Update Steps

Base Class

All update steps must inherit from/implement the following base class (with some repeated from FlowStep)

class flow.flow_steps.FlowUpdateStep[RecordType]

A flow step to update the overall list of records.

Parent Class: FlowStep

abstract class property description: str

A high-level description of the step

abstract class property config_types: list[tuple[str, Type[ValidConfigTypes], str]]

The types of the configurations for the step. Each tuple in the list should include the name, type, and description of a configuration (respectively). See FlowStep

abstractmethod validate() → None

This function should inspect the object’s configs attribute, and perform any static validation possible.

abstractmethod update_records(records: list[tuple[RecordType, allocate_lock]], logger: Callable[[str], None], get_metadata: Callable[[str], Any], set_metadata: Callable[[str, Any], None], debug: bool = False) → None

Update our records with any new information.

Parameters:

  • records (list[tuple[RecordType, Lock]]) – The list of records to manipulate

  • logger (Callable[[str], None]) – A function to log any notable events

  • get_metadata (Callable[[str], Any],) – A function to retrieve global metadata previously set in the flow

  • set_metadata (Callable[[str, Any], None]) – A function to set global metadata within the flow

  • debug (bool, optional) – Whether we are in “debug” mode. In debug mode, no external state should be modified, and we are free to inject dummy information. Defaults to False.

Implementations

class canvas_steps.enrollment.UpdateEnrollment

An update step that updates enrollment based on Canvas.

This step removes any student who is marked as enrolled, but no longer on Canvas. Similarly, the flow re-enrolls any record that shows the student as unenrolled, but the student is present on Canvas.

Supported record types: StudentRecord

Sets metadata: unenrolled_netids

class canvas_steps.github_usernames.GitHubUsernames

An update step for getting student’s GitHub usernames from Canvas.

This step checks a Canvas quiz’s responses, specifically one with a “Fill in the Blank” question. It gets the responses, and adds them to the record as their username. It additionally checks and updates the record with whether the GitHub username is valid (i.e. it actually corresponds to a GitHub profile).

Supported record types: StudentRecord

configs.quiz_id: int

The ID of the Canvas quiz to check. The can be taken from the URL; going to the quiz, the URL should be of the form .../quizzes/<quiz_id>

configs.question_id: int

The ID of the “Fill in the Blank” question in the Canvas quiz to get responses from. This is slightly trickier to obtain:

  • One could determine it from the browser by inspecting the page source; see here

  • One could use the API to figure out the possible IDs (and corresponding names) of questions for a given quiz

To aid with this, GitHubUsernames includes the possible questions and their IDs in the exception thrown by an invalid question ID in validate. This allows users to determine the question ID by initially guessing an incorrect ID, then inspecting the resulting exception message during validation to determine the correct ID.

validate() → None

Validate the configurations for the step.

Specifically, we make sure that a quiz with the given ID exists in the Canvas course, and that it contains a question with the given ID that is a ‘Fill in the Blank’ question

class github_steps.mark_accepted.MarkAccepted

An update step to mark students who have accepted a GitHub invite.

This step checks the current membership of the GitHub organization, and marks students with usernames in the organization membership as having accepted their invitation.

Supported record types: StudentRecord

configs.staff_team: str

The name of the staff team in the GitHub organization (usually staff). Members in this team are not considered students for the purpose of checking whether a student is in the organization.

validate() → None

Validate the configurations for the step.

Specifically, we make sure that the GitHub organization contains a team with the specified name

class utils.basic_steps.BasicUpdateStep

A basic flow update step to increment records.

Supported record types: int

configs.increment: int

The amount to increment records by

validate() → None

Validate the configurations for the step.

Specifically, we make sure that the supplied increment amount is positive