Desktop GUI Workspace and Autograder with Octave

A modified version of the PraireLearn Desktop GUI Workspace

workspace-image

Image name: margo5/octave-workspace

This image is using Ubuntu 20.04 and provides a desktop environment that users can access from a web browser. There are a few components that are running to get this working:

• XVFB (Creates a headless X11 server)
• x11vnc (Provides the VNC server)
• Websockify (Provides a TCP VNC -> Websocket layer)
• Custom Node server (Wraps the VNC stuff and serves the client pages)

Building

docker build . -t "margo5/octave-workspace"

Workspace Options

"workspaceOptions": {
    "image": "margo5/octave-workspace",
    "port": 8080,
    "home": "/home/prairielearner"
    ...
}

grader-image

Image name: margo5/octave-grader

Docker image for autograding student code written with GNU Octave.

Building

docker build . -t "margo5/octave-grader"

External Grading Options

"externalGradingOptions": {
    "enabled": true,
    "image": "margo5/octave-grader",
    "serverFilesCourse": ["octave-grader/"],
    "entrypoint": "/grade/serverFilesCourse/octave-grader/run.sh"
}

Acknowledgements

On the client side, noVNC is used to provide the VNC connection. Specifically, their noVNC library API and some of their icon assets are used here. The API and assets are licensed under the MPL 2.0 and CC BY-SA 3.0 licenses, respectively.

The default desktop wallpaper is freely distributed through the permissive Unsplash license. Original image by James Baltz.