Lab-Bot

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A lab assistance system which will be deployed in University of Nottingham CS building A32.

Introduction

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The idea behind ‘Lab Bot’ is to provide a system by which students can request support easily and discreetly from their computer, and that directs staff to the relevant students. The system is still under developing. We aim to put the system in A32 next term.

Current Functions and Usages

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Only the web service is currently available (locally).

For Students

1. Using local account to log in the system.
2. Make a request.
3. Requests can be made when there is a lab in A32 and the student is enrolled in the corresponding module.
4. Requests can also be made if there is a lab within 10 minutes in the future or 15 minutes before, and the student is enrolled in the corresponding module.
5. If the last request is finished in 10 minutes, then the current request will be assigned to last assistant who helped you last time. If the last request is more than 10 minutes earlier, the request will not be assigned to a specific assistant.
6. Can see the position of my request.
7. Cancel the request.

For Assistants

1. Using local account to log in the system.
2. When there is a waiting request available, you can choose to help when get ready.
3. Assistants can only handle requests from the modules they enroll.
4. The assistant can only handle requests which are not specific assigned to a different assistant unless the request has been made for more than 10 minutes.
5. After deciding to help, you can see which student to help.
6. Finish the request.
7. Suspend the request.
8. Can see the requests you have handled before.
9. Can see all available suspended requests and choose one to help.

REST API Use

To use REST API from web browser, you should login first. Go to url: "http://localhost/.../Lab-Bot/site/list/" (... is the prefix address), then you can see JSON data similar to below:

You can also get a specific JSON item by indicating in the URL, for example, if you go to URL: "http://localhost/.../Lab-Bot/site/list/userType/"

Please note the file “.htaccess” is essential to REST, keep it with other PHP files in the same folder.

Future Development

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We will continue developing the web service and try to build software for A32 lab PC in the future.

How to Set up

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Because all the files are running locally, you should install and run the MySQL system in your computer before testing.

1. Import 'Lab-bot.qsl' file into your MySQL, which includes all the databases and some testing data.
2. Make sure credentials are correct in 'credentials.php', matching your own database.
3. 'studentLogin.php' is for student users to login.
4. 'adminLogin.php' is for assistant users to login.

Authors

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• Buzhen Ye
• Steven Bagley (Supervisor)

Contributing

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If you want to understand the code, develop or contribute, please check the documentations in doc folder and inform Buzhen Ye.