iP:
A-Gradle
,A-CheckStyle
, Level-10
, A-Varargs
tP:
author:AuthorUsername
e.g., author:johnDoe
We expect the PR peer-review to be mutually beneficial to the reviewer and the author. i.e., you receive suggestions on how to improve your code, and get to learn alternative designs by reading others' code.
Guidelines for reviewers:
Comment
(i.e., not Approve
or Request changes
)Guidelines for authors:
Links → iP Code Dashboard
item in the top navigation menu. Click on the </>
icon corresponding to a student name to see the code written by that person. We encourage you to read others’ code and learn from them. If you adopt solutions from others (also encouraged), please follow our reuse policy.Relevant: [
Reuse is encouraged. However, note that reuse has its own costs (such as the learning curve, additional complexity, usage restrictions, and unknown bugs). Furthermore, you will not be given credit for work done by others. Rather, you will be given credit for reusing work done by others.
Given below are how to give credit for things you reuse from elsewhere. These requirements are specific to this module i.e., not applicable outside the module (outside the module you should follow the rules specified by your employer and the license of the reused work)
If you used a third party library:
README.adoc
(under the Acknowledgements section)If you reused code snippets found on the Internet e.g. from StackOverflow answers or
referred code in another software or
referred project code by current/past student:
//Solution below adapted from https://stackoverflow.com/a/16252290
{Your implmentation of the reused solution here ...}
@@author
tags//@@author {yourGithubUsername}-reused
//{Info about the source...}
{Reused code (possibly with minor modifications) here ...}
//@@author
Example of reusing a code snippet (with minor modifications):
persons = getList()
//@@author johndoe-reused
//Reused from https://stackoverflow.com/a/34646172 with minor modifications
Collections.sort(persons, new Comparator<CustomData>() {
@Override
public int compare(CustomData lhs, CustomData rhs) {
return lhs.customInt > rhs.customInt ? -1 : 0;
}
});
//@@author
return persons;
@@author
tags indicate authorshipMark your code with a //@@author {yourGithubUsername}
. Note the double @
.
The //@@author
tag should indicates the beginning of the code you wrote. The code up to the next //@@author
tag or the end of the file (whichever comes first) will be considered as was written by that author. Here is a sample code file:
//@@author johndoe
method 1 ...
method 2 ...
//@@author sarahkhoo
method 3 ...
//@@author johndoe
method 4 ...
If you don't know who wrote the code segment below yours, you may put an empty //@@author
(i.e. no GitHub username) to indicate the end of the code segment you wrote. The author of code below yours
can add the GitHub username to the empty tag later. Here is a sample code with an empty author
tag:
method 0 ...
//@@author johndoe
method 1 ...
method 2 ...
//@@author
method 3 ...
method 4 ...
The author tag syntax varies based on file type e.g. for java, css, fxml. Use the corresponding comment syntax for non-Java files.
Here is an example code from an xml/fxml file.
<!-- @@author sereneWong -->
<textbox>
<label>...</label>
<input>...</input>
</textbox>
...
Do not put the //@@author
inside java header comments.
👎
/**
* Returns true if ...
* @@author johndoe
*/
👍
//@@author johndoe
/**
* Returns true if ...
*/
Annotate both functional and test code There is no need to annotate documentation files.
Annotate only significant size code blocks that can be reviewed on its own e.g., a class, a sequence of methods, a method.
Claiming credit for code blocks smaller than a method is discouraged but allowed. If you do, do it sparingly and only claim meaningful blocks of code such as a block of statements, a loop, or an if-else statement.
Do not try to boost the quantity of your contribution using unethical means such as duplicating the same code in multiple places. In particular, do not copy-paste test cases to create redundant tests. Even repetitive code blocks within test methods should be extracted out as utility methods to reduce code duplication. Individual members are responsible for making sure code attributed to them are correct. If you notice a team member claiming credit for code that he/she did not write or use other questionable tactics, you can email us (after the final submission) to let us know.
If you wrote a significant amount of code that was not used in the final product,
{project root}/unused
//@@author {yourGithubUsername}-unused
to mark unused code in those files (note the suffix unused
) e.g.
//@@author johndoe-unused
method 1 ...
method 2 ...
Please put a comment in the code to explain why it was not used.
If you reused code from elsewhere, mark such code as //@@author {yourGithubUsername}-reused
(note the suffix reused
) e.g.
//@@author johndoe-reused
method 1 ...
method 2 ...
You can use empty @@author
tags to mark code as not yours when RepoSense attribute the to you incorrectly.
Code generated by the IDE/framework, should not be annotated as your own.
Code you modified in minor ways e.g. adding a parameter. These should not be claimed as yours but you can mention these additional contributions in the Project Portfolio page if you want to claim credit for them.
At the end of the project each student is required to submit a Project Portfolio Page.
Keep in mind that your feature(s) will be evaluated for depth, completeness, and effort. Use the
PPP to convince evaluator how good those aspects of your features are.
It is fine if you want to directly explain each of those aspects of your features in the PPP i.e., how deep the feature is, why it is complete, how hard it was to implement.
[Optional] Contributions to the User Guide: Reproduce the parts in the User Guide that you wrote. This can include features you implemented as well as features you propose to implement.
The purpose of allowing you to include proposed features is to provide you more flexibility to show your documentation skills. e.g. you can bring in a proposed feature just to give you an opportunity to use a UML diagram type not used by the actual features.
[Optional] Contributions to the Developer Guide: Reproduce the parts in the Developer Guide that you wrote. Ensure there is enough content to evaluate your technical documentation skills and UML modelling skills. You can include descriptions of your design/implementations, possible alternatives, pros and cons of alternatives, etc.
[Optional] If you plan to use the PPP in your Resume, you can also include your SE work outside of the module (will not be graded).
File name: docs/team/githbub_username_in_lower_case.adoc
e.g., docs/team/goodcoder123.adoc
Follow the example in the AddressBook-Level3
You can use the Asciidoc's include
feature to include sections from the developer guide or the user guide in your PPP. Follow the example in the sample.
Content | Recommended | Hard Limit |
---|---|---|
Overview + Summary of contributions | 0.5-1 | 2 |
[Optional] Contributions to the User Guide | 1-3 | |
[Optional] Contributions to the Developer Guide | 3-6 |
A-Gradle
,A-CheckStyle
, Level-10
, A-Varargs
master
branch only when ready (if you push incomplete features into the master
branch, it can confuse
others reviewing your PR).
A-Gradle
: Gradle
Use Gradle to automate some of the build tasks of the project. Refer to the Gradle tutorial at the Duke repo (i.e., the repo you forked from) to find how to set up Gradle for your project.
A-CheckStyle
: CheckStyle optional
Use checkStyle to detect coding style violations.
If you are using Gradle for your project, refer to the Gradle tutorial at the Duke repo (i.e., the repo you forked from) to find how to use CheckStyle via Gradle. Alternatively, you can try the CheckStyle plugin for Intellij.
Use Gradle to automate some of the build tasks of the project. Refer to the Gradle tutorial at the Duke repo (i.e., the repo you forked from) to find how to set up Gradle for your project.
Given below are some guidance on the recommended progress at this point of the project
Relevant: [
The high-level learning outcome of the project (and to a large degree, the entire module):
Accordingly, the module project is structured to resemble an intermediate stage of a non-trivial real-life software project. In this project you will,
Relevant: [
In this semester, we are going to enhance an AddressBook application.
This product is meant for users who can type fast, and prefer typing over mouse/voice commands. Therefore, Command Line Interface (CLI) is the primary mode of input.
Relevant: [
Decide project direction, target user profile, and problem addressed before the tutorial
Use your first project meeting to discuss with your team members and decide your project direction, target user profile, and the value proposition of the product, as described in the panels below:
Relevant: [
project expectations
[Direction 1] Optimize AddressBook for a more specific target user group:
An AddressBook,
[Direction 2] Morph AddressBook into a different product: Given that AddressBook is a generic app that manages a type of elements (i.e. contacts), you can use it as a starting point to create an app that manages something else.
An app to manage,
Note that both directions are equally acceptable.
For either direction, you need to define a target user profile and a value proposition:
Target user profile: Define a very specific target user profile.
We require you to narrow down the target user profile as opposed to trying to make it as general as possible. Here is an example direction of narrowing down target user: anybody → teachers → university teachers → tech savvy university teachers → CS2103/T instructors.
Be careful not to contradict given project constraints when defining the user
profile
e.g. the target user should still prefer typing over mouse actions.
It is expected that your product will be optimized for the chosen target users i.e., add features that are especially/only applicable for target users (to make the app especially attractive to them). w.r.t. the example above, there can be features that are applicable to CS2103/T instructors only, such as the ability to navigate to a student's project on GitHub
Your project will be graded based on how well the features match the target user profile and how well the features fit-together.
Tips:
Contribute to all aspects of the project e.g. write backend code, frontend code, test code, user documentation, and developer documentation. Reason: If you limit yourself to certain aspects only, you could lose marks allocated for the aspects you did not do. In addition, the final exam assumes that you are familiar with all aspects of the project.
Do all the work related to your enhancement yourself. Reason:If there is no clear division of who did which enhancement, it will be difficult to divide project credit (or assign responsibility for bugs detected by testers) later.
Divide the components of the product among team members. Notwithstanding the above, you are still expected to divide the components of the product among team members so that each team member is in charge of one or more components. While others will be modifying those components as necessary for the features they are implementing, your role as the in charge of a component is to guide others modifying that component (reason: you are supposed to be the most knowledgeable about that component) and protect that component from degrading e.g., you can review others' changes to your component and suggest possible changes.
Percentile | 25 | 50 | 75 |
---|---|---|---|
LoC | ~1000 | ~1500 | ~2500 |
Team-tasks are the tasks that someone in the team has to do. Marks allocated to team-tasks will be divided among team members based on how much each member contributed to those tasks.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of team-tasks:
Roles indicate aspects you are in charge of and responsible for. E.g., if you are in charge of documentation, you are the person who should allocate which parts of the documentation is to be done by who, ensure the document is in right format, ensure consistency etc.
This is a non-exhaustive list; you may define additional roles.
Model
, UI
, Storage
, etc. If you are in charge of a component, you are expected to know that component well,
and review changes done to that component in v1.3-v1.4.Please make sure each of the important roles are assigned to one person in the team. It is OK to have a 'backup' for each role, but for each aspect there should be one person who is unequivocally the person responsible for it.
Relevant: [
Your project should comply with the following constraints. Reason: to increase comparability among projects and to maximize applicability of module learning outcomes in the project.
Constraint-Brownfield
The final product should be a result of evolving/enhancing/morphing the given code base. However, you are allowed to replace all existing code with new code, as long as it is done incrementally. e.g. one feature/component at a time
Reason: To ensure your code has a decent quality level from the start.
Constraint-Typing-Preferred
The product should be targeting users who can type fast and prefer typing over other means of input.
Reason: to increase comparability of products, and to make feature evaluation easier for peer evaluators.
Constraint-Single-User
The product should be for a single user i.e. (not a multi-user product).
Reason: multi-user systems are hard to test, which is unfair for peer testers who will be graded based on the number of bugs they find.
Constraint-Incremental
The product needs to be developed incrementally over the project duration. While it is fine to do less in some weeks and more in other weeks, a reasonably consistent delivery rate is expected. For example, it is not acceptable to
do the entire project over the recess week and do almost nothing for the remainder of the semester.
Reasons: 1. To simulate a real project where you have to work on a code base over a long period, possibly with breaks in the middle. 2. To learn how to deliver big features in small increments.
Constraint-Human-Editable-File
The data should be stored locally and should be in a human editable text file.
Reason: To allow advanced users to manipulate the data by editing the data file.
Constraint-No-DBMS
Do not use a
Reason: Using a DBMS to store data will reduce the room to apply OOP techniques to manage data. It is true that most real world systems use a DBMS, but given the small size of this project, we need to optimize it for CS2103/T module learning outcomes; covering DBMS-related topics will have to be left to database modules or level 3 project modules.
Constraint-OO
The software should follow the Object-oriented paradigm primarily (but you are allowed to mix in a bit other styles when justifiable).
Reason: For you to practice using OOP in a non-trivial project.
Constraint-Platform-Independent
The software should work on the Windows, Linux, and OS-X platforms. Even if you are unable to manually test the app on all three platforms, consciously avoid using OS-dependent libraries and OS-specific features.
Reason: Peer testers should be able to use any of these platforms.
Constraint-Java-Version The software should work on a computer that has version 11 of Java i.e., no other Java version installed.
Constraint-Portable
The software should work without requiring an installer.
Reason: Testers may not want to install your product on their computer.
Constraint-No-Remote-Server
The software should not depend on your own remote server.
Reason: Anyone should be able to use/test your app any time, even after the semester is over.
Constraint-External-Software The use of third-party frameworks/libraries is allowed but only if they,
and is subjected to prior approval by the teaching team.
Reason: We will not allow third-party software that can interfere with the learning objectives of the module.
Please post in the forum your request to use a third-party libraries before you start using the library. Once a specific library has been approved
for one team, other teams may use it without requesting permission again.
Reason: The whole class should know which external software are used by others so that they can do the same if they wish to.
In addition, you are strongly encouraged to follow these recommendations as they can help increase your project score.
Recommendation-Minimal-Network
It is OK to use a reliable public API e.g., Google search but we recommend that you have a fallback mechanism (e.g., able to load data using a data file if the network is down).
Reason: During the mass peer-testing session, the network access can be intermittent due to high load. If your feature cannot be tested due to lack of Internet, that will have to be counted as a major bug, to be fair to those whose app is being tested and bugs found being penalized.
If you use NUS data (e.g., scrape data from an NUS website), please work with NUS IT directly to get their approval first. Even well-intentioned use of NUS data without
approval can get you into serious trouble (has happened before). The teaching team will not be able to get approval for you as the use of NUS data is not a module requirement.
Recommendation-Testability
Avoid implementing hard-to-test (both for manual testing as well as automated testing) features or features that make your product hard-to-test.
Reason: testability is a grading criterion. If you choose to implement such a feature, you will need to spend an extra effort to reach an acceptable level of testability. Here are some examples of features that are hard-to-test:
If you are not sure if your product complies with a certain constraint/recommendation, please seek clarification by posting in the forum (preferred) or emailing the supervisor.
Relevant: [
Evaluates: how well your features fit together to form a cohesive product (not how many features or how big the features are) and how well does it match the target user
Evaluated by:
For reference, here are some grading instructions given to evaluators:
Evaluate the product design based on the User Guide and the actual product behavior.
Target user:
target user specified and appropriate
: The target user is clearly specified, prefers typing over other modes of input, and not too general (should be narrowed to a specific user group with certain characteristics).value specified and matching
: The value offered by the product is clearly specified and matches the target user.optimized for the target user
: It feels like a fast typist can be more productive with the app, compared to an equivalent GUI app without a CLI.Value to the target user:
In addition, feature flaws reported in the PE will be considered when grading this aspect.
These will be considered feature flaws:
The feature does not solve the stated problem of the intended user i.e., the feature is 'incomplete'
Hard-to-test features
Features that don't fit well with the product
Features that are not optimized enough for fast-typists or target users