Terminal-Based Question Generator

Creates a barebones OPB markdown question via a series of tui prompts.

Getting started

Install the package via pip:

pip install "problem_bank_scripts[tui]"

Or, install the latest development version from the repository:

pip install "problem_bank_scripts[tui] @ git+https://github.com/open-resources/problem_bank_scripts"

Create a .env file in the directory you will be running the TUI.

In it, fill in the required variables below, and any optional variables you wish to use.

Variable	Description	Required?
`GITHUB_USERNAME`	Your Username On GitHub	Yes
`WRITE_PATH`	The absolute path to the question bank the question should be created in when using the `--create-pr` option, e.g., `/home/<your-name>/instructor_stats_bank/source/unsorted`	Yes
`PL_QUESTION_PATH`	The absolute path to your local prairielearn course, e.g., `/home/<your-name>/pl-opb-ind100/questions`	Yes
`MY_NAME`	Your Name	Yes
`MY_INITIALS`	Your Initials	Yes
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	Allows using the OpenAI API	If `--gpt` is used
`TEXTBOOK`	The textbook you’re creating the question from, e.g., `openstax-stats-2e`	No

Usage

Create a question via:

pbs-cli create-question
# OR
python -m problem_bank_scripts.tui

For more information run pbs-cli create-question --help

To see all available commands, run pbs-cli --help.

Variables

To designate certain values as variables, wrap it in curly braces, and prefix it with the variable name you want as follows:

{<variablename>:<original value>}

Variable Example

To make 12.6 a variable in the sentence 12.6% are age 65 and over., you would write it as:

{percent_senior:12.6}% are age 65 and over.

So for the following input in the TUI:

would result in the following being generated in the generate function:

generate: |
    ...

    percent_senior = round(random.uniform(11.3, 13.9), 1)  # 12.6

    data2['params']['percent_senior'] = percent_senior

    ...

and the following in the markdown file generated:

# {{ params.title }}

{{ params.percent_senior }}% are age 65 and over.

...

For string variables, make sure add quotes around the value:

{percent_senior:"12.6"}% are age 65 and over.

Terminal commands

The following commands can be used in the terminal:

Command	Description
`Ctrl + C`	Exit the program
`Ctrl + D`	Exit the program (same as `Ctrl + C`, but can be used if `Ctrl + C` is not working)
`Ctrl + U`	Clears the line for the input you are in.

Saving results

In case you run into an issue where either you cancel the program before it terminates or it crashes due to an exception being thrown, the data you have already inputted will be saved in a file called saved.json.

You will be given the option to use this file the next time you run pbs-cli create-question, so that you do not need to re-enter all the data again.

Warning

saved.json is overwritten each time you run the program. If you want to keep the file for future use, you should create a copy of it.

You can use the --saved-json argument to specify a different file to read from and write to:

pbs-cli create-question --saved-json <path_to_file>

Creating a PR

To automatically have your generated Markdown question committed to Github with a draft PR created for it, add the --create-pr flag to the command. Make sure WRITE_PATH in your .env file is set correctly.

gh must be installed and authenticated for this to work.

To install, follow the instructions at on Github.
To authenticate, run gh auth login, as explained in the Github CLI documentation.

GPT

Warning

OpenStax forbids using their material in LLMs without permission, so do not use the --gpt flag with OpenStax textbooks.

To allow use of GPT add the --gpt flag to the command:

pbs-cli create-question --gpt

This allows for GPT use in generating multiple-choice options and number-input solutions.