Simplify and Enhance MS Design

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I may be making assumptions from circumstantial evidence, so disregard if I am 
off base.

Simplify the MS design and operation as follows:

1.  Capture simple transactions in the database.  Rather than update state 
(such as accumulating scores) as you go, just capture the "raw" events as they 
come in as individual database records.  If something goes wrong, you will have 
a better chance of being able to correct it or reconstruct it from the raw 
events.

2.  Use SQL queries against the database of raw events to total up scores, 
etc., compute the current state of the competition on-the-fly, and display the 
results as web pages.

3.  Use a Python-based framework such as Django.  Using Python would have made 
it easier for more people to help, and using Django would provide much of the 
infrastructure needed to make a REST-style, MySQL-backed, web application.

Enhance as follows:

4.  I thought the leader board was great.  Make it more readable, and possibly 
more entertaining.  It is a focal point of the competition.

5.  Make a mobile version of the leader board, and maybe an individual team 
status board, that a team can access from their mobile device.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by @ellerychan on 3 Mar 2015 at 4:15

[jawaad-ahmad]

For Part 3 only:

I don’t remember the architecture of the current Master Server, but I wonder if we should break it down into the following this time around:

• Back-end – Django REST Framework application responsible for handling REST requests and responses (BRATA, RPi), database access.
• Front-end – Web-based management GUI, maybe written in AngularJS/Backbone. * Add users * Register teams * Monitor health and status * Provide convenience views and back doors to address limitations encountered last year
• Scoreboard – Separate Web-based application that can run on a dedicated RPi if desired, and can evolve as desired with as many bells and whistles as we want.
• Mobile front-ends – Another version of the scoreboard as you mentioned in the issue if we have time.

Not all of these have to be implemented to get the job done, but we can still lay out the plan up-front.

One Django project

• one app for maintenance GUI (add users, register teams)
• one app for health/status
• one app for back-end REST calls
• one app for leader board, optional mobile front-end

move existing code to archive subfolder and create new area in same repository.

[DragonmasterJ]

For part 4: An idea we had was to make the 'phone leaderboard' just have the team status. This will give all the teams the status they would need without requesting an admin to get it manually from the master server (if an app crashes, they can check # of retries to know if data was sent to the server)

[ellerychan]

Continuing this issue as brata-hsdc/brata.masterserver#4.

[jawaad-ahmad]

Created:

• brata-hsdc/brata.masterserver#5 for Part 1
• brata-hsdc/brata.masterserver#6 for Part 2
• brata-hsdc/brata.masterserver#7 for Part 4
• brata-hsdc/brata.masterserver#8 for Part 5

Part 3 will continue on brata-hsdc/brata.masterserver#4.