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POLooking for tips to build "TestMaker" (Questions and Responses) application with Evaluation Engine
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copied!<p>I'm working on a new project. My best analogy would be a psychological evaluation test maker.</p> <p><strong>Aspect #1.</strong> The end-business-user needs to create test questions. With question types. And possible responses to the questions when applicable.</p> <p>Examples:</p> <pre><code>1. Do you have red hair? (T/F) 2. What is your favorite color? (Single Response/Multiple Choice) (Possible Responses: Red, Yellow, Black, White) 3. What size shoe do you wear (rounded to next highest size)? (Integer) 4. How much money do you have on you right now? (Dollar Amount (decimal)) </code></pre> <p>So I need to be able to create questions, their question type, and for some of the questions, possible answers.</p> <p>Here:</p> <p>Number 1 is a know type of "True or False".</p> <p>Number 2 is a know type of "Single Response/Multiple Choice" AND the end-business-user will create the possible responses.</p> <p>Number 3 is a known type of "Integer". The end-user (person taking the evaluation) can basically put in any integer value.</p> <p>Number 4 is a known type of "Decimal". Same thing as Integer.</p> <p><strong>Aspect #2.</strong> The end-business-user needs to evaluate the person's responses. And assign some scalar value to a set of responses.</p> <p>Example:</p> <p>If someone responded:</p> <pre><code>1. T 2. Red 3. >=8 4. (Not considered for this situation) </code></pre> <p>Some psychiatrist-expert figures out that if someone answered with the above responses, that you are a 85% more at risk for depression than the normal. (Where 85% is a number the end-business-user (psychiatrist) can enter as a parameter.</p> <p>So Aspect #2 is running through someone's responses, and determining a result.</p> <p>The "response grid" would have to be setup so that it will go through (some or all) the possibilities in a priority ranking order, and then after all conditions are met (on a single row), exit out with the result.</p> <p>Like this:</p> <pre><code>(1.) T (2.) Red (3.) >=8 ... Result = 85% (1.) T (2.) Yellow (3.) >=8 ... Result = 70% (1.) F (2.) Red (3.) >=8 ... Result = 50% (1.) F (2.) Yellow (3.) >=8 ... Result = 40% </code></pre> <p>Once a match is found, you exit with the percentage. If you don't find a match, you go to the next rule.</p> <p>Also, running with this psych evaluation mock example, I don't need to define every permutation. A lot of questions of psych evaluations are not actually used, they are just "fluff". So in my grid above, I have purposely left out question #4. It has no bearing on the results.</p> <p>There can also be a "Did this person take this seriously?" evaluation grid:</p> <pre><code>(3.) >=20 (4.) >=$1,000 ... Result = False </code></pre> <p>(The possibility of having a shoe size >= 20 and having big dollars in your pocket is very low, thus you probably did not take the psych test seriously.)</p> <p>If no rule is found, (in my real application, not this mock up), I would throw an exception or just not care. I would not need a default or fall-through rule. In the above, Red and Yellow are "worrisome" favorite colors. If your favorite color is black or white, it has no bearing upon your depression risk factor.</p> <p>I have used Business Rule Engines in the past. (InRule for example). They are very expensive, and it is not in the budget.</p> <p>BizTalk Business Rules Framework is a possibility. Not de$irable, but possible.</p> <p>My issue with any Rules-Engine is that the "vocabulary" (I have limited experience with business rules engines, mind you) is based off of objects, with static properties.</p> <pre><code>public class Employee { public string LastName { get; set; } public DateTime HireDate { get; set; } public decimal AnnualSalary { get; set; } public void AdjustSalary(int percentage) { this.AdjustSalary= this.AdjustSalary + (this.AdjustSalary * percentage); } } </code></pre> <p>This would be easy to create business rules.</p> <pre><code>If the (Employee's HireDate) is before (10 years ago) then (Increase Their Salary) By (5) Percent.) else (Increase Their Salary) By (3) Percent.) </code></pre> <p>But in my situation, the Test is composed of (dynamic) Questions and (dynamic) Responses, not predetermined properties.</p> <p>So I guess I'm looking for some ideas to investigate on how to pull this off.</p> <p>I know I can build a "TestMaker" application fairly quickly.</p> <p>The biggest issue is integrating the Questions and (Possible Responses) into "evaluating rules".</p> <p>Thanks for any tips.</p> <p>Technologies: DotNet 4.0 Framework Sql Server 2008 Backend Database VS2010 Pro, C#</p>

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