OpenQP

Generate a Question paper

OpenQP can manage a question bank containing multiple courses and generate Question Papers, based on some pre-defined algorithm. The questions are stored in LaTex format in a postgres RDBMS system, connected to the Internet.

Database requirement

The postgres system should be configured for TCP/IP login. Using the postgres administrator account

• A ‘database’ and a ‘role’ having the same name is created.
• The new role is granted all the permissions on the database.
• A user named ‘dummy’ is created.

A program named initQbank.py is used for creating:

• a table named ‘coursedetails’
• a table named ‘logo’ to store the image ‘logo.png’

GUI Programs for Creating a Course and Editing it.

These Python programs require PyQt5 and LaTex software.

• Qadmin.py
• Qeditor.py

Qadmin.py : For Creating/Deleting courses.

To create a course, a unique Course Code must be specified. The other details are shown in the screenshot.

Entries except the Course code and Course name can be selected from the pulled down menus, and edited if required. You can connect to a Question bank database and list the courses on it. - Existing courses may be deleted by selecting them from the menu. Doing so removes it along with the contents.

This program

• Makes an entry into the table ‘coursedetails’.
• Creates a new table to store the questions and a ‘role’ to access it.

The table, role and course names are the same. The ‘role’ name is converted into lowercase letters.

Qeditor.py : Editing Questions

A project Directory should be created once. The subdirectories for storing the Courses will be created by the program when you import a new course. The procedure to be followed:

• Connect to the Database
• Select a course, created earlier by ‘Qadmin.py’
• Import it to the project Directory. Importing will create a subdirectory (having the name of the course) and eight directories, P1 to P8 inside it.
• Start adding questions by entering the details like Part 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 (P1 to P8). Verify it and export to the Database. The editing can be done only locally. To modify an existing Course;

• Import
• Modify
• Export

A screenshot of the program is shown below.

Generating the Question Paper

This is done from a Browser. A web server runs on the same machine where the Database is running. The programs kept in the web root directory are;

• index.php
• qgen.php
• txtQgen.py

The ‘index.php’ collects some details in a Form and calls ‘qgen.php’. This in turn calls ‘txtQgen.py’ to generate two LaTex files; Question paper and Answer Paper.

‘qgen.php’ calls ‘xelatex’ to compile the .tex file and a link to the generated PDF output is presented. Try it from the link below.

Generate Question paper

Installation steps

# 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

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

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=# \q

Now run initQbank.py to make the coursedetails table.

Qadmin should work NOW.

Create a new course with all details

Run Qeditor.py 
Create a project directory 
Select the newly created remote course and import it.
Fill the folders P1 to P8 with questions
Verify and Export the course