Activate GitHub Copilot using Nodejs

Demo project for running labs to evaluate Copilot viability

Instructions

• Download to local the exercicefile folder
• Open NodeServer.js and begin by writing a Nodejs server, check the first suggestions based on the initial text
• Open test.js file and analyze the current test
• Open a command prompt and run the test (mocha test.js)
• See the result, it should display something like:

mocha test.js
server is listening on port 3000

  Node Server
    
    √ should return "key not passed" if key is not passed

  1 passing (34ms)

• In the NodeServer.js develop the rest of the methods described in the Exercise described in the section below (do not forget to open color.json file in Visual Studio Code, so CoPilot get all the context to make better recommendations)
• In the Test.js file add the methods to test the functionality
• Run the tests to verify that all is working
• Open the dockerfile file, and fill it, in order to create a docker container with a node image that can run the web server
• Create command to run docker in port 4000
• Test that the application is working in port 4000
• In the nodeserver.js file, you can type a new line like //run a curl command to test the server

So we can see how CoPilot based on the current file produces a curl command, to be executed in command line

• Also you can be more specific like: //run a curl command to test the daysBetweenDates method

So it generates a test for a specific method

Exercise

The exercise consist of building a web server using Nodejs that serves the request of various functionality.

The requests that the server must attend are the following:

• /Get :

Return a hello world message

• /DaysBetweenDates:

Calculate days between two dates

receive by query string 2 parameters date1 and date 2 , and calcualte the days that are between those two dates.

• /Validatephonenumber:

Receive by querystring a parameter called phoneNumber validate phoneNumber with Spanish format, for example +34666777888 if phoneNumber is valid return "valid" if phoneNumber is not valid return "invalid"

• /ValidateSpanishDNI:

Receive by querystring a parameter called dni calculate DNI letter if DNI is valid return "valid" if DNI is not valid return "invalid"

We will create automated tests to check that the functionality is correctly implemented. When the development is completed, we will build a container using Docker

• /ReturnColorCode:

Receive by querystring a parameter called color

read colors.json file and return the rgba field

get color var from querystring

iterate for each color in colors.json to find the color

return the code.hex field

• /TellMeAJoke:

Make a call to the joke api and return a random joke using axios

• /MoviesByDirector:

(this will require to browse to https://www.omdbapi.com/apikey.aspx and request a FREE API Key)

Receive by querystring a parameter called director

Make a call to the movie api and return a list of movies of that director using axios

Return the full list of movies

• /ParseUrl:

Retrieves a parameter from querystring called someurl

Parse the url and return the protocol, host, port, path, querystring and hash

Return the parsed host

• /ListFiles:

Get the current directory

Get the list of files in the current directory

Return the list of files

• /GetFullTextFile:

Read sample.txt and return lines that contains the word "Fusce"

(becareful with this implementation, since this normally reads the full content of the file before analizing it, so memory usage is high and may fail when files are too big)

• /GetLineByLinefromtTextFile:

Read sample.txt line by line

Create a promise to read the file line by line, and return a list of lines that contains the word "Fusce"

Return the list of lines

• /CalculateMemoryConsumption:

Return the memory consumption of the process in GB, rounded to 2 decimals

• /MakeZipFile:

Using zlib create a zip file called sample.gz that contains sample.txt

• /RandomEuropeanCountry:

Make an array of european countries and its iso codes

Return a random country from the array

Return the country and its iso code

GitHub Copilot Labs exercises

These tasks can be performed with the Copilot labs add-in, currently PREVIEW functionality, expect some bugs.

Make sure to install the GitHub Copilot labs extension: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=GitHub.copilot-labs

Open GitHub Copilot extension to see all the available functionality.

• Explain

Select the line that has the regex in the validatePhoneNumber method, in EXPLAIN section click "Ask Copilot". You will see an explanation detailing what does each different notations in the regular expression.

• Language translation

Select some source code, like this line:

var randomCountry = countries[Math.floor(Math.random() * countries.length)];

In "LANGUAGE TRANSLATION" section select python and click "As Copilot" button, you should see new code in python (sometimes you'll need to click twice in the button).

• Readable

Select the content of MakeZipFile

In the BRUSHES section, click in "Readable", see how comments are added and also variables that have short names are renamed to a more understandable name.

-- Add Types

TBD

-- Fix Bug

In the exercise, there should be no bugs, since most of the code will be done by CoPilot. We can force some errors and then test the debug functionality.

Force some errors like:

In a for loop change the beginning to (change the 0 for a 1):

for (var i = 1

select the text and in the "BRUSHES" section press the "Fix Bug" button.

-- Debug

Select some lines of text that contains variables, like:

var queryData = url.parse(req.url, true).query;
var color = queryData.color;
var colorFound = "not found";

select the text and in the "BRUSHES" section press the "Debug" button.

-- Clean

TBD

-- List steps

Select some lines of code that do not have comments and in the "BRUSHES" section press the "List steps" button.

-- Make robust

Select some text that comes from input, for example variables that come from querystring:

    var queryData = url.parse(req.url, true).query;
    var date1 = queryData.date1;
    var date2 = queryData.date2;

In the "BRUSHES" section press the "Make robust" button, you will see that additional validation is added.

-- Chunk

TBD

-- Document

Select some line (e.g. a method or the beggining of the if clause)

else if (req.url.startsWith('/GetFullTextFile')) 

In the "BRUSHES" section press the "Document" button, you will see that comments explaining what the code does are added before the line.

-- Test Generation

TBD