test use the follwing command:

/path/to/a-maze-ingly-puzzle/ npm test

Implementation notes

I made the following assumptions:

1. Map should exists and should also be valid.
2. Rooms ID should start with a number equals or grater than 1.
3. Start room should exists otherwise the software will exit returning a proper error message.
4. If the start room ID it's not a number/integer the software will exit returning a proper error message.
5. The script should be executed with at least two inputs: a valid map and a valid start room. If it's not the software will exit returning a proper error message.
6. If one object to collect doesn't exists (e.g. it's not defined inside the map) the software will exit returning a proper error message.
7. A room could contains more than one object.
8. An object to collect could be only in one room.