Quiz exercises: Fix an issue when automatically evaluating a live quiz

[Hialus]

Checklist

General

• I tested all changes and their related features with all corresponding user types on a test server.
• This is a small issue that I tested locally and was confirmed by another developer on a test server.
• Language: I followed the guidelines for inclusive, diversity-sensitive, and appreciative language.
• I chose a title conforming to the naming conventions for pull requests.

Server

• Important: I implemented the changes with a very good performance and prevented too many (unnecessary) and too complex database calls.
• I strictly followed the principle of data economy for all database calls.
• I strictly followed the server coding and design guidelines.
• I documented the Java code using JavaDoc style.

Motivation and Context

There was an issue on production where live quizzes were not evaluated due to a null pointer exception. This meant an instructor had to always manually evaluate it.

Description

The issue was caused by a method that set the course of the quiz exercise to null without reverting it. This meant that for after the first participation was evaluated, the course object was null which lead to a null pointer.
This PR is only a hotfix. A proper fix should include:

• Using DTOs for sending data over the WebSocket to the client
• Merging the two different evaluation methods for quizzes into one

Steps for Testing

Prerequisites:

• 1 Instructor
• 2 Students

1. Create a quiz exercise
2. Start it
3. Participate with at least 2 students
4. Wait for the quiz to end
5. Both students automatically get a result

Testserver States

Note

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Review Progress

Code Review

• Code Review 1
• Code Review 2

Manual Tests

• Test 1
• Test 2

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Enhanced handling of course data within the quiz submission process to ensure course information is preserved correctly.

• Bug Fixes

  • Improved control flow in result calculation to prevent loss of course information.

• Documentation

  • Updated comments for clarity regarding future improvements in data handling.

[coderabbitai]

Warning

There were issues while running some tools. Please review the errors and either fix the tool’s configuration or disable the tool if it’s a critical failure.

🔧 pmd (7.7.0)

src/main/java/de/tum/cit/aet/artemis/quiz/service/QuizSubmissionService.java

The following rules are missing or misspelled in your ruleset file category/vm/bestpractices.xml: BooleanInstantiation, DontImportJavaLang, DuplicateImports, EmptyFinallyBlock, EmptyIfStmt, EmptyInitializer, EmptyStatementBlock, EmptyStatementNotInLoop, EmptySwitchStatements, EmptySynchronizedBlock, EmptyTryBlock, EmptyWhileStmt, ExcessiveClassLength, ExcessiveMethodLength, ImportFromSamePackage, MissingBreakInSwitch, SimplifyBooleanAssertion. Please check your ruleset configuration.

Walkthrough

The QuizSubmissionService class has been updated to improve the handling of course data associated with quiz exercises. A new variable course has been introduced in the calculateAllResults method to retrieve and preserve course information when processing quiz results. Additionally, the control flow has been modified to ensure that the course is set back on the quizExercise object after certain operations. Comments have also been updated to reflect future intentions regarding the use of DTOs.

Changes

File	Change Summary
src/main/java/de/tum/cit/aet/artemis/quiz/service/QuizSubmissionService.java	Introduced course variable in calculateAllResults method; updated control flow to check for null course; modified comment on removeUnnecessaryObjectsBeforeSendingToClient method.

Possibly related PRs

• Quiz exercises: Enable manual quiz evaluation for course quizzes #8837: Modifies the evaluateQuizSubmission method in the Result class to accept a QuizExercise parameter, related to handling quiz exercises.
• Quiz exercises: Fix an error after using the practice mode #9571: Addresses an issue with viewing quiz results after practice mode, closely related to quiz submission handling.
• Quiz exercises: Fix an issue with the evaluation when practice mode submissions are available #9821: Improves evaluation logic for quiz submissions, ensuring only submissions before the deadline are considered, directly relating to quiz submission handling.

Suggested labels

ready for review, bugfix

Suggested reviewers

• Hialus
• BBesrour
• krusche
• az108

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🧹 Outside diff range and nitpick comments (1)

src/main/java/de/tum/cit/aet/artemis/quiz/service/QuizSubmissionService.java (1)

207-208: Track technical debt for DTO implementation

The @deprecated annotation and TODO comment appropriately flag this as technical debt. However, we should ensure this is tracked and addressed systematically.

Would you like me to create a GitHub issue to track the following tasks?

1. Create DTOs for quiz result transmission
2. Update WebSocket message handling to use DTOs
3. Remove entity state modification from transmission logic
4. Remove @deprecated methods once DTOs are implemented

📜 Review details

Configuration used: .coderabbit.yaml
Review profile: CHILL

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 4ebb290 and b3496c7.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• src/main/java/de/tum/cit/aet/artemis/quiz/service/QuizSubmissionService.java (2 hunks)

🧰 Additional context used

📓 Path-based instructions (1)

src/main/java/de/tum/cit/aet/artemis/quiz/service/QuizSubmissionService.java (1)

Pattern src/main/java/**/*.java: naming:CamelCase; principles:{single_responsibility,small_methods,no_duplication}; db:{perf_queries,datetime_not_timestamp}; rest:{stateless,singleton,delegate_logic,http_only,minimal_dtos}; dtos:{java_records,no_entities,min_data,single_resp}; di:constructor_injection; kiss:simple_code; file_handling:os_indep_paths; practices:{least_access,avoid_transactions,code_reuse,static_member_ref,prefer_primitives}; sql:{param_annotation,uppercase,avoid_subqueries};java:avoid_star_imports

🔇 Additional comments (1)

src/main/java/de/tum/cit/aet/artemis/quiz/service/QuizSubmissionService.java (1)

186-192: Verify similar patterns of entity state manipulation

Let's check if there are similar patterns of entity state manipulation during data transmission that might need the same fix.

[github-actions]

⚠️ Unable to deploy to test servers ⚠️

Testserver "artemis-test3.artemis.cit.tum.de" is already in use by PR #9968.

[HawKhiem]

Tested on TS3. Participated as Test User 1 and 2. After quiz has ended, both students got the result almost immediately (It took me roughly 3 seconds, probably for the assessment to go through)

[SimonEntholzer]

approve code hotfix

[sachmii]

Tested on TS1, quiz is automatically evaluated after aprox. 6 seconds