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# YKPS CCA Selection System (WIP)
[](https://ci.codeberg.org/repos/13763)
[](https://github.com/runxiyu/cca/actions/workflows/go.yml)
**Note:** CI is actually currently disabled. I use pre-commit hooks to run all
tests before committing.
This is my internal assessment for the IB Diploma Programme's Computer Science
(Higher Level) course. The `iadocs` directory contains documentation required
by the IB, while the `docs` directory contains the documentation that I
actually plan to distribute for the production system.
## Configuring, building and running
1. Copy `docs/cca.scfg.example` to `cca.scfg` and edit it to taste. The
configuration file is well-documented. You probably need to add a client
secret, change some paths, and change some listening options.
2. `make`
3. `./cca`
## Problems with the existing system
There are various issues with Schoolsbuddy, the current system our school uses
for CCA registrations:
* There are various race conditions and locking issues that occur when too many
students use the system at the same time. Course member caps are enforced by
kicking random users out of the system while over-filling some courses,
instead of having the course choice fail gracefully. The number of remaining
seats in each course is also not updated live.
* If a lot of people are trying to load the Schoolsbuddy page, it takes ages.
* The web interface is extremely bloated and contains more than 10 megabytes of
unnecessary JavaScript.
* The main interface displays three CCA periods, and inside each CCA period you
can choose between Monsday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday. That's a bit
unintuitive.
* It seems to only support authentication by PowerSchool single sign-on, which
is problematic because PowerSchool only supports a limited number of students
logging on at the same time.
* The selection system does not enforce CCA hours requirements, and the CCA
office's staff must manually verify that students have completed CCA choices
to the year group's requirements, by literally printing out the spreadsheet
to paper and reading through them.
* The school has to pay Schoolsbuddy a subscription fee, while something as
simple as CCA selection could be easily accomplished on cheap hardware and
minimal software.
## Key questions
* How does the CCA staff enter available courses, teacher information, member
caps, and timing information into the system? Would it be okay if I just
accept a CSV spreadsheet?
Apparently they use the Schoolsbuddy web page to do so. I'd add a CSV upload
as that would be more convenient for most purposes.
* How do they get student choices out of the system and into PowerSchool?
It looks like they export an Excel sheet. See `docs/fields.txt`.
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