USub Applet Sample Problem

Sample Problem with uSub.swf embedded

This sample problem shows how to use this versatile applet.

A standard WeBWorK PG file with an embedded applet has six sections:

1. A tagging and description section, that describes the problem for future users and authors,
2. An initialization section, that loads required macros for the problem,
3. A problem set-up section that sets variables specific to the problem,
4. An Applet link section that inserts the applet and configures it, (this section is not present in WeBWorK problems without an embedded applet)
5. A text section, that gives the text that is shown to the student, and
6. An answer and solution section, that specifies how the answer(s) to the problem is(are) marked for correctness, and gives a solution that may be shown to the student after the problem set is complete.

The sample file attached to this page shows this; below the file is shown to the left, with a second column on its right that explains the different parts of the problem that are indicated above. A screenshot of the applet embedded in this WeBWorK problem is shown below:

Other applet sample problems: GraphLimit Flash Applet Sample Problem
GraphLimit Flash Applet Sample Problem 2
Derivative Graph Matching Flash Applet Sample Problem

PG problem file	Explanation
##DESCRIPTION ## Integration with substitution ##ENDDESCRIPTION ##KEYWORDS('integral', 'substitution') ## DBsubject('Calculus') ## DBchapter('Integration') ## DBsection('Integration with substitution') ## Date('6/9/2011') ## Author('Barbara Margolius') ## Institution('Cleveland State University') ## TitleText1('') ## EditionText1('2011') ## AuthorText1('') ## Section1('') ## Problem1('') ######################################################################## # This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation # under the grant DUE-0941388. ########################################################################	This is the tagging and description section of the problem. Note that any line that begins with a "#" character is a comment for other authors who read the problem, and is not interpreted by WeBWorK. The description is provided to give a quick summary of the problem so that someone reading it later knows what it does without having to read through all of the problem code. All of the tagging information exists to allow the problem to be easily indexed. Because this is a sample problem there isn't a textbook per se, and we've used some default tagging values. There is an on-line list of current chapter and section names and a similar list of keywords. The list of keywords should be comma separated and quoted (e.g., KEYWORDS('calculus','derivatives')).
DOCUMENT(); # This should be the first executable line in the problem. loadMacros( "PGbasicmacros.pl", "extraAnswerEvaluators.pl", "AppletObjects.pl", );	This is the initialization section of the problem. The first executed line of the problem must be the DOCUMENT(); command. Note that every command must end with a semicolon. The loadMacros command loads information that works behind the scenes. For our purposes we can usually just load the macros shown here and not worry about things further.
# Set up problem TEXT(beginproblem()); $showPartialCorrectAnswers = 1; Context("Numeric"); Context()->variables->add(u=>"Real"); $b = random(1,2,1); $ubig = Compute("$b+$b^2")+random(1,2,1); $vbig = Compute("2+2*($b+$b^2)"); $vsmall = -$vbig; $anslist = List(Compute("cos(u)"),Compute("0"),Compute("$b+$b^2"),Compute("sin($b+$b^2)"));	This is the problem set-up section of the problem. The uSub.swf applet has the student enter a four part solution: the integrand after the u-substitution, the lower limit of integration in terms of u, the upper limit of integration in terms of u, and the value of the integral. The correct answer must be entered in list format in the pg file. That is what the code $anslist = List(Compute("cos(u)"),Compute("0"),Compute("$b+$b^2"),Compute("sin($b+$b^2)")); does. The line Context()->variables->add(u=>"Real"); adds the variable u to the context. $vbig and $vsmall are the vertical axes graph window settings. These can be different for the two graphs, but this is generally not a good idea as the purpose of the applet is to show the student that after a u-substitution, the are of the integrand will be the same even though the shape of the graph may change. Functions must be carefully chosen to convey this message and so that the two graph windows can be the same size. $ubig is the maximum value of the horizontal graph window for both graphs. The minimum value for this problem is coded in the pg file to '-3'. This is not necessary, it can be set to any value smaller than the maximum horizontal window value.
################################### # Create link to applet ################################### $appletName = "uSub"; $applet = FlashApplet( codebase => findAppletCodebase("$appletName.swf"), appletName => $appletName, appletId => $appletName, setStateAlias => 'setXML', getStateAlias => 'getXML', setConfigAlias => 'setConfig', #getConfigAlias => 'getConfig', #initializeActionAlias => 'setXML', maxInitializationAttempts => 5, # number of attempts to initialize applet #submitActionAlias => 'getXML', answerBoxAlias => 'answerBox', height => '550', width => '700', bgcolor => '#ffffff', debugMode => 0, submitActionScript => qq{getQE("answerBox").value=getApplet("$appletName").getAnswer() }, ); ################################### # Configure applet ################################### #initially the answers will be blank $applet->configuration(qq{<xml><plot func='(1+2*x)*cos(x+x^2)' lower='0' upper='$b'/> <grids xgrid='1' ygrid='$b'/> <win xmin='-3' xmax='$ubig' ymin='$vsmall' ymax='$vbig' umin='-3' umax='$ubig' vmin='$vsmall' vmax='$vbig' /> <ans func='' lower='' upper ='' theValue='' /> <usub ufunc='x+x^2'/></xml>}); #initially the answers will be blank $applet->initialState(qq{<xml><plot func='(1+2*x)*cos(x+x^2)' lower='0' upper='$b'/> <grids xgrid='1' ygrid='$b'/> <win xmin='-3' xmax='$ubig' ymin='$vsmall' ymax='$vbig' umin='-3' umax='$ubig' vmin='$vsmall' vmax='$vbig' /> <ans func='' lower='' upper ='' theValue='' /> <usub ufunc='x+x^2'/></xml>}); TEXT( MODES(TeX=>'object code', HTML=>$applet->insertAll( debug=>0, includeAnswerBox=>1, # reinitialize_button=>$permissionLevel>=10, )));	This is the Applet link section of the problem. Those portions of the code that begin the line with # are comments and can be omitted or replaced with comments appropriate to your particular problem. You must include the section that follows # Create link to applet. If you are embedding a different applet, from the uSub applet, put your applet name in place of 'uSub' in the line $appletName = "uSub";. Enter the height of the applet in the line height => '550', in place of 550 and the width in the line width => '700', in place of 700. The lines $applet->configuration(qq{<xml><plot func='(1+2*x)*cos(x+x^2)' lower='0' upper='$b'/> <grids xgrid='1' ygrid='$b'/> <win xmin='-3' xmax='$ubig' ymin='$vsmall' ymax='$vbig' umin='-3' umax='$ubig' vmin='$vsmall' vmax='$vbig' /> <ans func= lower= upper = theValue= /> <usub ufunc='x+x^2'/></xml>}); and $applet->initialState(qq{<xml><plot func='(1+2*x)*cos(x+x^2)' lower='0' upper='$b'/> <grids xgrid='1' ygrid='$b'/> <win xmin='-3' xmax='$ubig' ymin='$vsmall' ymax='$vbig' umin='-3' umax='$ubig' vmin='$vsmall' vmax='$vbig' /> <ans func= lower= upper = theValue= /> <usub ufunc='x+x^2'/></xml>}); configure the applet. The configuration of the applet is done in xml. The applet expects to be told the integrand of the original integral (func='(1+2*x)*cos(x+x^2)'), the lower limit of integration (lower='0'), the upper limit (upper='$b'), the horizontal and vertical grid spacing (xgrid='1' ygrid='$b'), the dimensions of the two graph windows (,code><win xmin='-3' xmax='$ubig' ymin='$vsmall' ymax='$vbig' umin='-3' umax='$ubig' vmin='$vsmall' vmax='$vbig' />) and the u-substitution the student is to use (<usub ufunc='x+x^2'/>). The code qq{getQE("answerBox").value=getApplet("$appletName").getAnswer() } is called when the 'Submit Answers' button in the problem is pressed. This will call the getAnswer function which will return the contents of the four answer blanks in the applet. TEXT( MODES(TeX=>'object code', HTML=>$applet->insertAll( debug=>0, includeAnswerBox=>0, reinitialize_button=>$permissionLevel>=10, ))); actually embeds the applet in the WeBWorK problem. When the submit button is pressed, the hidden form fields defined in this block are filled with information from the applet. The data from the hidden form fields is used in these simple perl subroutines to define the correct answers to the four questions that are part of this WeBWorK problem. The WeBWorK variable $answerString1 is the content of the hidden form field "inc". $correctAnswer1 is the solution to the first question. The solutions for the next two questions are defined in a similar way.
BEGIN_TEXT $BR $BR list all intervals for which $BR a) \(f^\prime(x)>0\) \{ans_rule(35) \} $BR b) \(f^\prime(x)<0\) \{ans_rule(35) \} $BR c) \(f^\prime(x)=0\) \{ans_rule(35) \} $BR END_TEXT Context()->normalStrings;	This is the text section of the problem. The TEXT(beginproblem()); line displays a header for the problem, and the Context()->texStrings line sets how formulas are displayed in the text, and we reset this after the text section. Everything between the BEGIN_TEXT and END_TEXT lines (each of which must appear alone on a line) is shown to the student. Mathematical equations are delimited by \( \) (for inline equations) or \[ \] (for displayed equations); in these contexts inserted text is assumed to be TeX code. There are a number of variables that set formatting: $PAR is a paragraph break (like \par in TeX). This page gives a list of variables like this. Finally, \{ \} sets off code that will be executed in the problem text. Here, ans_rule(35) is a function that inserts an answer blank 35 characters wide.
############################################################## # # Answers # ## answer evaluators ANS( $correctAnswer1->cmp(strings=>['None']) ); #checks AnSwEr00001 ANS( $correctAnswer2->cmp(strings=>['None']) ); #checks AnSwEr00002 ANS( $correctAnswer3->cmp(strings=>['None']) ); #checks AnSwEr00003 ENDDOCUMENT();	This is the answer section of the problem. The problem answer is set by the ANS( $correctAnswer1->cmp(strings=>['None']) );, ANS( $correctAnswer2->cmp(strings=>['None']) );, ANS( $correctAnswer3->cmp(strings=>['None']) ); lines. These compare the student's answer with the answers returned from the applet. The answers allow for either a list of intervals answer or the string 'None' for empty lists. The solution is embedded in the applet and becomes available when the due date has passed. The ENDDOCUMENT(); command is the last command in the file.