"Hacking iServ for Fun and ... whatever."
After getting past the cookie and login stuff I started to address the following objectives with a generic collection of command line scripts:
- collecting tasks and materials for offline use in student's view
- easier handling of new exercises with automated parameter selection in teacher's view
The scripts are mainly used with GNU/Linux but are also partially tested with
MacOS and also Windows Systems with a Windows Subsystem for Linux and a Debian
distribution install from the store on top of that.
A limited GUI feeling is achived through simple dialog-to-shell tools
(zenity) for GNU/Linux, Windows, and OS X (via AppleScript).
This repository is available at github and gitlab. Please prefer the issues section of this repository at gitlab for feedback.
While for any generic usage with iServ the origin of the name might be mysterious, it translates very well:
lunette: telescope, Fr.
The real origin of the name is the acronym of an acronym for a given instance
of iServ with just te appended to sound a bit french.
The use of this tool with windows is possible but limited to systems where the
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is installed and a linux distribution
Debian or Ubuntu is installed from the Store.
Besides the usual manual mode if extracting the files from the distribution archive to a place of your chosing and add this to you PATH-variable, a short version for inexperiences users is presented especially on Windows (WSL) systems.
After downloading and extracting the archive
Double click install.bat. When asked for a password, use the one given for
the WSL user. Also answer the questions about the backend system in use.
call ./install.sh in the top level directory and answer the questions.
(This installation method is not meant to be the most elegant way.)
The afforementioned way is also implemented as a script to be directly downloaded and called by issuing
bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mgoellnitz/lunette/master/blind-install.sh)"
All messages except the help lists for the commands (-h switch) are available
in a set of prepared languages. Thus you may select the language used
independently of your operatign system - perhaps according to the school
subject you are using at a given time.
The basic usage to create new exercises can be used as a guided sequence of simple dialogs to focus only on the few inputs really necessary for consistent exercised parameters and content.
Dialogs are opened wherever the system environment allows this. You may use
the -k switch for most commands to force console usage.
After the installation step, which is done on the command line, you will find a "New Exercise" icon on your desktop. With a double-click on this icon you start the creation process.
The windows subfolder of the installation contains clickable starters to
- issue a new exercise based on a prepared text file.
- switch the context of the subject you are currently working on
- setup basic values (also done during installation)
After the installation step you should close the terminal. In any new terminal
session the exercise creation process is started with the command issue.sh.
For each and every tasks iServ needs a valid session. To avoid repeated login, we maintain sessions through cookie-collection files. Additionally this tool is multi session capable, holding more than one session at a time. Timeout of sessions usually is observed to be 24h.
- Create a new Session
./createsession.sh user.name [backend]
Creates a new session for the given user.
$ ./createsession.sh rainer.hohn https://mdg-ni.de/iserv
Password for rainer.hohn@https://mdg-ni.de/iserv:
If no backend is issued, the contents
of the environent variable ISERV_BACKEND are taken into account.
export ISERV_BACKEND=https://hansa-schule.net/iserv
Session creation results in two files in the home directory of the current
user: ~/.session.user.name holding the backend to be used for the user and
~/.iserv.user.name holding the cookies for the current session of that user.
- List and Download Exercises
To list the current exercises, issue the command
exercises.sh [user.name]
Without any parameters this command would list the exercises of one random user with a currently valid session. So, if you only have one open session, this is sufficient. If you are working with multiple sessions in parallel, at least portions of the username need to be given as a parameter.
$ exercises.sh -u claire
Exercises for claire.delune@https://bornbrook.de/iserv
If the list grows too big, you might want to filter for certain elements in the title.
$ exercises.sh Maths
Exercises for claire.delune@https://bornbrook.de/iserv
1234 Maths 6a - Fractions
If you need the exercises' text and optional attachment offline stored on your local machine, you can add the download option.
$ exercises.sh -d Maths
Exercises for claire.delune@https://bornbrook.de/iserv
1234 Maths 6a - Fractions
This way, the exercises not only get listed, but for each exercise a directory gets created with a name following the title of the exercise. In this directory a textfile resembles the exercise and the attachments are downloaded next to it.
If you are only interested in tasks which didn't receive any submission by you
so far, you can filter for open exercises with the -o parameter.
$ exercises.sh -o -u claire
Exercises for claire.delune@https://bornbrook.de/iserv
It is also possible to list past exercises with an optional -p parameter.
$ exercises.sh -p -u claire
Exercises for claire.delune@https://bornbrook.de/iserv
- Show one Exercise
To show the details of one single exercise, issue the command
exercise.sh exerciseid
with an exerciseid drawn from the exercise listing command. As with other commands an optional pattern can be given to select the active iServ session to use.
exercise.sh -u claire exerciseid
To download the attachments add the download option.
exercise.sh -d exerciseid
This will result in the output of the exercise text again and the attachments of the exercise downloaded into the current working directory.
For each and every tasks iServ needs a valid session. To avoid repeated login, we maintain sessions through cookie-collection files. Additionally this tool is multi session capable, holding more than one session at a time. Timeout of sessions usually is observed to be 24h.
Of couse all commands available to students are available in this view, too.
Additionally it is possible to issue new exercises with a consistent naming scheme and reduce parameter input to avoid mistakes. Additionally parameters may be taken from a limited untis timetable integration.
Usage: $MYNAME [-c] [-t] [-f] [-b begin] [-e end] [-g group] [-p user] [-m form] [-s subject] [-a abb] [-u username] filename.txt
-c set exercise type to confirmation (default)
-t set exercise type to writing some text online
-f set exercise type uploading result files
-w ask webuntis about start of next lesson to fill in end time
-b begin start time in the format dd.mm.yyy HH:MM local time (default today 9:00)
-e end end time in the format dd.mm.yyy HH:MM local time (default yesterday in a week 20:00)
-g group exercise participants as a group identifier
-p person exercise participants as a single user identifier
-m form when dealing with single person exercises, add their form they are in here explicitly
-s subject subject given as a valid tag name (default $ISERV_TAG)
-a abb teacher identification code as abbrevation (default $SCHOOL_TOKEN)
-u pattern login of the user to read given exercise for
filename.txt filename of the basic description file for a new exercise
Especially in Teacher's View many parameters are needed but some of them will be mostly constant over a given period in time. To avoid the repeated typing, some parameters may be given as environment variables.
Those variables may be modified in your shell defaults with some convenience scripts.
- Switch Topic
Topics are used to prepare prefixes in exercise names and to select tags for new exercises.
$ switch_subject.sh -l en -k
Default School Subject when issuing Exercises:
Be aware that the given topic must be available in the tag setup your local administrator prepared for you.
- Setup basic Parameters
It is expected that the backend in use and your teacher shorthand code dont't change at all during the use of this tool. So use the setup command once to make the corresponding values your shell defaults.
lunette-setup.sh
iServ Backend: sts-lohbruegge.de
School Token: Li
This is a deliberate collection of repositories relating to iServ.