Overview

Description

The PyUnit backend is a Python XML-RPC service, which provides - in

tandem with ECSpooler - automatic testing of Python programs.

Therefore the backend uses dynamic tests with the PyUnit framework.

Prerequisites

* A UNIX or UNIX-like operating system, e.g., NetBSD, Solaris, Mac

OS X, or Linux.

The PyUnit backend does run on Windows (with some restrictions),

but this is neither supported nor recommended.

* "Python":http://python.org/

* "ECSpooler":http://wdok.cs.uni-magdeburg.de/software/ecspooler

* ECSpooler is primarily intended to be used via the

"ECAutoAssessmentBox":http://plone.org/products/ecautoassessmentbox

Plone product. So you will normally have a Plone installation

with ECAutoAssessmentBox.

Installation

* Unzip this archive under the 'backends' directory of your

ECSpooler installation (for example '/opt/ESpooler/backends/').

* Adjust values for INTERPRTER and OPTIONS in the script

'backends/pyunit/python.sh' to your system environemnt.

* Make sure that the script 'backends/pyunit/python.sh' is

executable.

Security

When executing unknown code, you have to take security precautions,

e.g., by using chroot, jails, or systrace. These mechanisms are,

however, system-dependent, so we cannot give detailed installation

instructions.

If you are using "systrace":http://www.systrace.org/, adjust the

script 'backends/pyunit/python+systrace' to your system

environment and set *INTERPRETER* in

'backends/pyunit/config.py' to this script.

Please be aware of the risks if you are *not* able to deal with the

configuration issues.

Quick Start

After installation, first start ECSpooler (see the ECSpooler

documentation for details). Then you should be able to start the

PyUnit backend using the following command (you may have to specify

the path)::

backendctl -u root -p bazquux PyUnit start

If you run this command as root, the process will be started as user

"nobody".

Once the backend is running, check the status of the backend using::

spoolerctl -u root -p bazquux status

and get a response similar to::

{'queue': 0, 'backends': ['pyunit'], 'pid': 27423, 'results': 0}

For administrative tasks such as starting/stopping backends

authentication is required. Therefore ECSpooler ships with a

password file ('etc/passwd') containing a user "root" with default

password "bazquux". See the ECSpooler documentation if you would

like to add/change users and passwords.

Testing a Python program with the PyUnit backend requires exactly

one test class with one or more test cases, e.g.,::

import unittest

class testSquare(unittest.TestCase):

def testSquare1(self):

self.assertEqual(25, square(5), 'Re-check your implementation.')

def testSquare2(self):

self.assertEqual(25, square(-5), 'Take care about negative numbers.')

Support

For questions and discussions about backends, please join the

"eduComponents mailing

list":https://listserv.uni-magdeburg.de/mailman/listinfo/educomponents.

Credits

The PyUnit backend was written by "Mario

Amelung":mailto:mario.amelung@gmx.de and

"Christian Baumann":mailto:christian.baumann@teleos-web.de.

License

The PyUnit backend is licensed under the

"GPL":http://opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.

Copyright © 2009-2011 by Mario Amelung and Christian Baumann

The PyUnit backend is free software; you can redistribute it and/or

modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as

published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the

License, or (at your option) any later version.

The PyUnit backend is distributed in the hope that it will be

useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty

of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU

General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

along with ECSpooler; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,

Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA