COMP1721 Coursework 2

• Using Gradle
• Tests & Style Checking
• Baccarat Application
• Cleaning Up
• Submitting

Using Gradle

Everything you need to do in this assignment, aside from editing code, is handled by the Gradle build system. You can run Gradle from the command line, or use it from within VS Code or IntelliJ IDE if you prefer (see below).

You do not need to install Gradle yourself, as we've included a 'Gradle wrapper' that will download a compatible version of the tool, along with various library dependencies, if required. This will be very slow the first time that it runs!

You should run Gradle commands in the cwk2 directory. On Linux and macOS, use ./gradlew. In a Windows command shell (cmd.exe), use gradlew. In Windows Powershell, use .\gradlew.bat. The commands below assume the use of Linux, macOS or WSL2.

NOTE: if your PC is running anti-virus software, you should add an exclusion for the cwk2 directory to avoid potential problems with Gradle.

If Using Visual Studio Code

You can simplify the use of Gradle by installing the Gradle Tasks extension. This will add a Gradle button to the side bar. Clicking on this will active a panel in which you can see and run the Gradle tasks for the various projects.

If Using IntelliJ IDEA

Please use the most recent version of the IntelliJ, on your own PC. We do not support the use of older versions for the coursework, and may not be able to help you if you encounter problems.

Use the New Project button to import cwk2 as the project directory. After the project has been imported, you should be able to use the Gradle button on the right-hand edge of the IntelliJ window to active the Gradle tool window. From here you can access a hierarchical list of all the supported Gradle tasks. The main list entries you will need to use for the coursework are

Tasks/verification/test
Tasks/verification/style
Tasks/application/run
Tasks/application/interact

Double-click on a list entry to run it for the first time. After you've done this, IntelliJ will create a 'run configuration' for it, allowing you to rerun it in future in a more convenient way. You can see the available run configurations in a drop-down box at the top of the IDE window. Just select your required configuration, then click on the Run button (the green triangle) to run it.

Tests and Style Checking

To run all the unit tests, recompiling code where necessary, do

./gradlew test

For this to work, you will need to ensure that all tested methods of the three classes exist and can be called. This means you will need to implement at least some of them as stubs, following the approach used in Coursework 1.

Test names and status (PASSED or FAILED) are listed in the terminal. A test report is also generated in HTML, containing detailed information about the tests and any failures that have occurred. You can access this by pointing your browser at build/reports/tests/test/index.html. We suggest you keep this page open in a browser tab, refreshing it as necessary, so that you always have full information available on test results.

Note that Gradle won't normally rerun tests if they have all passed, unless you've changed something in your code. You can force it to recompile everything and rerun the tests using

./gradlew test --rerun-tasks

To check coding style for the classes, do

./gradlew style

If there are any style violations, you'll see a count reported in the terminal window. A full report on the violations can be viewed by pointing your browser at build/reports/checkstyle/main.html.

Treat this as a rough guide. Note that style checking is not exhaustive, and we may still penalise you on style grounds even if no violations are reported here. As with unit tests, Gradle normally won't rerun the style check unless you change something in your code.

Baccarat Application

You can run the Basic solution, or the non-interactive mode of the Full solution, with

./gradlew run

For the 'interactive mode' of the Full solution, you can provide the required -i command line argument to the program like this:

./gradlew interact

You can create a redistributable version of the application with

./gradlew distZip

This creates a Zip archive comp1721_cwk2.zip, in build/distributions. This Zip archive contains the compiled code for all the classes, bundled into a JAR file, plus a shell script and batch file that can be used to run the application on Linux, macOS or Windows.

Note: this is NOT the file that needs to be submitted to Minerva!

Cleaning Up

To remove all files generated by the build process, use

./gradlew clean

Submitting

Your coursework solution must be submitted to Minerva as a single Zip archive, containing all source code but omitting any compiler output or other build artifacts. A suitable Zip archive can be generated like this:

./gradlew submission

If you are using IntelliJ, you will be able to generate the Zip archive by double-clicking on Tasks/submission/submission in the Gradle tool window.

This will produce a Zip archive named cwk2.zip, containing everything that you need to submit. You must then submit this manually to Minerva, using the link provided in the Submit My Work area.