OpenQP

• Generate a Question paper (Calicut)
• Generate a Question paper (Kannur)

OpenQP generates Question Papers by selecting questions (based on some pre-defined algorithm)from a question bank. The questions are stored in LaTex format in a postgres RDBMS system, that can be accessed from remote computers. Some of the features of the system are:

• Capable of handling multiple courses.
• Renders mathematical equations properly (uses LaTex).

• Support for multiple languages. English, Hindi, Malayalam and Arabic are currently implemented.

• Different security levels are provided. Separate passwords for editing each Course. Web based Question paper generation access the Database in the read-only mode.

• Editing a course to add/remove questions is done offline, with the help of a GUI program. The entire Course is imported to a local computer for editing, and exported back after making necessary integrity checks. During editing the PDF output can be viewed, for verification.

Program Design

The backbone of the system is a Postgres RDBMS. A table named coursedetails stores the information about all the available courses. Each record of this table represents a course. Each Course has a Table to store the questions and related information. Name of the table is same as the course code. There is a corresponding ‘user’ (with same name) having access rights to it.

• Table coursedetails:

• Course Tables:

Python programs

Python code has been written to create new courses, Edit their contents and to generate Question papers. Also there is a small program to initialize the database by creating the table named ‘coursedetails’. This program is used only once.

• initQbank.py. Initializes the database, used only once.
• Qadmin.py. Creates new courses or delete existing ones.
• Qeditor.py. Imports a course to a local directory, does the editing, and exports it back to the database.

The Question paper generation is done by another Python program, which is called from a web server running PHP script.

• index.php. Provides menus to select Subject and Semester.
• second.php. Allows to select a course and request a Question paper
• qgen.php. Generates the paper by calling the Python program and provides links to download the PDF outputs.
• txtQgen.py. Python code that generates the Question paper and Answer keys. Python code generates the LaTex files and calls ‘xelatex’ to generate the PDF output.

Installation

Setting up the Postgres RDBMS

• The first step is to setup a Postgres RDBMS. It should be configured for remote login, using TCP/IP protocol. The two files mentioned below need to be edited to enable TCP/IP connectivity. This example assumes Postgres version 12.

/etc/postgresql/12/main/pg_hba.conf   should have the following lines
local    all           all                     password
host     all           all      127.0.0.1/32   password
host     all           all      0.0.0.0/0      password

Modify /etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf , to have the line
listen_addresses = '*'          # what IP address(es) to listen on;

Two users named ‘dummy’ and ‘reader’ are created, to be used by all the Question banks. These steps are carried out using the ‘psql’ client program.

create user dummy with password 'dum123'
create user reader with password 'rea123'   # reader password changed later

Create a Database for each question bank. This example assumes the name of the database is ‘QB’. This design requires to create a ROLE having the same name. This ROLE (user) is assigned with a password to login.

$ psql                # replace QB with the database name
postgres=# create role QB with createrole  login password '******';
postgres=# create database QB;
postgres=# grant all on database QB to QB;
postgres=# \q

Initialisation of the Database

• A program named initQbank.py is used for creating a table named ‘coursedetails’ inside the database.

python3 initQbank.py hostname QB

Usage

The first step is to create a new course.

• Qadmin.py is a GUI program to create a course or delete an existing one. Connecting to the database lists the courses already available, on the selected Subject. To create a new course Course Code, password and several other details need to be provided.

python3 Qadmin.py

Adding Questions to a Course.

• Qeditor.py is the GUI program to add questions to an existing database. On the local computer, a Project Directory should be selected. The subdirectories for storing the Courses will be created by the program when you import a course from the database for the first time. The steps are:
• Connect to the Database. This will bring a list of courses available (created earlier by ‘Qadmin.py’). You can restrict the listing to a selected subject.
• Select a course,
• Import it to the project Directory. Importing will create a subdirectory (having the name of the course) and one directory (Mn) for each Module.The Course is divided into several (4 to 8) modules.
• Start adding questions by entering the details like Module number, Question type etc. Enter the Question and the Answer in the LaTex format.
• Save and display the Question in PDF format

Fill all the sections (M1 to M8 maximum). Verify it and export to the Database. The editing can be done only locally. To modify an existing Course;

• Import
• Add questions. The question serial numbers are managed by the system, to make sure that they range from 1 to N (maximum 99) in any section. You can replace the contents of a question but it cannot be deleted. There is a provision to mark a question as ‘inactive’.
• Verify the integrity
• Export to the database.

Installation of the Nginx Web Server, PHP and postgres RDBMS

# Setting up OpenQP using nginx, postgresql and php on a newly installed Ubuntu 20.04 
# All commands are issued as root user, working directory is /root

# install the required debian packages
apt update
apt install joe nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx postgresql php-common php-fpm php-pgsql python3-numpy texlive-xetex fonts-smc-rachana fonts-lohit-deva
apt install python3-psycopg2
apt install texlive-xetex
apt install texlive-lang-arabic
apt install fonts-sil-scheherazade
apt install fonts-smc-rachana
apt install fonts-deva
apt install fonts-lohit-deva

# firewall configuration
ufw default deny incoming; 
ufw default allow outgoing; 
ufw allow OpenSSH;
ufw allow 'Nginx Full';
ufw allow 5432/tcp
ufw enable;

# Nginx configuration files
joe /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

# This is the content of a working configuration file.
server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    root /var/www/html;
    index  index.php index.html index.htm;
    server_name openqp.scischool.in;

    # for PHP7.4 access
    location ~[^/]\.php(/|$) {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
	fastcgi_read_timeout 600;   
    }
}
-------------------------
copy the following files to /var/www/html

index.php
qgen.php
txtQgen.py

chown www-data:www-data /var/www/html   # write permission for web server

systemctl restart nginx

certbot --nginx -d openqp.scischool.in        # get the TLS certificate

Postgres configuration
# Set the postgres HBA configuration to allow a connection using IP protocol

/etc/postgresql/12/main/pg_hba.conf   should have the following lines
local    all           all                     password
host     all           all      127.0.0.1/32   password
host     all           all      0.0.0.0/0      password

Modify /etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf , to have the line
listen_addresses = '*'          # what IP address(es) to listen on;

systemctl restart postgresql

# Become the postgres user to create the moodle database and user.
sudo -su postgres

$ psql                # replace QB with the database name
postgres=# create role QB with createrole  login password '******';
postgres=# create database QB;
postgres=# grant all on database QB to QB;
postgres=# create user dummy with password 'dum123';
postgres=# create user ro with password 'ro123';
postgres=# \q