{"id":278,"date":"2018-09-04T21:55:15","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T21:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/segal-gould.com\/?p=278"},"modified":"2018-11-09T01:56:36","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T01:56:36","slug":"redesigned-course-catalog-project-the-server","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/segal-gould.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/04\/redesigned-course-catalog-project-the-server\/","title":{"rendered":"Redesigned Course Catalog Project: The Server"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Context<\/h2>\n

My initial goal in the summer of 2017 was for the combined features of the course catalog parser and server to come together as my senior project. I aimed to implement improved search functionality as well as a scheduling system for identifying courses which were available to fit within one’s own schedule. Because I did not ultimately make this my senior project, I only implemented a limited number of these features.<\/p>\n

Utilizing some of my experience with the Twitter JSON API<\/a>, I knew I wanted to use the Flask web development microframework<\/a> to make one of my own. JSON<\/a> is a human-and-machine-readable format and I really liked the idea of some developer one day wanting to use this service to make an application of their own. If such a day ever came, my API would be of use to them.<\/p>\n

MongoDB<\/a> had the kind of searchable database that seemed to scale and interface well with Flask, so I read enough documentation to get it working. Some queries happening in the backend for sorting results were particularly difficult to figure out.<\/p>\n

The responsive templates I set up for use with Flask were not intended to be permanent solutions. I have very limited web design experience, and making my site look better than the official one was not particularly difficult. Some day soon, I would like to give the site a more modern feel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The redesigned course catalog home page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Features<\/h2>\n

The site is live at courses.segal-gould.com<\/a>. If your browser can handle the loading time, check out all 3900 courses currently in the database at\u00a0courses.segal-gould.com\/all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Semesters<\/h4>\n

Browse the list of all semesters’ courses available in the database.<\/a> Currently the oldest semester available is Fall 2014 due to limitations in the parser<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Semesters list from Fall 2014 to Fall 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then browse all the courses taught in each department during that semester<\/a>. The names of these departments are the same as the names used to identify them in the URLs of the official course list.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Example list of departments per semester.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Departments<\/h4>\n

Another way to browse by department is to ignore each semester and view everything in the database from each department<\/a>. For instance, there are currently 116 anthropology courses<\/a> in the database across all semesters.<\/p>\n

Professors<\/h4>\n

If you are looking for a particular course instructor, you can browse the list of all professors in the database of courses<\/a>. Right now,\u00a0577 professors are in the database. Duplicates exist because often professors collaborate with each other to instruct a course, and the system treats the names of multiple professors as one single item.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The alphabetically sorted list of professors. When the official course list shows an instructor as “TBA” it is reflected here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Locations<\/h4>\n

Browse by all classrooms<\/a>. Sometimes courses meet in different locations on different days of the week for lab sessions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The locations list page. There are currently 348 classroom locations in the database.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Course Codes<\/h4>\n

The official course list utilizes a system of course codes formatted as three or four letter department identifiers followed by three or four digit course identifiers (e.g. “CMSC 360<\/a>“). You can browse all courses codes<\/a> and see which courses have used them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The list of course codes. There are currently 2,236 course codes in the database.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Distributions<\/h4>\n

Bard College requires that students complete a specific number of credits from several distributions<\/a>. In recent years, the institution modified their distribution requirements naming system from using four characters (e.g. “AART”) to using two characters (e.g. “AA”). I developed the redesigned course catalog to work with both naming systems. Often one course fulfills multiple requirements and thus you will find duplicates.<\/p>\n

You can browse by all courses which fulfill requirements within the old distributions naming system.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The list of old distributions. There are 39 results in this list but only 10 distributions were officially in use.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And you can browse using the new distributions naming system.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The list of new distributions. There are 31 results in this list but only 11 distributions are officially in use.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Users<\/h4>\n

I implemented a system for registering<\/a> accounts with safely hashed passwords using bcrypt<\/code>. You can login after registering and also add or remove courses from your list of favorites<\/a>. All users may view the list of users<\/a> as well as all their favorite courses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Example list of a user’s favorite courses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sorting<\/h4>\n

All lists of courses can be sorted alphabetically by the following criteria:<\/p>\n