bool3max / quizz

A backend + frontend of a simple quiz application built for a school project

Quizz

This repository contains the source code of a simple quiz-like web application written for a school project.

Requirements

• Python3
• Flask
• SQLite3

It's recommended to install Flask in a Python3 virtual environment (venv) specific to the project. Git repositories don't usually commit Python3 venvs:

$ python3 -m venv <venv_name>
$ source ./<venv_name>/bin/activate
$ pip install flask

Quickstart

1. Use the provided schema file to create a blank database:

   $ sqlite3 <name>.db
   
   sqlite> .read src/db.schema
   sqlite> .exit
   

2. Run the Flask debug server (a Werkzeug server only to be used during development/debugging):

   The environment variable DB_PATH points to the database file created in step 1.

   $ env FLASK_APP=src/quiz_main.py FLASK_ENV=development DB_PATH=<name.db> flask run
   

3. Alternatively, since the project is a WSGI application, it can be hosted by any sort of production-ready server, e.g. gunicorn:

   $ env DB_PATH=./prod.db gunicorn --chdir src quiz:app
   

4. Visit the app locally on http://localhost:5000. The port that the Werkzeug development server listens on can be changed using the -p flag of the flask executable.

Caveats

• The quiz_client_should_see_correct_answers column in the quizzes table is not modifiable by the client during the creation of a quiz, and as such defaults to 1 (True) in SQLite. The client implementation however fully supports this field, and it is returned by the server when a particular quiz is loaded. I may make it modifiable in the future.

• The quiz_client_should_randomize_order column in the quizzes table currently has no effect. The user can alter its value during the creation of a new quiz, and its value is returned by the API, however it has no effect on the order of the questions in the rendered DOM. I may implement support for it in the future.

• Currently the application is hosted on a Heroku free tier, which runs on an ephemeral filesystem whose contents get cleared at least once every 24 hours. In addition to that, Heroku "dynos" each run on different filesystems with their own copies of the files. As such, SQLite3 is not a good choice when hosting on Heroku. I may migrate to a different db such as PostgreSQL soon.