ReadingBat Core

ReadingBat Core is a Kotlin-based web application framework for creating interactive programming challenges, powering the ReadingBat platform. It provides a powerful DSL for defining challenges in Java, Python, and Kotlin, a Ktor-based web server, and real-time feedback via WebSockets.

Key Features

• Content DSL -- Define programming challenges using an expressive Kotlin DSL
• Multi-language support -- Java, Python, and Kotlin challenges in a single application
• Local and remote content -- Load challenges from the local filesystem or GitHub repositories
• Real-time feedback -- WebSocket-powered answer checking and progress tracking
• Class management -- Teachers can create classes and monitor student progress
• Flexible configuration -- HOCON properties with environment variable overrides

Quick Start

Define your content using the readingBatContent builder:

val basicContent =
  readingBatContent {
    repo = FileSystemSource("./")

    java {
      group("Warmup-1") {
        packageName = "warmup1"
        description = "Simple warmup problems to get started"
        includeFiles = "*.java"
      }
    }
  }

This creates a content definition that:

1. Loads Java source files from the local filesystem
2. Organizes them into a group called "Warmup-1"
3. Auto-discovers all .java files in the warmup1 package

DSL Hierarchy

The content DSL follows a hierarchical structure:

graph TD
    A[ReadingBatContent] --> B[LanguageGroup - Java]
    A --> C[LanguageGroup - Python]
    A --> D[LanguageGroup - Kotlin]
    B --> E[ChallengeGroup]
    B --> F[ChallengeGroup]
    C --> G[ChallengeGroup]
    E --> H[Challenge]
    E --> I[Challenge]
    F --> J[Challenge]
    G --> K[Challenge]

ReadingBatContent LanguageGroup ChallengeGroup Challenge

Multi-Language Example

ReadingBat supports challenges in all three languages within a single content definition:

val multiLanguageContent =
  readingBatContent {
    repo = FileSystemSource("./")

    java {
      srcPath = "src/main/java"
      group("Warmup-1") {
        packageName = "warmup1"
        description = "Simple Java warmup problems"
        includeFiles = "*.java"
      }
      group("String-1") {
        packageName = "string1"
        description = "Basic string problems"
        includeFiles = "*.java"
      }
    }

    python {
      srcPath = "python"
      group("Warmup-1") {
        packageName = "warmup1"
        description = "Simple Python warmup problems"
        includeFilesWithType = "*.py" returns BooleanType
      }
    }

    kotlin {
      srcPath = "src/main/kotlin"
      group("Warmup-1") {
        packageName = "warmup1"
        description = "Simple Kotlin warmup problems"
        includeFilesWithType = "*.kt" returns StringType
      }
    }
  }

Architecture Overview

API Reference

Full API documentation (KDocs) is available at KDocs.

Next Steps