trigger-happy/cerberus

The CompSAt /IT contest system

Cerberus

Cerberus is a networked quiz-bee system in Qt/C++.

The project is under the supervision of the Computer Society of Ateneo.

Build Requirements

The following is needed to build Cerberus:

• Qt Framework 4.6 - For some reason the system is unstable in Qt 4.7 due to some networking issues, we're currently investigating this.
• C++ Compiler - Qt SDK for Windows already provides this.

Components

The system is split into multiple specialized programs in spirit of the UNIX development philosophy.

Main Components:

• server: The main daemon of the system.
• client: Client program to be installed in each computer of the contestant.
• projector: Displays contest status, and other information. Used for projectors in the contest.
• admin: Administrator interaface to the server.

Utilities:

• question_editor
• config_editor
• registration_app
• user_manager

cerberus's Issues

Server sends incorrect contest time to the projector

Server: score view does not sort properly

It sorts the scores by alphabet, not by value

Projector timer doesn't work properly

1.) start up the server and then the projector
2.) go to projector control tab and click show time left
3.) go to contest control tab, select round 1 and click apply
4.) click start and watch the timer not work properly

Doing step 2 is enough to show how the timer is not set properly at the start. Step 3 is not suppose to be done at all, and should not be done just to set the projector's time during an actual contest. Step 4 pretty much shows that something is not wrong with projector's internal timer.

Server crashes when the last user submits

Implement Auto-update

Basically, the contestant clients and whatsnot should be able to detect whether it's outdated and automatically download new versions from the server.

Server crashes when the projector is connected and the contest state is changed

Rewrite the networking system

Current setup uses a lot of duplicate code. This should be reworked to reduce the case of such. There's also the need to ensure that cases like the projector issue in /IT doesn't happen again.

Server UI numeric stepper limit should be increased

Contestant error dialog

The title of the error dialog (when it gets disconnected) is titled "success," clearly this should not be the case when an error occurs.

Server crashes when a user logs in again after submission

1.) start the server
2.) start the contestant and log in as an existing user
3.) start the contest and have the contestant answer the questions
4.) submit and let the client close
5.) start up the client again and login as the same user
6.) server crashes

Deployment system should follow the "final" filesystem layout

The deployment system at the moment makes use of the build folder for finding the binaries. It should instead find the binaries and resource directory in the same directory as deployer executable.

Fix the sorting issue for the score display in round 3/4

It should be sorted by score, but it ended up getting sorted by time

Contestant should avoid closing automatically at the end

Instead of the old idea of automatically closing the contestant, it would be better to just show a screen indicating that they are done and that they may close the application manually.

Contestant authorization failure dialog shows success

Document Javascript Events for Projector Themes

Projector Themes can attach event handlers to manually update the time left, removing the need for whole-page refreshes and reducing flickering.

Projector crashes on Exit when in Author Mode

Whenever the projector enters author mode in windows, the "crash dialog" appears everytime it exits.

Add README/usage instructions

the project lacks documentation on how it's to be used and what each component does.

Make the contest format /IT-agnostic

So far, we've hard-coded the contest type to the round numbers. We'll need to remove that structural restriction.

Server: disconnecting users shouldn't remove their entry in the scoreboard

Remove only if the user disconnects without submitting anything.

Server must deal with duplicate users properly

The server must disconnect the earlier connection.

Untitled

Server: round 2 - 4, only 1 user per team should be able to connect

Right now server permits multiple users from the same team

Migrate all timers to use ContestTimer

Right now, the timing of the system is in a bit of a mess. Some use their own timers with 1 sec precision which may not be enough for some cases. The ContestTimer class has been created to address this issue but it was introduced late in the development and hasn't been adopted throughout the system.

Enforce branding

so far, we only have the logo.. but we have to "enforce" that this is "ours" by adding the Cerberus and Compsat logo, and Contributor's notice etc.

Implement score display in projector's author mode

So far, the projector's author mode ignores score data and doesn't display them.

Improve Question editor

Right now, the layout of the question editor is a bit hack-ish in implementing the "multiple possible answers" in the identification part.

Also, the UI of the thing merits some usability considerations...

Improve timing synchronization and precision and precision

Make the timing more precise (by deciseconds or centiseconds) and synchronized (implement IEEE 1588-2008).

Server should not count down the contest time in round 3 and 4

Contestant time is different from the server time (by a wide margin)