ECE 6102: Dependable Distributed Systems

Programming Assignment 1

Part 1: Due date: Feb. 1, 2018, 11:55 PM

This part is worth 2 points out of 10 total points for the assignment.

First, sign up for a 1-year free trial on Google Cloud Platform (see https://cloud.google.com/free for details).

Next, follow the step-by-step tutorial instructions to install and run the Python Guestbook application from the Google AppEngine documentation site:

https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/python/getting-started/creating-guestbook

From this page, go through the step-by-step instructions to get the app running and deployed in the cloud. Customize your project by choosing a default guestbook name that is based on your name and changing the number of messages that are displayed on the screen.

As part of the material to be turned in, you should submit the appspot.com URL for your Guestbook project. Make sure to include your name in the project ID so the TA knows it is your project.

N.B. As I will discuss in class, it is best to get projects running and debugged on your local machine (http://localhost:8080) first before you deploy them to AppEngine. Also, note that it might take at least 10 minutes for the indexes to be built in AppEngine after your app is deployed before it starts working. Error messages related to indexes are probably an indication that the indexes are still being built, as long as your project was working fine locally.

Part 2: Due date: Feb. 13 Feb. 15, 2018, 11:55 PM

This part is worth 8 points out of 10 total points for the assignment. Partially working solutions will be eligible for partial credit so turn in whatever you have working by the due date!

In this part, you will build an app to maintain the inventory for a wine shop. The app will store information such as type (red, white, rosé, or sparkling), country and region of origin, etc., about the wines available in the store. The app should allow new wines to be entered under their proper type and should have browsing and search features. An example app with the required functionality for this assignment can be accessed at:

https://wine-inventory-db.appspot.com

Your design does not have to mirror this example exactly but it should include all of the relevant features described below. Feel free to play with the example application to see how it works. However, please add only 1-2 wines to the inventory to avoid causing the project to use too much storage.

Step 1:

The first step is simply to take the Guestbook project, rename it, and start to modify it for wines. If you change "Guestbook name:" to "Type", you will be able to define new types and switch among the types you have defined. If you change "Sign Guestbook" to "Enter wine info", you will be able to enter information about new wines and see the list of wines entered so far within each type you have defined.

In this step, it would also be good to change the HTML form to enter different pieces of information about a wine in separate boxes. If you are not familiar with HTML forms syntax and operation, consult one of the many Web tutorials on HTML forms. Mandatory information to include, each as its own field, is:

country of origin
region
variety (this is typically the grape used to produce the wine such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay, etc., or "blend" if the wine uses a mixture of grapes)
winery name
year

The type is defined by the data store the wine is stored in and so that information is implicit and does not have to be stored within the individual data item. The search feature should allow someone to search for wines within one type based on any combination of the above fields excluding year.

Step 2:

In this step, you will modify the application to mimic the example one listed above. This will require request handlers for all of the various pages that are part of the application. Most of the functionality required for the full application can be found somewhere within the guestbook app. Much of this step consists of modifiying parts of the guestbook code and moving the modified code into the appropriate request handlers for the wine inventory app.

Some things to keep in mind when carrying out this step:

Note that the different "Browse" links all go to the same URL (.../display) but with the type name passed as a parameter to the display request handler. For full credit, you should implement this feature in this way, i.e. you should not have separate URLs and separate handlers for each type. This makes the app more extensible as additional types are added. (To be fully extensible, the "Browse" links themselves would be created dynamically, one for each type that has been defined. You do *not* have to implement that, however. It is OK to have a fixed number of types (the 4 listed above at least) and have hard-coded "Browse" links for those types.)
The search feature searches for part or all of a field's data within all of the wines in the specified type. For full credit, you should implement this feature in this way, i.e. if you enter "inot" in the "Variety" search box under the white wine type, you should retrieve all "Pinot Grigio" and "Pinot Gris" varieties.

To verify that your inventory app is working, enter exactly 5 wines in the 4 different types and thoroughly test all of the app functions. Your implementation should be capable of displaying and searching at least up to 50 wines per type.

Additional Requirements:

Here are some other miscellaneous requirements for the assignment.

Disclaimer: I believe all of these features are included in the example project linked to above, but it has not been thoroughly tested against this list. Do not rely on the functionality of the example when turning in your project. Make sure to carefully go through the below list to ensure that your project complies with all requirements.

Error handling for inputs: Check for empty inputs when entering a wine, searching, or setting a category name and display an appropriate error message when an input field is left empty.
Case sensitivity: Type names and search strings should not be case sensitive. So, if you enter "Red" or "red" as the type, these should direct to the same set of wines in the data store. Similarly, "PINOT" or "pinot" should match "Pinot Grigio" in the variety search feature.
Returning to main page: There should be a simple way for users to return to the main page of your repository (the one titled "Doug Blough's Wine Inventory App" in the Python example application) without having to use the back button. This can be easily handled by including a clickable link that takes the browser back to the main page on every other page of the app.
Failed searches: If a search string is entered that does not match any wines in the data store entries, an appropriate message should be displayed (instead of just redisplaying the search page without any results).
New wine categories: The "enter new wine" function should allow users to define their own categories, beyond the four required ones, if they wish. Your app does not need to support the browse function for any categories other than the required four. However, the search function should allow users to enter any category name and search for wines in newly defined categories. Note that the example app supports this.

Turn-in:

On T-square, turn in the following items:

The URL for your AppEngine wine inventory app in the text box.
An archive of your wine inventory project directories with all of your code, configuration files, etc. (zip or tar.gz formats accepted)
An additional submission of just the python source file/s (by default the file named guestbook.py).

An example submission would look like:

david-cabinian.appspot.com (in the text box)

appengine-guestbook-python.zip (in submission attachments)

guestbook.py (in submission attachments)

Again, make sure to include your name as part of the project ID that you turn in so the TA knows the project is yours.