Adding tasks and gating content

(Explain tasks and this section, what its used for)

Concepts we will learn about in this section:

• Tasks

• Terminals

• Scripts

• Conditions

Adding a new container & terminal

(Write better) We want to use a separate container to connect to a termainl and run our conditions against.

Add an ubuntu image container resource in sandbox.hcl. We will connect to this sandbox

resource "container" "ubuntu" {
  image {
    name = "ubuntu"
  }
}

(Add section on terminals)

Add a terminal resource called shell. Have it target the new ubuntu container we just defined.

resource "terminal" "shell" {
  title = "Terminal"

  target = resource.container.ubuntu

  shell = "/bin/bash"
  working_directory = "/root"
}

(Explain the fields, and why they are needed.)

Adding the task resource

In your acitivities.hcl file, add the following task resource.

resource "task" "helloworld" {
  config {
    target = resource.container.ubuntu
  }

  condition "file_exists" {
    description = "The file `/tmp/hello` should exist"

    check {
      script = "scripts/file_exists.sh"
      failure_message = "The file `/tmp/hello` does not exist"
    }
  }

  condition "file_contains" {
    description = "The file should contain the text `world`"

    check {
      script = "scripts/contents_match.sh"
      failure_message = "The file `/tmp/hello` does not contain the text `world`"
    }
  }
}

(Explain the fields, especially the scripts, as they are not yet defined)

Adding the scripts

(Explain scripts)

Create a new directory called scripts, inside the directory, create two new files; file_exists.sh & contents_match.sh. As the names indicate, we will be adding scripts to these files that check if a file exists and whether the content matches.

In /scripts/file_exists.sh add the following script:

#!/bin/sh
if [ ! -f /tmp/hello ]; then
  exit 1
fi

In /scripts/contents_match.sh add the following script:

#!/bin/sh
CONTENTS=$(cat /tmp/hello)

if [ ! "$CONTENTS" = "world" ]; then
  exit 1
fi

For more information and configuration on scripts, please see the Task/Script reference page.

Add the activity to a page

In pages.hcl add a new page and name it task. Add the helloworld activity to it, like we did with quizzes before.

resource "page" "task" {
  file = "instructions/task.md"

  activities = {
    "helloworld" = resource.task.helloworld
  }
}

Add the new page & terminal the lab.

For the end user to interact with the shell terminal we created earlier, we need to connect a tab to the shell.

In main.hcl, add the terminal to the layout in our lab. While we're here, also add the new page in the content block.

resource "lab" "main" {
  ...
  tab "terminal" {
    panel = "main"
    target = "resource.terminal.shell"
  }
  ...
  content {
    chapter "introduction" {
      ...
      page "task" {
        reference = resource.page.quiz
      }
    }
  }
}

(Explain the shell targeting & fields)

Add the task to the instructional content

In instructions/page.md, add the <instruqt-task> element and point it to the helloworld task. This will give the end user feedback on how they're faring with their task.

# Tasks

In the left pane there is a terminal session on the ubuntu container.
We want the user to perform actions in the terminal and then validate that the actions had the desired outcome.

Each task can have multiple conditions that need to be met before the task is considered completed.

<instruqt-task id="helloworld">
  Write the text `world` to `/tmp/hello`.
</instruqt-task>

For more information and configuration of custom markdown components, please see the Markdown & Components reference page.

Preview your changes

(Guide, and screenshot of how our lab looks at this stage.)