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catsoop/CHANGELOG.md

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Current Developments

(Work toward next release. Currently under development.)

ADDED

  • Added a way to change the NPROC rlimit in csq_sandbox_options

  • Information about the current user's dark mode settings are now available via cs_dark_mode_settings

  • Added the ability to specify additional arguments to pass to uWSGI via cs_extra_uwsgi_options

CHANGED

  • Improved error messages in the list_users API endpoint

DEPRECATED

REMOVED

  • Stopped officially supporting Python 3.8, 3.9, and 3.10

  • Removed 'codemirror' interface from the pythoncode question type (use 'ace' instead).

FIXED

  • Updated reporter.py script to work with up-to-date websockets

  • Fixed visual jitter from varying character widths in the countdown timer when cs_auto_lock = True is set

  • Fixed fileupload question type so that it respects cs_upload_management

SECURITY

  • Fixed issue that allowed access to list_users API endpoint in some cases when it should not have been allowed

ACCESSIBILITY

  • Improved alt text for check/cross images indicating correctness

DOCUMENTATION

VENDORED SOFTWARE

  • PyLTI and oauth2 are now included in the distribution

  • Added Ace back to the distribution (version 1.43.3)

Version 19.0.6

CHANGED

  • Updated several question types to bold the word "Solution" in answer displays so they all match

FIXED

  • Fixed an issue with broken save buttons

  • Fixed an issue with incorrect alignment of multiplechoice questions' answers in browsers other than Firefox

Version 19.0.5

ADDED

  • Added the option to specify solutions to fileupload questions with Markdown code instead of files

FIXED

  • Fixed a crash when a "checkbox"-style multiplechoice question had no True answers

  • Fixed a UI issue whereby darkmode preferences were inherited when impersonating a student

  • Replaced code that used the imp module, which has been removed from Python 3.12

  • Updated handling of diagrams so that they respect darkmode settings

  • Fixed a broken implementation of solutions in fileupload questions

  • Fixed a rare crash with asynchronous checkers not always making sure the appropriate directories exist before attempting to write log files

  • Fixed an issue with password-locked pages that prevented them from ever being accessed.

VENDORED SOFTWARE

  • A version of cgi.py from the Python standard library is now included in the distribution, since that module will be removed from the standard library in 3.13 and we depend on it for parsing form data.

Version 19.0.4

FIXED

  • Fixed a regression that caused footnotes not to be displayed

Version 19.0.3

FIXED

  • Added a workaround for BeautifulSoup parsing <br/> tags strangely

Version 19.0.2

CHANGED

  • The fileupload question type no longer alerts when an empty file is specified; instead, the submission is simply treated as empty

FIXED

  • Fixed a bug with questions that are re-rendered after submission

  • Fixed issues with handling of questions with csq_indiv=False in the submission callback

Version 19.0.1

CHANGED

  • Changed size of per-user random seeds

  • Redesigned interface for staff for adjusting per-user random seeds

FIXED

  • Fixed crash due to form values being specified multiple times

Version 19.0.0

ADDED

  • If cs_sole_course is set to a course's name, the root URL will now refer to that course directly (with no redirect)

  • Added additional arguments to the callback function for ajaxrequest in the default handler

  • The pythoncode question type now listens to the csq_show_check flag

  • Added the download and filename options to the raw_response handler to allow making the responses downloadable (thanks to Shen Shen)

  • <python> tags can now be exited using sys.exit(), with non-zero return codes causing the output to be ignored (or with a string value, using that instead of the Python block's output

  • Additional information is now stored in the question_info logs

  • Added the ability for users to specify that they prefer light text on a dark background

  • Updates to the question info cache can now be avoided by setting cs_update_questions_cache = False

  • Added links to leave user settings pages, back to the most recent non-settings page viewed

CHANGED

  • Suppressed some warnings coming from BeautifulSoup.

  • Changed default session duration to fourteen days instead of two

  • Changed location of lock files to (hopefully) prevent the size of the locks directory from growing out of control

  • Javascript files are now located at /js/ instead of /scripts/

  • <chapter>, <section>, <subsection>, and <subsubsection> tags have been replaced with <catsoop-chapter>, <catsoop-section>, etc; and a conversion script has been provided

  • Moved the default remote Python sandbox and improved the error message when the sandbox is offline.

  • Changed the following special variable names to make their purpose clearer:

    • csq_python_sandbox => csq_python_sandbox_type
    • csq_python_interpreter => csq_python_sandbox_interpreter

REMOVED

  • Due to build issues on some platforms, catsoop no longer depends on uwsgi unless [server] is specified when installing.

  • Removed the cert login type.

FIXED

  • Fixed a crash from render_escaped_dollar method not existing (triggered by mistletoe update?)

  • Fixed multiple issues with -c flag and CATSOOP_CONFIG environment variable

  • Fixed incorrect help text with catsoop logedit command

  • Fixed an old bug where submitting an asynchronously-checked question while another submission is queued for that same question caused confused results to be displayed

  • Fixed a potential bug in the pythoncode question type when decoding submitted files containing a BOM

  • An empty string is no longer considered to be a well-formed response to a pythonic question

  • Fixed a potential bug with the length calculation in the raw_response header when response was given as a string containing unicode characters (thanks to Shen Shen)

  • Fixed an issue with custom csq_check_function used with checkbox renderer in multiplechoice questions.

  • Fixed a display issue causing a "hamburger" to appear on narrow screens even with no menu items present

  • Replaced the <showhide> implementation so as to avoid broken rendering of <details> tags in Chromium/Chrome

  • Code blocks within responses to question submissions are now properly highlighted

  • Fixed a regression that caused the timeout option in pythoncode test cases to be ignored

  • Fixed several issues with submission data not being handled properly (potentially breaking pages after 'save' or 'view answer')

  • Fixed misleading error message in expression questions with csq_error_on_unknown_variable set to True and multiple solutions

SECURITY

  • Several authentication types have been fixed to pull authentication information from a context that cannot be altered by individual courses.

ACCESSIBILITY

  • Changed radio and checkbox multiplechoice variants to use fieldsets and to properly associate labels with inputs

  • Improved screen-reader-friendliness of solution displays for the checkbox multiplechoice renderer

  • Improved code displays (with and without line numbers) to make them more usable with a screen reader

  • Automatically set ARIA labels for built-in question types based on csq_prompt (and added the ability to specify a csq_preamble that is not included as part of the ARIA label).

  • Switched from KaTeX to MathJax for math rendering, for better screen reader support

  • Improved keyboard-oriented navigation and screen-reader support for the navigation breadcrumbs and the top menu

  • Improved accessibility of modal dialogs from the cs_modal javascript function

VENDORED SOFTWARE

  • Removed KaTeX from the distribution

  • Included MathJax (v3.2.2) in the distribution

  • Upgraded CodeMirror to version 6

Version 18.0.0

(formerly known as 2022.9.0)

ADDED

  • Added cs_log_lock_location to control where locks for log files are written

  • Added csq_renderer option to pythonic qtype, to allow choosing between bigbox and smallbox renderers

  • The pythonic qtype now respects the csq_check_function variable (which can still be overridden by specifying check functions for individual tests)

  • Questions with a "Check" button now have a "Revert to Prior Submission" button

  • Added cs_wsgi_server_worker_max_requests option to provide --max-requests option to uWSGI, to force workers to be killed and restarted after that many requests

CHANGED

  • cs_local_python_import now raises a more meaningful exception when the given filename is incorrect

  • Replaced hacky import mechanism for custom question types with access to cs_local_python_import

  • Questions with a "Check" button no longer also have a "Save" button

  • Added error reporting on failed <include> tags

  • Changed default message for when users are not logged in

REMOVED

  • tutor.init_random now uses randomly-generated random seeds again

FIXED

  • Fixed an issue with autolocking and auto answer viewing

  • Fixed an issue with checkoff question type not understanding who has permissions to submit checkoffs

  • Fixed an issue with storage of manual grades

  • Fixed an error with certain LTI integrations

  • Fixed an incorrect check for whether the target(s) of <include> tags are within the tree

  • Fixed an issue with checker_local's multiprocessing on MacOS

  • Every page now loads the CodeMirror base code, to fix an error caused by multiple code-like questions using different CodeMirror modes but bringing in a completely fresh codemirror.js for each one (overriding the old modes)

  • Replaced deprecated get_event_loop function in reporter.py script

REMOVED

  • Removed the ability to use other machines as remote checkers

SECURITY

  • Don't allow fresh logins on user settings pages

  • cs_auth_type is now only read from config.py (course-level preload.py files cannot change it)

VENDORED SOFTWARE

  • Upgraded Codemirror to v5.65.6 (upgrating to Codemirror v6 will happen in a later catsoop version)

  • Upgraded KaTeX to v0.16.0

  • Upgraded Twemoji to v14.0.2

Version 17.0.0

(formerly known as 2021.9.0)

ADDED

  • File uploads in the built-in question types now support dragging-and-dropping files (in addition to the normal file-chooser setup)

  • Logging of page views (in the problemactions log) can now be enabled by setting cs_log_page_views = True

  • Allow running via python3 -m catsoop in addition to catsoop

  • Added experimental support for running checkers on separate machines from the web server

  • Added a delete_log function to the cslog module

  • Added a "user settings" page for managing user information, API tokens, look-and-feel, and more

  • Unauthenticated users now receive the "Unauthenticated" role, which can be used to control permissions

  • Added a way to impersonate a user while preserving their permissions, via the preserve_permissions query string parameter

CHANGED

  • On the main page, links are now shown even to courses that can't be properly loaded, so that the underlying issue is easier to find (clicking on the link shows a more detailed error message)

  • Auto-generated csq_name fields now increment only for questions that don't have names specified (reverts a change from 2020.9.0)

  • The pythonic and pythonliteral question types now allow checking for valid formatting

  • Reverted changes to cslog module and how the checker queue process works

  • Logs now store information about file uploads in a more intuitive format

  • cs_upload_management returns as a way to control where uploaded files are stored (directly in the database, or as separate files)

  • Changed the location of the default remote sandbox for running Python code

  • Replaced csq_grading_mode="legacy" with csq_autograder_async flag, and made synchronous checking the default

REMOVED

  • Removed PostgreSQL as a logging mechanism

FIXED

  • Fixed issue with reporter websocket connection being lost frequently

  • Fixed a crash related to multiprocessing on MacOS with Python 3.8

  • Fixed an issue with rendering inline code blocks split across multiple lines of Markdown

  • Attempted fix for rendering of the catsoop logo in the footer on iOS/Safari

  • Fixed a potential race condition in cslog.most_recent

SECURITY

  • Logs are now encrypted by default

  • Removed information about the Python version from the default footer

  • Prevented lock file locations from leaking information when logs are encrypted

  • Switched to using the secrets module to generate secure tokens

  • API tokens are no longer generated automatically for users, and are no longer present in the source of exercises.

  • OpenID Connect auth type now implements PKCE.

VENDORED SOFTWARE

Version 16.1.0

(formerly known as 2021.2.0)

ADDED

  • Added information about the Python version to the default footer

  • Added ability to easily change the Javascript callback functions invoked after taking an action using the built-in action buttons

  • Javascript callback functions now take a second parameter, the name(s) of the question(s) that were affected by the action

FIXED

  • Fixed the color of the "callout" box for the checking queue

  • Fixed broken tutor.read_checker_result

  • Updated the cert auth type to work with NGINX

SECURITY

  • Fixed an XSS vulnerability in the default handler

Version 16.0.0

(formerly known as 2020.9.0)

ADDED

  • Added ability to conditionally show or hide HTML elements via the cs-show-if and cs-hide-if attributes

  • Added support for showing line numbers next to code snippets by adding -lines to the end of the language specified for a code block

  • Added ability to avoid running children's preloads into cs_children, by setting cs_load_children = False

  • Added support for using LTI with Canvas, and added support for customizing the username inferred from LTI data, via lti_username_function in cs_lti_config

  • Added support for PostgreSQL as an alternative backend for storing logs

  • Added the ability to customize the text shown on the button in <showhide> tags, via the summary attribute

  • Added support for Markdown "callouts", similar to Markdeep's "admonitions"

  • Added support for syntax highlighting of inline code elements

  • Added the ldap3 authentication type for login using an LDAPv3 server

  • Added the sso authentication type for authentication using an arbitrary third-party single-sign-on provider

  • Added support for sharing KaTeX macros across calls to catsoop.render_math

  • Added support for using :short_name: syntax to reference emoji, which can be included as images or as unicode characters; and added emoji images from Twemoji as the default images

CHANGED

  • Auto-generated csq_name fields increment for every question, even those that have names specified

  • Switched to mistletoe for handling Markdown (CommonMark) instead of Python-Markdown

  • Some small changes to the way code is displayed on catsoop pages, to improve readability

  • Logging, upload management, and queue management are now unified within the cslog module

  • Changed default ports from 6010 and 6011 to 7667 and 7668 to avoid a conflict with X11, and modified the catsoop configure command to ask about the port numbers

  • Replaced js_files in question types with extra_headers, for injecting arbitrary strings into the header (which allows specifying not only Javascript files but also stylesheets)

  • Removed Ace editor in favor of CodeMirror as the default web-based code editor

  • Upgraded KaTeX to v0.12.0

  • Upgraded highlight.js to version 10.0.2

  • cslog now uses pickle protocol 4 by default (rather than the highest possible protocol), to make sure that all supported Python versions can read logs produced by any other supported version.

REMOVED

  • Removed slow/broken code for logging in via e-mail instead of username when using the login auth type

  • cs_upload_management is no longer relevant, as uploads are now handled via a standard interface in cslog

  • Custom authentication types can no longer be specified at the course level.

  • Removed the choice of where file uploads are stored (cs_upload_management is no longer recognized)

  • Removed MathJax from the distribution

FIXED

  • Show an error message when two questions would have the same name

  • Fixed an issue with using cached results in the pythoncode question type

  • Fixed issues with incorrect scores being sent to LTI consumers

  • OpenID Connect auth type now properly checks JWT issuer.

  • Fixed issue with number question type not accepting negative inputs (thanks to Abdullah Negm)

SECURITY

  • Closed an XSS vulnerability by escaping the URL on 404 error pages

Version 15.1.0

(formerly known as 2020.2.0)

ADDED

  • Added support for top-level math environments without $ or $$: equation, equation*, align, align*, eqnarray, eqnarray*

  • Added support for drawing SVG diagrams using ASCII art (ported from Markdeep)

CHANGED

  • Upgraded KaTeX to v0.11.1.

  • Replaced Fernet encryption with simpler encryption scheme based on libsodium.

FIXED

  • Fixed an issue with showhide tags that prevented them from properly handling arbitrary contents (at the expense of nested showhide tags)

  • Fixed alignment of first line within <pre><code> tags

  • Fixed issue with csq_rerender ignoring prompts (courtesy of Valerie Richmond)

Version 15.0.6

(formerly known as 2019.9.6)

FIXED

  • BACKPORT: Fixed an issue whereby submitting a multiplechoice question using the radio renderer would cause an error if no option was selected (courtesy of Kade Phillips)

Version 15.0.5

(formerly known as 2019.9.5)

FIXED

  • BACKPORT: Fixed long-standing issue whereby certain students could not log in due to cookies being parsed incorrectly by SimpleCookie.

Version 15.0.4

(formerly known as 2019.9.4)

FIXED

  • Fixed issue whereby having the logs on a different filesystem from /tmp could cause the checker to crash.

Version 15.0.3

(formerly known as 2019.9.3)

FIXED

  • Fixed several lingering references to the util module, which has been renamed to user.

Version 15.0.2

(formerly known as 2019.9.2)

FIXED

  • Fixed an issue preventing question types with multiple boxes (e.g., multiexpression) from pre-populating those boxes with values from the last submission.

Version 15.0.1

(formerly known as 2019.9.1)

FIXED

  • Multiple fixes for the remote Python sandbox

CHANGED

  • The version codename is now displayed when running catsoop --version, and in the default footer.

Version 15.0.0

(formerly known as 2019.9.0)

ADDED

  • Checking functions for pythoncode questions can now optionally return a tuple (score, message) or a dictionary {'score': score, 'msg': message} to display an additional message in response to a test case.

  • Added cs_local_python_import function to the context of a page load. This function takes a string containing a filename (with extension, relative to the current page's directory) and returns a Python module object.

  • Added .catsoop as a content file extension, parsed using the same parser as content files with the .md extension.

  • Added rudimentary support for syntax highlighting of .catsoop files in Vim.

  • Added cs_ui_config_flags, including option to automatically view explanations when viewing answers, and to highlight the 'view explanation' button.

  • Added cs_user_config, including option to specify which variable should be used for grouping when managing groups.

  • Added csq_result_as_string option to pythoncode question types, allowing the result to come back as a string (useful for custom types as return values from pythoncode or pythonic question types, where evaluation would otherwise fail).

  • Added logread, logwrite, and logedit commands for working with log entries in a human-readable format.

  • Plugins can now start scripts when catsoop is started. scripts in cs_data_root/plugins/autostart/ that end with .py will be run when catsoop start is invoked.

  • Added nicer names for URL fragments of sections and updated the <tableofcontents/> generator to use these when linking to sections.

  • Added option to show permalinks next to section headers (enabled by setting cs_show_section_permalinks=True).

  • The print function can now be used to add content to the page when using the Python source format.

  • The cs_content_header text now has the CSS class cs_content_header.

  • Items in the top menu in the default theme now have the CSS class cs_top_menu_item.

CHANGED

  • Question names can no longer begin with an underscore (_).

  • Plugins should now be stored in cs_data_root/plugins rather than in cs_fs_root/__PLUGINS__. URLs starting with _plugin now point to the proper location.

  • File locks are now stored with a .lock extension, to avoid potential collisions with directory names.

  • Renamed loader.do_early_load to loader.do_preload and loader.do_late_load to loader.load_content to hopefully remove the last of the "early load" and "late load" terminology.

  • Changed the name of the util module to user to better reflect its purpose.

  • CAT-SOOP will use date-based versioning moving forward. Planned regular releases are 20XX.9 and 20XX.2 (September and February, corresponding with the start of the fall and spring terms at MIT, respectively). Each release will also now have a codename.

  • Upgraded KaTeX to v0.11.0.

  • Changed the solution display for the richtext question type.

  • util.read_user_file now does not raise an exception if there is an error in a user's file. Rather, it always returns a dictionary, but includes error information in the case of an error.

  • Logs are now stored in a binary format in order to improve the efficiency of reading/writing log entries.

  • The configuration script for production instances now uses uwsgi by default, and it asks about the number of processes to use for uwsgi and for the checker.

REMOVED

  • Removed several deprecated features:

    • __MEDIA__ can no longer be used as a name for directories containing static files. __STATIC__ should be used instead.

    • csm_tools no longer points to utility functions from third-party libraries. Use csm_thirdparty instead.

    • cs_print has been removed. Use print instead.

    • csq_multiplechoice_renderer and csq_multiplechoice_soln_mode variables for multieplchoice questions have been renamed to csq_renderer and csq_soln_mode, respectively.

    • cs_score_message has been removed as a special variable. Use csq_score_message instead.

    • loader.spoof_early_load has been renamed to loader.generate_context.

  • Removed circuit question type, which has not been used by anyone for a long time and may no longer work with catsoop updates.

FIXED

  • loader.generate_context no longer breaks when given an empty path.

  • Reverted changes to language module from version 14.x.x.

  • Scores and messages are now logged in problemactions for questions in legacy grading mode (checker IDs are still logged for questions using the asynchronous checker)

  • Fixed an issue whereby set() could not be accepted as an answer to a pythonic or pythonliteral question.

  • Fix for malformed HTML in multiexpression question output.

  • Fix for "preview" in richtext question type.

  • Fixed an issue related to complex numbers in the expression question type.

  • Implemented a fix for the long-standing issue with empty lines in showhide tags escaping out of them.

  • Fixed an issue with the checker process, whereby submissions would forever be marked as 'running' if they experienced an error during page load or when looking up the question that was submitted.

  • Fixed the lack of decompression of uploaded files when downloaded via the 'Download Most Recent Submission' link.

  • Fixed an issue that caused the contents of <ref> tags to be ignored.

  • Fixed several issues with the openid_connect implementation to make it more general.

  • "divider" can once again be used as an element in cs_top_menu drop-downs.

Version 14.0.3

FIXED

  • Fix for issue with multiple blank lines in output from pythoncode questions.

Version 14.0.2

FIXED

  • Fix for a UI issue with the alignment of the timer when used in an iframe.

  • Fixed an issue with the post_load hook not being able to affect page content.

  • Fixed the LTI behavior by passing form POSTs through, if the session is already LTI authenticated.

  • Fixed a regression from language.py changes that prevented content after the last question on a page from being rendered.

  • Fixed a regression from language.py that prevented footnotes from being shown in most cases.

  • Fixes for Python unicode.

Version 14.0.1

FIXED

  • Fix for a problem with unicode characters in the pythoncode question type when using the ace interface.

  • Fixed an issue with older Pythons by using an OrderedDict to store cs_internal_qinfo in language.py.

Version 14.0.0

ADDED

  • Added the dummy question type, which can be used as a placeholder for a question that should be removed (but without affecting automatically-generated csq_names for questions that follow.

  • Added support for using CAT-SOOP as an LTI Tool Provider (courtesy of Ike Chuang).

  • Added a few unit tests (courtesy of Ike Chuang).

  • Added cs_debug_logger, an instance of logging.Logger, for debugging (courtesy of Ike Chuang).

  • Added do_rlimits key to the python sandbox, which can be used to disable setting resource limits (workaround for Cygwin issue).

  • Several additional features were added to pythoncode questions:

    • pythoncode check functions now have a lot of additional information available to them, beyond the value that was returned (including stdout, stderr, information about any exceptions that were raised, and information about timing).

    • Added the option to selectively show/hide stderr via test['show_stderr'].

    • Added the option to count the number of executed opcodes, and to set timeouts based on number of executed opcodes.

    • Added the csq_test_defaults option to provide default per-test-case options within a single question.

  • Brought back breadcrumbs in the default theme.

  • The CAT-SOOP source distribution now includes the Ace code editor.

  • Added cs_custom_tags for specifying custom tags for a course.

CHANGED

  • Updated KaTeX to version 0.10.0.

  • Updated CAT-SOOP to use Python-Markdown version 3+.

  • Replaced default favicon with one that does not have the letters "CS" in it.

  • Modified the default theme to ensure the body of a page is always at least 900px wide.

  • CAT-SOOP now exists as a proper Python package.

  • Moved file locks to a subdirectory of cs_data_root.

  • Sessions are now stored in cs_data_root/_sessions instead of cs_data_root/__SESSIONS__.

  • Logs are now stored in cs_data_root/_logs instead of cs_data_root/__LOGS__.

  • Improved display of test case results for pythoncode questions.

  • Per-test-case sandbox options for pythoncode questions are now specified via test['sandbox_options'].

  • The run_code function for Python sandboxes now returns a dictionary, rather than a 3-tuple.

  • Changed the structure of JS web labels for LibreJS, to make it clearer which parts of a page's Javascript are explicitly licensed under AGPLv3.

FIXED

  • js_files now preserves the order of its arguments.

  • Fixed an issue with Microsoft Edge not accepting button presses.

  • Fixed an issue with the default handler's timer not properly synchronizing with the server's time.

  • Fixed a type issue related to mpmath objects in numpy arrays.

  • Fixed confusing results from pythonic question type by making sure that the submission constitutes a single Python expression.

  • Fixed a bug in the pythonic and pythonliteral question types so that answers with leading whitespace are allowed.

  • Fixed a bug whereby non-JSON-serializable objects in someone's __USERS__ file would break the get_user_information API endpoint.

  • Fixed an issue with expression question types, whereby if all values were specified in csq_names, the question would use the specified values, likely ints or floats (instead of mpmath.mpf) to represent them, occasionally causing corect answers to be marked as incorrect due to a loss of precision.

  • Fixed an issue with the Python sandbox's sandbox_run_code by making it respect csq_sandbox_options.

  • Fixed bugs with multiple functions in the catsoop.check module.

  • Fixed bug in cs_ajax.js related to submitting manual grades.

  • Fixed an issue with proper display of whitespace in pythoncode question types' inputs/outputs.

  • Fixed an issue that caused last_submit values to be updated too soon (before checking to see if a submission was allowed).

  • Fixed an issue that caused bare content files starting with _ or . to be web-accessible.

  • Fixed the permissions field in cs_user_info to make sure it is always a set.

  • Fixed the 'Show/Hide Detailed Results' button in the pythoncode question type to have the same styling as other buttons.

  • Fixed a bug with catsoop.modal Javascript that caused an error if cancel was set to false.

  • Fixes for reporting line numbers in <python> tags.

DOCUMENTATION

  • The CAT-SOOP web site is now included in the distribution, and includes a new page to automatically generate API documentation.

Version 13.0.0

ADDED

  • Added the <tableofcontents/> tag, which produces a table of contents for a page.

  • Added support for question types to have a js_files function that returns a list of Javsacript files that should be loaded before rendering the question.

  • The decimal precision of numbers in the expression question type can now be altered via the csq_precision variable.

  • Added the multiexpression question type for questions about multiple related expressions.

  • Made CAT-SOOP work properly with LibreJS.

  • Added support for Python sandboxing via bubblewrap

  • The cs_question_type_defaults variable can be used to set default values of variables for specific question types.

  • The catsoop.check module is now available. It provides access to a small library of common check functions (to be used as csq_check_function or similar). It is accessible during normal page loads as csm_check.

  • CAT-SOOP can now optionally encrypt log entries, with keys specified via cs_log_encryption_passphrase and cs_log_encryption_salt

  • CAT-SOOP can now optionally compress log entries, by setting cs_log_compression = True.

  • Added support for Python 3.7.

CHANGED

  • Updated KaTeX to version 0.10.0-rc.1.

  • Updated MathJax to version 2.7.5.

  • Updated highlight.js to version 9.12.0.

  • The location and format in which uploaded files are stored on disk as changed.

  • The URL format for static files has changed (__STATIC__ -> _static).

  • The URL format for utilities has changed (cs_util -> _util).

  • csq_threshold and csq_ratio_check have been replaced with csq_ratio_threshold and csq_absolute_threshold in the expression question type. The more lenient of the two thresholds is used. Default behavior is the same as before.

DEPRECATED

  • The special directory name __MEDIA__ has been renamed to __STATIC__ to better reflect its purpose. __MEDIA__ will be removed in a future version. Use __STATIC__ instead.

  • The catsoop.tools library was renamed to catsoop.thirdparty to better reflect its contents. The csm_tools pointer to these libraries will be removed in a future version. Use csm_thirdparty instead. Many of the libraries themselves were also removed (and should be imported directly, rather than accessed via csm_thirdparty)

  • print should now be used instead of cs_print to inject page content from within <python> tags. cs_print will be removed in a future version.

  • The csq_multiplechoice_renderer and csq_multiplechoice_soln_mode variables have been renamed to csq_renderer and csq_soln_mode. The options including _multiplechoice will be removed in a future version.

REMOVED

  • Removed jQuery, Bootstrap, and SweetAlert2 (replaced with our own JS/CSS).

  • Removed cs_util/process_theme and removed dependence on outside fonts.

  • Removed many bundled third-party applications, in favor of installation via pip.

  • cs_login_aes_key_location has been removed. The cs_log_encryption* variables should be used instead.

FIXED

  • Fixed a bug that assigned the wrong qtype variable to question types that inherit from other question types.

  • Fixed an issue with error reporting when trying to log a tuple that contains an element that can't be logged.

  • Fixed an issue that caused CAT-SOOP's main page to crash if a course with a malformed preload.py was present.

  • Removed some redundant calls to cslog.most_recent from the default handler to improve efficiency.

  • Fixed multiple instances of improper handling of questions with multiple boxes.

  • Fixed a bug related to improper handling of internal links with trailing slashes.

  • "Log In" and "Log Out" no longer discard the query string associated with the current page (courtesy of Jeremy Wright).

  • Fixed the 'check' action so that it respects csq_grading_mode and checks to see whether checking is allowed before actually running the check.

SECURITY

  • Prevent submissions from being able to access materials defined in csq_code_pre from pythoncode questions.

Version 12.1.1

FIXED

  • Fixed an issue with unintentional "broadcasting" of numpy arrays in certain expression questions.

  • Fixed an issue that prevented datetime and timedelta objects from being logged.

Version 12.1.0

ADDED

  • Added questions' types and grading modes to the question_info cache.

  • datetime and timedelta objects (from the datetime module) are now allowed in log entries.

CHANGED

  • The automatic source code download no longer saves cached copies, to avoid accidentally filling small disks.

  • Upgraded KaTeX to version 0.9.0.

  • Upgraded SweetAlert2 to version 7.15.1.

  • Upgraded MathJax to version 2.7.3.

  • Upgraded PLY to version 3.11.

REMOVED

  • 'questions' is no longer a valid key for tutor.compute_page_stats, as it is redundant with 'question_info'.

FIXED

  • Fixed an issue where invalid question names were failing silently.

  • Prevented scroll bars from showing up in the CAT-SOOP logo at the bottom of the page.

  • The question_info cache is now checked/updated after the pre_handle plugin is executed, rather than after.

  • expression questions now support implicit multiplication by j (the imaginary unit).

  • Fixed an issue that caused scores in the problemstate log to be overwritten with None when the "check" button was used.

  • Entering an empty expression and entering an invalid expression to a pythonic question now produce the same error message.

  • Fixed a bug where API token was not being properly set when impersonating a user.

  • In the default handler, ensure that handle_check creates all problemstate fields if they don't already exist.

  • The checker script is now aware of the cs_now variable.

  • Fixed an issue that caused a misleading error message when the remote Python sandbox couldn't be reached.

  • Fixed a misleading error message about how to install jose when using the openid_connect authentication type.

  • Fixed a broken link after an error message when using the openid_connect authentication type.

SECURITY

  • Prevented as_role from affecting the 'role' field in cs_user_info if the user does not have the 'impersonate' permission.

Version 12.0.0

ADDED

  • Added a cache of question information, to avoid having to fake a page load to get question information in tutor.compute_page_stats.

CHANGED

  • CAT-SOOP can optionally be configured to use uWSGI, and the options for configuring the WSGI server have changed.

  • Logs are now stored in plain-text files, as opposed to binary log file.

  • Page views are no longer logged in the problemactions log.

  • Updated KaTeX to 0.9.0-beta1.

  • 'question_points' is no longer a valid key in tutor.compute_page_stats. 'question_info' should be used instead.

FIXED

  • Fixed a bug with rendering of scores when manual grades are submitted.

Version 11.1.2

ADDED

  • Added "Log In" / "Log Out" to top menu by default, and gave authentication types the ability to populate that menu.

CHANGED

  • Separated WSGI server into separate process, and allow cs_wsgi_server_port to be a list to start multiple servers (for load balancing).

  • Updated wsgi.py so that it can be used by an external WSGI server (such as uWSGI).

  • csq_nosubmit_message is now sent only on an actual submission (not when viewing the page), so that the submit button still appears when loading pages with cs_nosubmit_message set.

  • Buttons are now always created under 'view' mode in the default handler.

  • cs_nosubmit_message was replaced with csq_nosubmit_message (specific to each question).

FIXED

  • Fixed an issue where checker results were stored in an invalid location in the case of some errors.

  • Fixed an issue with the checker updating scores for problems that don't yet have a problemstate log.

  • Added CSS to prevent scrollbars from appearing on the CAT-SOOP logo in page footers.

  • Fixed key generation for AES encryption in login authentication mode.

  • Fixed a bug with changing password in login authentication mode.

  • Fixed a bug with client-side password hashing so that the hash is now a proper PBKDF2 hash of the given password.

  • The last_submit_time and last_submit_times entries in the problemstate log are now only updated if the submission was successful.

  • Fixed a bug whereby some compound expressions were treated as literals in the pythonliteral question type.

  • Fixed a bug with rendering of < and > in the richtext question type.

  • Fixed an issue with empty <python> tags.

  • Fixed a broken link in the OpenID Connect login page.

Version 11.1.1

ADDED

  • Added the legacy grading mode, which does not use the asynchronous checker.

CHANGED

  • Separated checker results into subdirectories to prevent a single directory growing too large.

  • Helper scripts are now launched using sys.executable, rather than a hard-coded python3.

  • Checks run through the asynchronous checker now cache their results in the problemstate directory, to avoid having to do a double-lookup.

  • Attempts at improved error reporting throughout CAT-SOOP.

REMOVED

  • Removed the PKiller class, which is no longer used anywhere.

FIXED

  • Temporary workaround for automatic scrolling to location of anchor.

  • Fixed a bug with username/password-based access to the get_user_information API endpoint.

  • Fixed a bug with the name of uploaded files.

SECURITY

  • The current session ID and API token are now filtered from error messages.

DOCUMENTATION

  • Added (hopefully) meaningful docstrings to almost everything in the codebase.

Version 11.1.0

ADDED

  • Added cheroot as a catsoop.tools package.

  • Added websockets as a catsoop.tools package.

CHANGED

  • cheroot is now used instead of uWSGI.

  • File names for uploaded files now include the csq_name of the question they were uploaded for.

FIXED

  • Fixed an issue whereby the Python sandbox could leave handles to deleted files open (eventually leading to an error from having too many files open).

  • Changed the Python sandbox to use sys.executable (instead of hard-coded path to an assumed location of a Python interpreter) when csq_python_interpreter is not set.

SECURITY

  • File names for uploaded files now include a hash of their contents to limit the feasibility of a brute-force attack to grab a different user's files.

Version 11.0.5

ADDED

  • Added the get_upload utility for downloading uploaded files.

  • Added 'extra_data' field to checker results.

  • Added tutor.read_checker_result for quickly reading checker results.

  • Added csq_npoints as an option to the pythoncode question type. If specified, it overrides any point values assigned to the individual test cases.

CHANGED

  • Changed the default checker used for multiple-choice-multiple-answer problems.

  • The fileupload question type now uses get_upload to download user files, rather than a data URI.

  • Made changes to make sure that files are always closed after being opened.

FIXED

  • Fixed a potential race condition in the pythoncode question type.

  • Fixed an issue with the expression question type, where overzealous type checking led to some correct answers being marked as incorrect.

  • Fixed issues with the circuit question type that prevented an AC analysis from being run interactively, and that caused incorrect AC results to be sent to the checker.

  • Changes to make sure that reasonable fonts are used (particularly in <pre>, <code>, and <tt>) even if our fonts are not loaded.

  • Some small temporary fixes to AC analysis in the circuit simulator for the circuit question type.

SECURITY

  • Fixed an issue whereby get_upload could be used to read arbitrary files from disk via a carefully constructed request.

Version 11.0.4

FIXED

  • Fixed issue with matrix comparison in expression question type.

  • Fixed syntax error (typo) in handout handler.

Version 11.0.3

FIXED

REMOVED

  • Removed the included simple websockets implementation.

  • Removed more traces of the abandoned queue.

Version 11.0.2

FIXED

  • Moving a file from running to results in the checker is now implemented as an atomic operation, to avoid the potential for corrupted results files.

Version 11.0.1

FIXED

  • Changes to the way the 'reporter' process handles websocket connections.

Version 11.0.0

ADDED

  • Added script to migrate SQLite logs (and checker) to new format.

CHANGED

  • Logs are now, once again, stored in catsoopdb format. No other options.

  • The checker's state is now stored via the filesystem, rather than through SQLite.

  • File upload paths are now stored relative to cs_data_root to make moving between systems easier. Old (absolute) paths still work, but the system will now store relative paths.

  • Results from completed checks are now loaded in a way that avoids requiring a websocket connection.

  • The checker and reporter are now two separate processes.

FIXED

  • Fixed serious bug (deadlock) with checker script / logging.

  • Fixed HTML rendering of pythoncode question type.

Version 10.4.0

ADDED

  • Added a means of viewing a page with different (lower) permissions by spoofing your role (the as_role query string argument).

  • Added a dummy auth type to make authentication on local testing setups easier.

  • Added preliminary support for running on MacOS and Windows (Cygwin) hosts by fixing a number of Mac-specific issues.

  • The score display can now be changed on a per-problem basis via csq_score_message.

CHANGED

  • pycs-compiled files are now stored in <cs_data_root>/_cached, to avoid polluting the course itself.

  • The body of the CAT-SOOP default template is now slightly wider.

  • Local Python sandboxes now write their stdout and stderr to files instead of relying on low-level hacks involving pipes.

  • Updated KaTeX to version 0.8.2.

  • Updated python-markdown to version 2.6.9.

  • The magic variable controlling the checker's location is now cs_checker_websocket instead of cs_websocket_location (which is now ambiguous).

  • Added more options to modify the styling of the "login required" page.

  • Cross/check images are now preceded by a newline.

DEPRECATED

  • cs_score_message has been deprecated, in favor of csq_score_message. cs_score_message will be removed in a future version.

REMOVED

  • Removed lots of unused imports, unused local variables, etc, courtesy of pyflakes.

FIXED

  • Fixed a race condition related to clearing expired session data.

  • Fixed serious bug (deadlock) with checker script / logging.

  • Modified the way PKiller kills processes to avoid a potential race condition.

  • Fixed several breaking issues with the grouping mechanism related to the version 10 changes.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented WHDW from loading students' scores.

  • Fixed a bug that caused some <showhide> tags' buttons to affect other showhide elements on the page instead of themselves.

  • Fixed an issue with error reporting in the openid_connect auth type.

  • Fixed an issue with the login authentication type that caused false negatives when checking passwords from different browsers.

  • Fixed an issue with broken loading of uploaded files from the database.

  • Fixed an issue that caused an error message not to be shown when cs_form was not defined.

  • Replaced a lingering instance of xrange.

  • Questions with the checkoff question type now render as totally empty if the description and name are empty, rather than as a single colon.

SECURITY

  • nohup.out files are now ignored when generating the .zip files of the CAT-SOOP source.

Version 10.3.0

CHANGED

  • Moved all logs to one central location to make backups easier.

Version 10.2.2

REMOVED

  • Removed several calls to the deprecated cs_print from the default "main" page.

  • Removed "Acknowledgments" section from the default "main" page.

FIXED

  • Removed an extraneous print statement from the default handler.

  • Remove HTML formatting from course name in source.zip downloads.

Version 10.2.1

CHANGED

  • Prevented the creation of extra directories when reading nonexistent logs.

REMOVED

  • Removed the defunct checker_reporter.js script.

FIXED

  • Fixed a number of issues with sessions.

  • Fixed an issue with serializing Python sets for logging.

Version 10.2.0

ADDED

  • Added more options to modify the styling of the "login required" box.

CHANGED

  • Submission IDs are no longer visible by default, though they can be made visible with cs_show_submission_id.

  • Logs once again use SQLite instead of RethinkDB.

REMOVED

  • Removed RethinkDB completely.

FIXED

  • Updated the location of the default remote sandbox.

Version 10.1.0

ADDED

  • cs_user_info and cs_username are now always defined, even on pages that don't require authentication

CHANGED

  • The built-in print function can now be used instead of cs_print to inject page content from within <python> tags.

DEPRECATED

  • print should now be used instead of cs_print to inject page content from within <python> tags. cs_print will be removed in a future version.

FIXED

  • Fixed issue with clearing session data.

  • Fixed an issue with QTYPEs' init functions being called with incorrect arguments.

Version 10.0.1

CHANGED

  • RethinkDB is now used to store session data, as opposed to the file-based storage used in the past.

  • Slight changes to the way version numbers are displayed in the default template.

FIXED

  • Fixed multiple large issues with manually-graded submissions.

  • Fixed multiple large issues with the fileupload question type.

Version 10.0.0

ADDED

  • Added the dot product operator to expression question type.

  • Added process.py, containing some common operations relating to process management.

  • Added support for storing uploaded files on disk rather than in the database directly.

CHANGED

  • RethinkDB is now a hard dependency.

  • The API for logging functions was changed, to avoid a special character as a separator.

  • Submissions are now handled asynchronously, and results are retrieved via web sockets.

  • Markdown no longer outputs <em> or <strong>, preferring <i> and <b> to improve browser compatibility.

  • Many images are now included in pages as data URI's rather than being loaded from a separate request.

  • Replaced the CSS-based loading spinner with an image.

  • Changed the password hashing scheme for the login authentication type to one based on https://blogs.dropbox.com/tech/2016/09/how-dropbox-securely-stores-your-passwords/

  • Re-styled buttons throughout the system.

REMOVED

  • Removed CSS-only spinner, replaced with data URI for image in the base context.

  • Removed images for check/cross/favicon, replaced with data URI's in the base context.

  • Removed SQLite and catsoopdb as backends for logging.

FIXED

  • Improved the Javascript code responsible for making sure the top menu doesn't block text when moving around a page.

  • Errors in the registration form now prevent submitting the form.

Version 9.4.3

ADDED

  • Added the circuit question type.

  • Added support for nonscalar values in expression questions.

FIXED

  • Changed exponentiation to be right-associative in the expression question type.

  • Fixed a bug with rendering implicit multiplication in expression questions.

  • Fixed a bug with rendering of chained exponentiation in expression questions.

  • Fixed a bug with order of operations when using the Python syntax in expression questions.

Version 9.4.2

ADDED

  • Added the <section*> family of tags, for unnumbered sections.

  • Added the <include> tag, to include the contents of another file.

  • Added the ability to add an additional message to the default page, via cs_main_page_text.

FIXED

  • Fixed an issue whereby expressions utilizing binary subtraction were not properly parenthesized in the "Check Syntax" rendering of expression questions.

Version 9.4.1

FIXED

  • Fixed an issue with rendering of certain test cases in the pythoncode question type.

  • Modified the handling of streams in the Python sandbox to avoid buffers filling up.

  • Modified error message handling in the Python sandbox to avoid long-running regex searches.

Version 9.4.0

ADDED

  • Added support for custom "submissions not allowed" messages via cs_nosubmit_message.

  • Added the cs_now variable to page load contexts.

  • Added the code_pre option to tests in the pythoncode question type, for code to be run before submitted code.

CHANGED

  • Code is now licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License, v3+. Footer text has been updated to reflect this change.

  • cs_nsubmits_message was replaced by csq_nsubmits_message.

  • Updated MathJax to version 2.7.1, and updated it to use a future-proof renderer.

  • Updated PLY to version 3.10.

  • Updated Markdown to version 2.6.8.

  • Updated BeautifulSoup to version 4.6.0.

  • Fixed several issues with rendering of pythoncode question types.

  • Updated the "Formatting Help" page of the richtext question type.

REMOVED

  • Removed large pieces of the default MathJax install because they will not be used.

FIXED

  • Fixed broken "home" link for pages in the cs_util "pseudo-course."

  • Fixed issue with HTML tags not rendering inside of <section> tags.

  • Fixed error messages for expressions that can't be parsed in the expression question type.

  • Fixed a crash when the <cs_data_root>/courses directory did not exist or was not writeable by the web server.

  • Fixed a bug with HTML tags being ignored inside <ref> tags.

Version 9.3.0

ADDED

  • Default handler now logs scores of all questions in the problemactions log when submitting.

  • Added the csq_always_show_tests option to pythoncode questions, to enable/disable the "Show/Hide Detailed Results" button.

  • New plugin infrastructure.

  • catsoop.ajaxrequest now accepts a callback function that can be executed once the request has completed.

  • More options for rendering pages (content_only and raw_html).

CHANGED

  • Code is now released under version 2 of the Soopycat License.

  • Math expressions are now rerendered in all responses to AJAX calls.

  • Updated KaTeX to version 0.7.0

  • Updated MathJax to version 2.7.0

  • Python syntax highlighting updated.

  • Several improvements to WHDW and stats displays.

REMOVED

  • Errors related to evaluating the expression are no longer displayed in the pythonic question type.

FIXED

  • Allowed pythonic question type to accept tuples without parentheses.

  • Fixed issue with expression question type, with csq_ratio_check = True and csq_soln = 0.

  • Switched to different CDN for loading Ace editor code.

  • Fixed an issue related to automatic locking when no answers have been viewed.

  • Fixed a regression related to rendering the answers to multiplechoice questions using the checkbox renderer.

  • Fixed a regression related to answer checking in multiplechoice questions.

  • Fixed issue related to improper handling of empty <python> or <question> tags.

  • Fixed issue related to incorrectly filtering user information when generating API tokens.

  • Fixed issues with type errors from decoding data URI's in the pythoncode and fileupload question types.

  • Fixed several issues related to invalid HTML output in response to pythoncode submission.

  • Fixed source.zip generation to be more pedantic about when to re-build the file.

  • Fixed rendering of questions via 'rerender' in the default handler.

  • Fixed problem with trying to render a template from a context where not all variables are defined.

  • Fixed rendering of check/cross images in expression question type.

  • Manual grading interface now displays more relevant feedback to the grader after submission (exactly the score and comments as the student will see them).

  • Fixed the display of answers to pythoncode questions so that syntax highlights properly.

  • Fixed issue with processes not being properly closed with the Python sandbox.

SECURITY

  • Fixed a regression that opened a XSS vulnerability in pythoncode questions.

DOCUMENTATION

  • Use American spelling in documentation.

Version 9.2.0

ADDED

  • Added render_single_question to the default handler, for rendering a single question's contents.

  • Added ability to customize how e-mail address is created from available information when using OpenID Connect.

  • Added the ability to override get_group's section lookup and instead use the specified section.

  • Added stats and whdw (Who Has Done What) actions to the default handler.

CHANGED

  • Better checks and display for checkoff question type.

  • Improved error handling in the pythonic question type.

  • Improved the formatting of HTML in the pythoncode question type to prevent BeautifulSoup from modifying it too much.

  • None is now a special category that is skipped when assigning groups.

  • Improved formatting of answers to pythoncode questions.

  • Cells in HTML tables are no longer automatically center-aligned.

  • Removed confusing answer display from checkoff question type.

FIXED

  • Fixed a bug with cs_path_info not being defined in certain situations.

  • Fixed the stylesheet so that pages can be printed again.

  • Fixed a bug with reporting error messages related to malformed questions.

  • Fixed a type error in list_groups that prevented students' sections from being determined correctly.

  • Brought the richtext question type up to speed with current CAT-SOOP.

  • Brought the multiplechoice question type up to speed with current CAT-SOOP.

  • Brought the handout handler up to speed with current CAT-SOOP and improved its error reporting.

  • Fixed a regression that rendered pythonliteral questions unusable.

  • Fixed a typo in dispatch.py that broke proper 404 handling of handouts.

  • Fixed a regression with the permissions check for the "Save" button.

  • Several fixes for the fileupload, richtext, and pythoncode question types.

  • Prevented a misleading error message from being displayed when automatically viewing answers on a timed exercise.

  • Several fixes for catsoop.tools.data_uri.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented per-user randomness from functioning as expected.

  • Updated automatic source downloader to use spoof_early_load, fixing a bug.

  • Fixed a typo in the checkoff question type.

Version 9.1.0

ADDED

  • Added catsoop.path_info to javascript (for groups).

  • Added cs_pre_handle for normal use and pre_handle.py for plugins.

  • The state of the context is now stored after every preload.py file in the chain has been executed (in cs_loader_states), to allow, e.g., looking up parents' names.

  • Added "breadcrumbs" to the default theme.

  • Fleshed out the interactive group management page.

CHANGED

  • Navigational menu entries can now optionally be specified in a more straightforward (Pythonic) manner.

  • csq_names are now automatically assigned as part of the XML parsing step, rather than in the default handler.

  • Changed "Are you sure you want to view the answer" dialog to use SweetAlert2.

  • Nicer-looking tables in default theme.

  • Added a more complete message to the "log in" box for OpenID Connect.

FIXED

  • Fixed bug with cs_view_without_auth flag.

  • Fixed bug with listing groups.

  • Fixed bug with file locking stemming from a change in 9.0.0.

  • cs_post_load and plugins' post-load hooks now fire at the right time (after <python> tags are evaluated).

  • Fixed bug with additional files in the Python sandbox.

  • Fixed several bugs related to HTML parsing/display.

  • Internal Server Errors in AJAX callbacks now display an error message.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented saving entries to questions.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented reading user information from the __USERS__ directory from catsoop.util.read_user_file.

SECURITY

  • Logins are no longer carried over between courses (user must log in to each course separately).

Version 9.0.0

ADDED

  • Added back the catsoopdb format (last seen in version 4.0.1), with improvements to prevent collisions and a few bugfixes.

  • Added BeautifulSoup to the distribution.

  • Included Bootstrap in the distribution, and updated the default theme to use it (also moved main.template and base.css to old.template and old.css, respectively, to make room for new style).

  • Added the cs_base_color variable, for switching the main color of the default theme.

  • Added syntax highlighting to code blocks, via highlight.js. If no language is explicitly specified for syntax highlighting, the value stored in cs_default_code_language will be used (default is no syntax highlighting; explicitly setting that value to None will cause highlight.js to guess the appropriate language for each block).

  • Added support for authentication via OpenID Connect.

  • Added support for default courses via cs_default_course.

  • Added the list_questions and get_state API endpoints to the default handler.

  • Added an easier way to spoof context loading with loader.spoof_early_load.

  • Added cslog.modify_most_recent, which updates the most recent log entry atomically.

  • Added method for sending e-mail to a CAT-SOOP user from the API without knowing their e-mail address.

  • Added support for input checks and ratio checking (rather than absolute error checking) to the expression question type.

  • Added number question type for single numbers (or simple fractions).

  • Added __PLUGINS__ directory for plugins which work in ways other than defining a new QTYPE or handler (ability to affect the context before or after preload, before or after content load, and after handler is invoked).

CHANGED

  • CAT-SOOP is now only compatible with Python version 3.5+. Python 2 compatibility was dropped intentionally, but versions 3.0.0 <= x < 3.5 are not supported because CAT-SOOP does some strange things with imports.

  • CAT-SOOP no longer runs on Windows hosts.

  • Drastically improved inheritance for question types (requiring far less manual work) via tutor.qtype_inherit.

  • CAT-SOOP XML parsing is now largely handled by BeautifulSoup instead of by regular expressions.

  • Renamed gb.py -> base_context.py to more accurately reflect its usage.

  • Modified the login authentication type to use Python's built-in implementation of PBKDF2.

  • Changed the way authentication is handled in AJAX requests, in preparation for including the public-facing API.

  • Themes are now run through a pre-processor that handles <python> and <printf> tags (including @{...} syntax).

  • Passwords (in all forms) are now hashed both before and after being sent to the server (passwords are now never sent in plain-text).

  • Navigation links should now be held in cs_top_menu instead of cs_navigation.

  • <ref> tags can now take the relevant label as label="x" in addition to just as x.

  • Improved error pages shown on 404 File Not Found.

  • Default permissions now include the 'view' permission.

  • Modified the default "loading" spinner to use CSS instead of an image

  • csq_check_function can now return a dictionary mapping 'score' to the score and 'msg' to a message to be returned, eliminating the need for csq_msg_function when it is more convenent to compute the score and message at the same time. Alternatively, it can return a tuple (score, message). The old form is still supported.

  • csq_msg_function, if used, can now optionally take a second argument representing the solution (the message doe not need to be computed from the submission alone).

  • Replaced "response" field with "message" in JSON returned by the default handler's AJAX calls, to avoid duplicate use of "response".

  • A little easter egg: the CAT-SOOP cat changes when displaying a 404 or 500 error message.

  • Improved error reporting in pythonic question type.

FIXED

  • Tracebacks in CAT-SOOP error messages now actually show useful information.

  • Pre-compiled CAT-SOOP (.pycs) files' names now include the Python implementation's cache tag, so that the same course can be migrated to a CAT-SOOP instance running on a different version of Python without issue.

  • Fixed a bug whereby an empty entry in a multiplechoice question (--) was interpreted as being the last element in the csq_options list.

  • Missing files/directories are now always handled as 404 errors, rather than 500.

  • Fixed a bug resulting from a nonexistent courses directory.

  • The cs_post_load hook is now invoked at a time when cs_content is still relevant.

  • Fixed bug with expression question type erroring when using multiple values for a variable.

  • Prevented PLY from writing its parsing tables to disk.

SECURITY

  • Included the option to tune the number of iterations used with PBKDF2, and increased the default number of iterations from 50,000 to 250,000.

  • Minimum password length in the login authentication type is now 8 instead of 5, per the NIST recommendation at https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp800-63b.html

Version 8.0.0

ADDED

  • <label> and <ref> tags are now available, for easier referencing of sections within a CAT-SOOP page.

  • Answers and explanations can now be automatically viewed in certain situations (running out of submissions, earning 100% score).

  • Added a check for non-ASCII characters in input, and an error message to be displayed in this case.

  • Most CAT-SOOP options related to the default handler can now be specified as functions that return the appropriate value, rather than the value itself, which allows them to be set in a way that depends on the current context.

  • Added a way to compute stats about a particular page (for use in making gradebooks).

  • Question types can now have multiple form fields by having names starting with __QNAME__, where QNAME is the name of the question.

  • The multiplechoice question type has two new modes which allow for arbitrary formatting (including math) in the options: 'checkbox', which allows multiple answers to be selected; and 'radio', which allows only one answer to be selected.

  • Added the cs_debug function, which can be used to log arbitrary information to a file during execution of a preload or content file.

  • Resources can now be loaded from arbitrarily-named files (e.g., <root>/path/to/foo.md instead of <root>/path/to/foo/content.md).

  • In the pythoncode question type, it is now possible to hide the code associated with test cases.

  • Added data_uri module from https://gist.github.com/zacharyvoase/5538178 for better handling of file uploads.

  • Users can now log in with their e-mail addresses instead of their usernames when using the login authentication type.

  • Permissions can now be specified directly via cs_permissions, instead of exclusively via roles.

  • The pythoncode question type can now handle Python 3 code.

  • Handlers and question types can now have viewable pages inside them, viewable at, for example, <url_root>/__HANDLER__/default/page_name.

  • Every page footer now links to both the terms of the license, and also to the "download source" link.

  • Added a module for sending e-mails, primarily for use in the login authentication type.

  • MathJax is now included directly, rather than loaded from their CDN.

CHANGED

  • Functions inside of question types no longer need to manually load default values; values from the defaults variable are automatically used when not specified inside the <question> tag.

  • The login authentication type was much improved, including the option to send confirmation e-mails, change passwords, and recover lost passwords; and to customize the types of e-mail addresses that are accepted.

  • Improved error reporting in the login auth type.

  • The cs_post_load hook now executes before the page's handler is invoked, and a new hook cs_post_handle was introduced, which is called after the handler is invoked.

  • CAT-SOOP's handling of HTML tags is now case-insensitive.

  • The "view as" page was updated to show more accurately what the user in question would see.

  • Many options related to the default handler (primarily related to which actions should be allowed) are now specified on a per-question basis rather than a per-page basis.

  • Locking a user out of a problem has been separated from viewing the answer to that question.

  • Improved rendering in the expression question type.

  • name_map is now stored as an ordered dictionary.

  • Results from the pythonic question type are now evaluated in the question's scope, rather than in the question type's scope.

  • The number of rows to be displayed in the ACE interface for coding questions is now customizable.

  • Answers in the smallbox and bigbox question types are no longer wrapped in <tt></tt>.

  • Markdown and/or custom XML, depending on the source type used, is now interpreted inside of answers and explanations (including math rendering).

  • All CAT-SOOP modules are now available inside of the source files for handlers and question types.

  • The cs_scripts string is now injected into the template after jQuery, katex, MathJax, and cs_math have been loaded.

  • Modified the generation of per-user random seeds to (eventually) allow for re-generating of random seeds.

  • Moved much of the Javascript code from the default handler to separate files.

  • Moved WSGI file and changed the way imports are handled in order to make sure everything can access the CAT-SOOP modules/subpackages.

  • Moved handling of csq_prompt out of individual question types and into the default handler to avoid duplicating code.

  • Removed logo image from main page.

  • cs_source_format is now inferred (rather than specified explicitly).

  • In question type specifications, handle_submission now returns a dictionary instead of a tuple.

  • Restructured authentication types to make adding more types in the future easier.

  • Section labels are now rendered as id's of the associated headers.

FIXED

  • Fixed a bug whereby $ characters could not be escaped with backslash.

  • Fixed issues with certain tags' internals being parsed as Markdown (script, pre, question, etc).

  • Trying to access a resource that doesn't exist on disk now gives a 404 error instead of crashing.

  • Fixed several bugs related to uploading multiple files in a single submission.

  • Spaces are now allowed in question names.

  • CAT-SOOP no longer crashes on a malformed <question>, but rather displays an error message.

  • Fixed an issue with intermittent WSGI failures by re-trying failed actions.

  • Updated MathJax to version 2.6.1 to fix a rendering issue in Chrome.

  • Updated the URL of the default Python sandbox to reflect changes in the CAT-SOOP web site.

  • Improved handling of query strings and fragment identifiers when rewriting URLs.

  • Improved handling of implicit multiplication in the expression question type.

  • Added unary + to Python syntax in the expression question type.

  • cslog.most_recent now returns the default value when the log file does not exist, instead of crashing.

  • Fixed handling of temporary files on Windows hosts.

  • Fixed validation of user information when registering under the login authenatication type.

  • Fixed several bugs with manual grading, reported from 6.02.

  • Log files are no longer created when trying to read from a nonexistent log.

  • Mercurial temporary files (.orig) are now ignored in the zip generated when downloading the source.

  • <pre> tags are now used instead of <tt> for wrapping answers in the pythoncode question type.

  • Fixed an issue in the pythoncode sandboxes whereby a MEMORY limit of 0 actually allowed 0 bytes of heap storage, rather than unlimited.

  • Prevent a crash if <cs_data_root>/courses does not exist.

  • Modified to always use the local markdown package, even if one is installed globally, to make sure Markdown extensions are loaded properly.

  • Buttons are now re-enabled on page load, to prevent an issue whereby buttons would remain disabled after a refresh on Firefox.

SECURITY

  • PBKDF2 is now used for the login authentication mode.

  • Closed a XSS vulnerability in the pythoncode question type.

  • Closed a security hole in session handling that allowed for arbitrary code execution under certain circumstances by validating session ids and modifying the way session data are stored.

  • Fixed a bug that allowed logs to be accessed/created outside of the appropriate __LOGS__ directories.

Version 7.1.1

FIXED

  • Fixed an issue that prevented the last question on each page from being displayed.

Version 7.1.0

ADDED

  • Added the option to grade questions manually, from 6.02 fall 2015.

  • Added a richtext question type, which allows for formatting of text using CAT-SOOP-flavored Markdown.

  • Added the fileupload question type, which allows users to upload arbitrary files.

  • Added checks for valid configuration options.

CHANGED

  • Rewrote the expression question type to use PLY for parsing, and included a default syntax for expressions that is more approachable to users not familiar with Python.

Version 7.0.1

FIXED

  • Fixed a syntax error in the expression question type.

Version 7.0.0

ADDED

  • Included KaTeX.

  • Added three new handlers: passthrough, which displays cs_content without modification; raw_response, which allows sending a raw HTTP response; and redirect, for redirecting to other resources easily.

  • Added support for Markdown as an alternative source format, and included python-markdown in the distribution.

  • Question type specifications can now include an arbitrary action (beyond saving/submitting) that will be executed when a user presses a new button.

  • Added support for streaming content (via returning a generator instead of a string), and for automatic streaming of large static files.

  • Added support for inline (runnable by users) test cases in pythoncode question types.

  • Added cs_util resources: time, which yields the current time (according to the server) for synchronization purposes; source.zip, which downloads a zip archive containing the CAT-SOOP source code; and license, which contains the text of CAT-SOOP's license.

  • Added a 'string' mode to the pythonic question type, which allows the answer to be specified as a string to be evaluated. Also added the csq_code_pre variable to this question type, for setting up the environment into which csq_soln will be evaluated in string mode.

CHANGED

  • Math rendering now uses KaTeX (fast, but limited support) when possible, and falls back to MathJax (slow, but more support) when necessary.

  • "Special" CAT-SOOP variables are now prefixed with cs_ (for page-specific values) or csq_ (for question-specific values) to prevent accidental shadowing

  • Changed nomenclature: "activity type" -> "handler"

  • Complete rewrite of default handler.

  • Reorganization of sandboxing for Python code.

  • gb.py should no longer be changed; rather, global configuration values should be overwritten via config.py (which is loaded into gb.py)

  • Improved handling of footnotes.

REMOVED

  • Removed jquery_typing plugin, which is no longer needed for expression questions.

FIXED

  • Fixed bug with newline handling in CGI interface.

  • Fixed bugs related to static files when using the CGI interface running on Windows hosts.

  • The default theme now handles resizing of the containing window more smoothly.

STYLE

  • Mostly embraced PEP8 style.

Version 6.0.0

ADDED

  • Added post_load hook, which is executed after the content file is loaded.

  • Added support for XML as an additional source format, and set it to be the default format.

  • Change names EARLY_LOAD.py -> preload.py and LATE_LOAD.py -> content.xml.

  • Added the pythonliteral question type, which behaves much like pythonic, but requires that the submission be a literal value (rather than the result of a more complicated expression).

CHANGED

  • Modified handling of footnotes.

  • File containing user information should now end in .py (e.g., username.py instead of just username).

  • Reorganized python question types to properly inherit from one another to avoid duplicate code.

REMOVED

  • The problem activity type was removed, in favor of ajaxproblem.

FIXED

  • Fixed an issue where last_submit was keeping information only about the most recent submission overall, instead of the most recent submission for each question.

  • The __LOGS__ directory will now be created if it does not exist, rather than crashing CAT-SOOP.

SECURITY

  • Error messages now show less information, to avoid displaying sensitive information.

Version 5.0.0

ADDED

  • Added support for footnotes via <footnote>

  • Added support for page organization via <section>, <subsection>, etc.

  • The ability to save and submit are now controllable via special variables in the problem activity type.

  • Added a warning message upon clicking the 'view solution' button to indicate that users will not be able to submit after doing so. Also maintained the ability to bypass this check, for things like automatically submitting at the end of a timed exercise.

  • Added the handout activity type, which allows for showing a static file, but with access controls (releasing after a particular date, only viewable by particular role, etc).

  • Added support for displaying explanations in addition to answers in particular question types.

CHANGED

  • Logs are now stored in SQLite databases.

  • The logo in the main page is now displayed as text, rather than as an image.

  • Buttons in ajaxproblem question types are now disabled before processing the request, to avoid multiple identical submissions from mis-clicks.

REMOVED

  • Removed catsoopdb format, in favor of SQLite.

FIXED

  • Renamed logging.py to cslog.py to prevent accidentically importing Python's built-in logging module.

  • Fixed rendering of math when viewing solution to an expression question.

  • Scores are now properly handled in the ajaxproblem activity type.

  • Fixed a bug with displaying the solution for pythonic question types whose solutions are tuples.

  • Fixed a bug with displaying the solution for pythonic question types whose solutions are strings.

  • Fixed a bug related to handling of dynamic pages in the __BASE__ course.

  • Fixed numerous ajaxproblem bugs.

  • Improved detection of static files.

SECURITY

  • Error messages no longer show information about the location of CAT-SOOP (or the course in question) on disk

Version 4.0.1

FIXED

  • Fixed issue whereby a missing EARLY_LOAD.py would crash CAT-SOOP.

  • Fixed bug with caching of static files.

  • Fixed bug related to authenticating in login mode.

REMOVED

  • Removed rendering time from default template.

Version 4.0.0

ADDED

  • Added the ajaxproblem activity type, which allows submitting individual questions without reloading the entire page. Made ajaxproblem the default activity type.

  • Added support for skipping ahead or behind by weeks in relative timestrings, using + or - (e.g., M+:17:00 means next Monday at 5pm).

  • Solutions for individual students are now displayed when impersonating them.

  • Source for pages is now cached in a marshaled format, to prevent having to re-parse the source of pages that have not changed.

  • Added support for authenticating via login (username and password) rather than via client certificate.

  • Added support for per-user randomness (users see the same numbers upon returning to a page, but different users may see different numbers).

  • Added documentation (via epydoc-compatible docstrings) throughout.

  • CAT-SOOP now asks the browser to use cached versions of static files where appropriate.

  • Allowed question types and activity types to be specified in the course rather than in the base system.

CHANGED

  • Changed internal nomenclature: meta -> context everywhere to represent the context in which a page is rendered.

REMOVED

  • Removed several hard-coded references to sicp-s2.mit.edu in the code.

FIXED

  • Fixed impersonation glitch whereby permissions were inherited from the impersonated user.

  • Fixed glaring bug with static file handling.

  • Fixed inheritance bug in the pythonic question type.

Version 3.1.0

ADDED

  • Added WSGI interface (and moved main function elsewhere so WSGI and CGI can share code).

  • Questions are automatically given names if they were not explicitly given a name.

  • Question types and activity types are now pre-compiled to avoid having to re-parse them on every load.

Version 3.0.0

ADDED

  • problem activities now store due dates, to account for changes in due date after submitting.

  • Added support for the ACE code editor in pythoncode questions.

CHANGED

  • Separated loading from METADATA.py into EARLY_LOAD.py and LATE_LOAD.py. EARLY_LOAD files are executed all the way down the source tree (for the sake of inheritance, as with METADATA.py), but only the LATE_LOAD.py associated with the leaf node is executed (to allow some code execution to be avoided when working down the tree).

  • Moved/improved impersonation code.

  • Refactored logging code.

  • Refactored main control loop.

FIXED

  • Better sandboxing of Python code.

  • Fixed an issue with submitAs control for questions with randomness.

  • Fixed handling of paths on Windows hosts.

  • Modified expression question type to be compatible with Python 2.6.

  • Several bug fixes in pythoncode question type.

SECURITY

  • Prune out '..' and '.' from URLs to avoid escaping the CAT-SOOP tree.

Version 2.0.0

Complete re-write. First version used in 6.01 (spring 2013). First version with any similarity to the current code.

Version 1.0.0

The original version, used in 6.003 fall 2011, and described in http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/77086. This version has very little in common with later versions.