README.md

# Advisor

SRCT Advisor is a dynamic web application that lets users create, compare, and 
share course trajectories towards graduation. (Not intended as a replacement for
formal academic advising.)

## On Contributing

Advisor is still in its very early states and needs all the help it can get. 
Even if you don't feel like you can be helpful the more technical aspects, we 
definitely need designers, technical writers, and testers.

There are many things that can be done with this project (see the "To Do"
section), but sometimes it's the small things that count, so don't be afraid of
contributing just a small spelling mistake.

If you need help at all please contact and SRCT member. We want people to 
contribute, so if you are struggling, or just want to learn we are more than 
willing to help.

The project lead for this project is **Daniel Bond**. *dbond2@gmu.edu*

Please visit the [SRCT Wiki](http://wiki.srct.gmu.edu/) for more information 
on this and other SRCT projects, along with other helpful links and tutorials.

## Setup

To get started, you'll need the following installed:

* [Python 2.7.3](http://www.python.org/download/)
* [Git](http://git-scm.com/book/en/Getting-Started-Installing-Git/)
* [Pip](http://www.pip-installer.org/en/latest/installing.html)
* [virtualenv](http://www.virtualenv.org/en/latest/index.html#installation)

Type the following commands in your terminal (if you're on Windows, 
[Cygwin](http://www.cygwin.com/) is recommended, or you can install a 
[virtual machine](https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads) and install a 
distribution of [Linux](http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop) to it (select 
the 32 bit version).

(also, ssh keys...)

``bash``

``git clone http://git.gmu.edu/srct/advisor.git``

``cd advisor``

``mkdir ~/.virtualenvs``

``virtualenv ~/.virtualenvs/advisor``

``source ~/.virtualenvs/advisor/bin/activate``


``pip install -r requirements.txt``

create the database

``python manage.py schemamigration trajectories --initial``

``python manage.py syncdb`` (the username and password are just for your
machine-- you can set it as merely "me" and "password" if you like)

``python manage.py runserver``

Next, open your web broswer of choice, and go to http//:127.0.0.1:8000/. You 
won't see too much. You'll need to add the courses and programs to the database.

I've written some documentation in the docs folder about using the admin 
interface and creating some models. Use the same username and password you set 
up when you did the `syncdb` command.

## How Advisor Works

### Models

Model fields are pretty well commented up, but here's a high-level view on how 
everything comes together.

#### Courses

Each Course has basic information (name, department, credits), but more 
importantly has prerequisites and corequisites. Prereqs and Coreqs can accept 
null values or lists of other courses. This is how we know whether a student may 
take a class.

#### CourseCollections

A CourseCollection is a section of required courses in a program. Usually, 
programs require that a student must take some of these courses and some of 
those. CourseCollections are a list of all possible courses and the number of 
which are required, from all to just one.

#### Programs

A Program is list of CourseCollections, representing a major, minor, or general 
education requirements. All majors take a gened course.

#### Students

Students have the standard user fields, their well as all of their planned 
trajectories, and a big ol' list of all of the courses they have completed.

#### Trajectories

Trajectories represent a student's paths to graduation, represented structurally 
as a tree. A student's existing courses (or if null, their anticipated first 
semester of classes) represents the root of the tree, and a student's potential 
paths towards graduation with different majors representing different branches 
out. Each subsequent trajectory represents a subsequent semester. This makes it 
simple to represent students' changes to their trajectories and their different 
pathways out to different major options. Each takes a trajectory 
"previousCourses", which represents the node's immediate predecessor. 

Already completed courses are kept in a bulk list with each student, and 
potential courses are adjusted accordingly.

What users save and see as "trajectories" on their home page are each discrete 
path to each end node on the branches, e.g. Art History Path I, Art History Path 
II. Modification is therefore as simple as addition of a few new pointers. Each 
trajectory is also associated with a specific list of programs.

Trajectories also track their distance from the root, providing the user with 
the number of semesters until graduation.

### Templates

#### index

This is where students can create a new trajectory. If students haven't yet 
already selected the classes they've taken, they can select those classes here.

#### create

Based on the information passed in from the 'index' page, this page shows 
which classes a student is allowed to take the subsequent semester, 
depending on the prereqs and coreqs. It will use ajax to allow the student 
to select their classes and have their next allowed classes returned until 
they have completed their program.

#### student

This template acts as a dashboard for each student, showing their saved 
trajectories, allows them to adjust the classes they've taken, etc.

Later along, it will have some social features, like following public 
trajectories or seeing what classes their "friends" are taking.

#### trajectory / course

These templates just display a trajectory or a course on their own for 
inspection. Trajectories can be made public and shared.

#### compare

This page allows students to compare side-by-side up to three trajectories, 
of their own or others that are public. Analytics are preformed over the 
selected trajectories and displayed, showing, for instance, which has the 
most courses, which has the most courses 300+, and more.

#### analysis

This template (to be created in further on) shows which classes are the most 
popular, how long on average each completed trajectory takes, popular classes 
for certain parts of a major, and more.

I'd like the site to also have a separate app for taking the classes that a 
student wants to take for a given semester, and when that semester rolls by, 
it'd perform something along the lines of gmu.schedulizer.com for them, 
along with the aforementioned social aspects.

#### login

I'd like this page to have a bit more information, since this is the page 
that students will eventually be directed to if they haven't logged in. It  
might talk about some of the features and such.

## To-do

### First orders of business

#### Matters of Functionality

* Moving things around so that they are where they are supposed to be
* coreqs are listed with each model already, but there must be javascript on the
page preventing students from selecting a course without selecting another in
order for that to mean anything
* Add support for APs, and fix the "login required" stuff
* Javascript to count the number of credits selected

#### Forms and Views

* JavaScript on the comparison page so that selected trajectories are loaded
immediately
* Analytic functions for comparing trajectories and some corresponding d3
visualization
* Forms on the index and create pages need to submit **actually** information
* Forms on index and create pages also need to expand to an additional fields;
also needs to take into consideration the max available, show alerts
* Create page requires AJAX, allowing for continual reloading until program(s)
are completed, then redirect to a student's main page.
* LDAP auth/login
* comparison page needs some lovely analytics on the compared trajectories for
the user
* polishing, like privacy policy

#### Database and Webscraping

* scraping the site to populate the database
* moving over to mysql
* scraping of catalog.gmu.edu for the database (this also means that with a
single command everyone can be working on the same database :3)
* autocomplete js for the course name field (after a user puts in the department
abbreviation and the course name (note unlike bookshare this information needn't
be editable)
* map "Second Semester Junior" and the like to numbers for the graduation feature

### Pipe Dreams

* Making trajectories "public" within the system, so that they can be shared
with other students.
* Making trajectories "public" outside of the system, so that they can be shared
on social and messaging sites.
* Support departments to create sample trajectories for their students.
* Identifying if courses are available in the semester desired, and if so,
getting professor information, CRNs, and what have you.
* An integrated "schedulizer"-type app for the classes that you've selected you
want for that semester.

## About GMU SRCT

**S**tudent-**R**un **C**omputing and **T**echnology (*SRCT*), pronounced
"circuit") is a student organization at George Mason University which enhances
student computing at Mason, SRCT establishes and maintains systems which provide
specific services for Mason's community.