ASAP is a web application that intends to assist a UCSD student burdened with course planning for a looming quarter. Simply select the courses you wish to take and denote any preferences (e.g. classes with high CAPE reviews) then sit back while the algorithm does all of the heavy lifting of finding the best possible schedule.
- James Li - @JamesOnEarth - Senior System Analyst
- Yiyan Chen - @YiyanChen - Algorithm Specialist
- Levente Horvath - @lhorvath13 - Project Manager
- Nathan Krause - @N-T-K - Software Architect
- Dan Liu - @DanchengLiu - Business Analyst
- Brian Lu - @bal031 - Software Development Lead
- William Simpson - @williamcsimpson - Database Specialist
- Dat Ta - @dqta21 - Algorithm Specialist
- Huan Mai - @FriendlyHM - Quality Assurance
- Hung Tong - @hungntong - User Interface Specialist
- Navigate to asap.ucsd.edu
- Select the quarter you wish to plan for and add the class to the course list. Be sure to note if you must have it in the schedule.
- Click done and choose your preferences for the algorithm to prioritize.
- Click generate and then view the returned schedule below. It's that easy!
Note: Desktops are the intended endpoint; however, a user may get away with using a mobile device, but screen size may be an issue as this platform is not officially supported.
Desktop Browsers:
- Firefox Version 77.x.x
- Chrome Version 83.0.xxx.xx
- Safari Version 13.x.x
- Microsoft Edge 44.xxxxx.xxx.x
- Generating a schedule for multiple classes with a lot of open sections will cause the system to return a valid schedule very slowly.
- UCSD's Schedule of Classes database may show open seats when WebReg reports a full section. This is a university problem.
- Classes sometimes do not have meeting times scheduled or they're denoted as "TBA". Thus a schedule cannot be generated where those are included.
- The user is able to add classes into the class list that are not offered for the currently selected term. However, the schedule will not return a valid schedule if the class doesn't exist for that quarter which is expected bahavior.
- Sections with a 3 instruction types: LE, DI and LA may not generate properly or be displayed on the calendar.
Once the user selects their classes and clicks generate, the list is sent to the server where all of the processing will occur. The server queries the Schedule of Classes Database, gets the most recent class times and current enrollment, then passes it over to the algorithm where the section selection takes place.
The algorithm grabs information of each section that is offered for the courses selected by the user. It then iterates over all combinations of sections of must-take user courses. If a must-take course cannot be accommodated, the schedule with those sections is marked as invalid and tossed away. Once a valid schedule of must-take sections is found, the algorithm proceeds to place sections want-to-take user courses into the existing must-take schedule. If a want-to-take course cannot be accommodated, the schedule remains valid. The valid schedule with the most want-to-takes fitted is returned. If there are multiple valid schedules with the most want-to-takes, each schedule is scored based on selected preferences, and the one with the highest score is returned.
Note: This application was initially developed and deployed on a CentOS 8 virtual machine. Keys and other authentication items need for API and database access are not included in the repository.
The server side component of this application was developed using Python 3.6.8
$ python3 --version
Any version of Python 3.x.x will most likey work. There are a few external libraries utilized througout this build:
Installation should be done in a virtual environment or with a package manager such as pip3:
$ pip3 install <package-name>
In order to start the server open port 80 on the OS firewall. For CentOS 8
$ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=http
Now to start the program execute order 66
$ sudo python3 SocketServer.py
To run it in the background either make it a systemd service or use the quick and dirty option:
$ screen sudo python3 SocketServer.py
The project uses a MySQL database to store CAPE information. To create the database, use the create_asap_database.sql file. More detailed instructions are in the head of create_asap_database.sql. To interface with the database, create a user that has READ, WRITE, and DELETE privileges for all tables in the asap_database on localhost. In Database.py change the USER constant to the user’s name, and change the PASSWORD field to the user’s password. To use Database.py, create a connection to the database by using get_database(). Use this for the database field in all other methods in Database.py. Once you have finished with the connection, close it usingclose_database(). All other methods in Database.py are used for inserting, querying, and deleting data from the database.
No installation is required, the libraries can be found under Frontend/. The npm package manager was used during development
- uikit v3
- FullCalendar.io v4
- jQuery
- tui datepicker
- socket.io