OpenQP

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Question Paper Management System

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

Capable of handling large number of courses.
Renders mathematical equations properly (uses LaTex).
Support for multiple languages. English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Malayalam, Kannada, Arabic and Urdu are currently implemented.
GUI programs are available for
- Creating/Deleteing Courses.
- Adding/Editing Questions
- Generating Question Paper
A web based interface is also available for generating Question papers

Editing a course to add/remove questions is done using GUI program remotely accessing the database. Equations etc. are entered in LaTex format and PDF is shown for verification. For most of the questions, it is just plain text.

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

Howto Install the program

(Click on the link above for Installation Instructions)

Creating a New Course

Qadmin.py. Creates new courses or delete existing ones. Connecting to the Database lists all the existing courses. Subject and Semester filters may be selected to restrict the number of courses displayed.

A new course may be created by adding the details like Course code, course name, subject etc. It is easier to add a new course by selecting an existing course to fill all the input fields. Create a new one after modifying the required fields. Course Code entered by the used is stored in the database after prefixing the Syllabus Year and Institution information.

qadmin

Adding/Editing Questions

programs used

qbc.py. Question Bank Client program.

Features:

Add questions to the database.
Edit existing questions
Genrates PDF for verifying the questions entered in LaTex format.
Generates a PDF listing of Modules
Generates sample Question papers.

The steps are

Connect to the Database. This will bring a list of courses available. Subject and Semester filters may be selected to restrict the number of courses displayed.
Select a course
Select the Module and question Type (A,B or C)
Select an existing Question or create a new one
Add the data like question, author etc.
Verify by generating the PDF
Update the question (write it to the database)

If you include figures by using the ‘\includegraphics’ command, the image file should be in the same directory.

qbc

There is another Editor that imports the entire Course, make changes and export it back. Exporting wipes out the old contents. Used only for populating new Course with dummy questions. Qeditor.py.

Generating Question Papers

A GUI program is available for generating the question papers.

qpgen.py.

The following details, to appear on the generated question paper are added:

Year
Month
Header
QP code

qpgen

Installation, postgres RDBMS

The postgres RDBMS should be configured for remote login, using TCP/IP protocol. The two files mentioned below need to be edited to enable TCP/IP connectivity.

A database and a user to own it are areated. Two users named ‘dummy’ and ‘reader’ are are created. These steps are carried out by the ‘psql’ client program, after logging into the server machine.

After completing these steps the program

initQbank.py is ran to initialize the database. This could be done from anywhere.
Complete Installation Instructions given in the file install.txt

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’for every course, having access rights to it.

Table coursedetails:

Name	Data type	Description
code	varchar	Coursecode.
name	varchar	Course name
subject	varchar	Subject
degree	varchar	Degree
syllabusYear	varchar	Syllabus year
semester	varchar	semester (First to Eighth)
texLanguage	varchar	typesetting language
qpmodel	varchar	Question paper moder 50 marks, 70 marks etc.
duration	varchar	Duration of the Exam
nmodules	varchar	Number of Modules(4 to 8), to divide the syllabus

Course Data Tables:

Name	Data type	Description
qtext	varchar	Question in LaTex
atext	varchar	Answer etc. in LaTex
author	varchar	Author information
modnum	int	Module Number (Course material divided, upto 8 Modules)
qtype	char(1)	Question Type A: Short, B: medium, C: essay type
qnum	int	Question number, starts from 1, (no gaps)
relations	varchar	Specify other questions having overlap with this one
mark	int	Mark
status	varchar	Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, from Expert, inactive (last two are for internal use)
figname	varchar	name of the figure, if any
figure	bytea	Figure data, .jpg or .png file

Web based interface for QP generation

A web based intetrface also ia available. Sample databases can be accessed from the following links. They contain only dummy data. Password is currently set to rea123.

The following files should be kept inside the Web Server directory.

index.php. Front page, gives Subject and Semester wise filters.
second.php. Select the required course from a pulldown menu, add the required parameters and calls the question paper generating program qgen.php
qgen.php. Generates the paper by calling the Python program and provides links to download the PDF outputs.
webqpgen.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.
qpmodule.py Should be kept in the same directory.
db.txt : A text containing the database name, should be in the directory where Qpgen.py is kept.