Update Course Catalog API to include About Overview field.

common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/mongo/base.py

@@ -268,8 +268,8 @@ class CachingDescriptorSystem(MakoDescriptorSystem, EditInfoRuntimeMixin):
                     )
                     if parent_url:
                         parent = self._convert_reference_to_key(parent_url)
-                if not parent and category != 'course':
-                    # try looking it up just-in-time (but not if we're working with a root node (course).
+                if not parent and category not in _DETACHED_CATEGORIES + ['course']:
+                    # try looking it up just-in-time (but not if we're working with a detached block).
                     parent = self.modulestore.get_parent_location(
                         as_published(location),
                         ModuleStoreEnum.RevisionOption.published_only if location.revision is None

lms/djangoapps/course_api/serializers.py

@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ import urllib
 from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
 from rest_framework import serializers
 
+from openedx.core.djangoapps.models.course_details import CourseDetails
+
 
 class _MediaSerializer(serializers.Serializer):  # pylint: disable=abstract-method
     """
@@ -35,7 +37,8 @@ class _CourseApiMediaCollectionSerializer(serializers.Serializer):  # pylint: di
 
 class CourseSerializer(serializers.Serializer):  # pylint: disable=abstract-method
     """
-    Serializer for Course objects
+    Serializer for Course objects providing minimal data about the course.
+    Compare this with CourseDetailSerializer.
     """
 
     blocks_url = serializers.SerializerMethodField()
@@ -62,3 +65,27 @@ class CourseSerializer(serializers.Serializer):  # pylint: disable=abstract-meth
             urllib.urlencode({'course_id': course_overview.id}),
         ])
         return self.context['request'].build_absolute_uri(base_url)
+
+
+class CourseDetailSerializer(CourseSerializer):  # pylint: disable=abstract-method
+    """
+    Serializer for Course objects providing additional details about the
+    course.
+
+    This serializer makes additional database accesses (to the modulestore) and
+    returns more data (including 'overview' text). Therefore, for performance
+    and bandwidth reasons, it is expected that this serializer is used only
+    when serializing a single course, and not for serializing a list of
+    courses.
+    """
+
+    overview = serializers.SerializerMethodField()
+
+    def get_overview(self, course_overview):
+        """
+        Get the representation for SerializerMethodField `overview`
+        """
+        # Note: This makes a call to the modulestore, unlike the other
+        # fields from CourseSerializer, which get their data
+        # from the CourseOverview object in SQL.
+        return CourseDetails.fetch_about_attribute(course_overview.id, 'overview')

lms/djangoapps/course_api/tests/test_serializers.py

 """
-Test data created by CourseSerializer
+Test data created by CourseSerializer and CourseDetailSerializer
 """
 
 from datetime import datetime
@@ -9,44 +9,30 @@ from openedx.core.djangoapps.content.course_overviews.models import CourseOvervi
 from rest_framework.test import APIRequestFactory
 from rest_framework.request import Request
 
-from xmodule.modulestore.tests.django_utils import ModuleStoreTestCase
+from xblock.core import XBlock
 from xmodule.course_module import DEFAULT_START_DATE
+from xmodule.modulestore.tests.django_utils import ModuleStoreTestCase
+from xmodule.modulestore.tests.factories import check_mongo_calls
 
-from ..serializers import CourseSerializer
+from ..serializers import CourseSerializer, CourseDetailSerializer
 from .mixins import CourseApiFactoryMixin
 
 
-class TestCourseSerializerFields(CourseApiFactoryMixin, ModuleStoreTestCase):
+class TestCourseSerializer(CourseApiFactoryMixin, ModuleStoreTestCase):
     """
-    Test variations of start_date field responses
+    Test CourseSerializer
     """
+    expected_mongo_calls = 0
     maxDiff = 5000  # long enough to show mismatched dicts, in case of error
+    serializer_class = CourseSerializer
 
     def setUp(self):
-        super(TestCourseSerializerFields, self).setUp()
+        super(TestCourseSerializer, self).setUp()
         self.staff_user = self.create_user('staff', is_staff=True)
         self.honor_user = self.create_user('honor', is_staff=False)
         self.request_factory = APIRequestFactory()
 
-    def _get_request(self, user=None):
-        """
-        Build a Request object for the specified user.
-        """
-        if user is None:
-            user = self.honor_user
-        request = Request(self.request_factory.get('/'))
-        request.user = user
-        return request
-
-    def _get_result(self, course):
-        """
-        Return the CourseSerializer for the specified course.
-        """
-        course_overview = CourseOverview.get_from_id(course.id)
-        return CourseSerializer(course_overview, context={'request': self._get_request()}).data
-
-    def test_basic(self):
-        expected_data = {
+        self.expected_data = {
             'course_id': u'edX/toy/2012_Fall',
             'name': u'Toy Course',
             'number': u'toy',
@@ -69,10 +55,30 @@ class TestCourseSerializerFields(CourseApiFactoryMixin, ModuleStoreTestCase):
             'blocks_url': u'http://testserver/api/courses/v1/blocks/?course_id=edX%2Ftoy%2F2012_Fall',
             'effort': u'6 hours',
         }
+
+    def _get_request(self, user=None):
+        """
+        Build a Request object for the specified user.
+        """
+        if user is None:
+            user = self.honor_user
+        request = Request(self.request_factory.get('/'))
+        request.user = user
+        return request
+
+    def _get_result(self, course):
+        """
+        Return the CourseSerializer for the specified course.
+        """
+        course_overview = CourseOverview.get_from_id(course.id)
+        return self.serializer_class(course_overview, context={'request': self._get_request()}).data
+
+    def test_basic(self):
         course = self.create_course()
         CourseDetails.update_about_video(course, 'test_youtube_id', self.staff_user.id)  # pylint: disable=no-member
-        result = self._get_result(course)
-        self.assertDictEqual(result, expected_data)
+        with check_mongo_calls(self.expected_mongo_calls):
+            result = self._get_result(course)
+        self.assertDictEqual(result, self.expected_data)
 
     def test_advertised_start(self):
         course = self.create_course(
@@ -91,3 +97,23 @@ class TestCourseSerializerFields(CourseApiFactoryMixin, ModuleStoreTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(result['course_id'], u'edX/custom/2012_Fall')
         self.assertEqual(result['start_type'], u'empty')
         self.assertIsNone(result['start_display'])
+
+
+class TestCourseDetailSerializer(TestCourseSerializer):  # pylint: disable=test-inherits-tests
+    """
+    Test CourseDetailSerializer by rerunning all the tests
+    in TestCourseSerializer, but with the
+    CourseDetailSerializer serializer class.
+
+    """
+    # 1 mongo call is made to get the course About overview text.
+    expected_mongo_calls = 1
+    serializer_class = CourseDetailSerializer
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        super(TestCourseDetailSerializer, self).setUp()
+
+        # update the expected_data to include the 'overview' data.
+        about_descriptor = XBlock.load_class('about')
+        overview_template = about_descriptor.get_template('overview.yaml')
+        self.expected_data['overview'] = overview_template.get('data')

lms/djangoapps/course_api/views.py

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ from openedx.core.lib.api.paginators import NamespacedPageNumberPagination
 from openedx.core.lib.api.view_utils import view_auth_classes, DeveloperErrorViewMixin
 from .api import course_detail, list_courses
 from .forms import CourseDetailGetForm, CourseListGetForm
-from .serializers import CourseSerializer
+from .serializers import CourseSerializer, CourseDetailSerializer
 
 
 @view_auth_classes(is_authenticated=False)
@@ -41,6 +41,9 @@ class CourseDetailView(DeveloperErrorViewMixin, RetrieveAPIView):
         * name: Name of the course
         * number: Catalog number of the course
         * org: Name of the organization that owns the course
+        * overview: A possibly verbose HTML textual description of the course.
+            Note: this field is only included in the Course Detail view, not
+            the Course List view.
         * short_description: A textual description of the course
         * start: Date the course begins
         * start_display: Readably formatted start of the course
@@ -83,13 +86,14 @@ class CourseDetailView(DeveloperErrorViewMixin, RetrieveAPIView):
                 "name": "Example Course",
                 "number": "example",
                 "org": "edX",
+                "overview: "<p>A verbose description of the course.</p>"
                 "start": "2015-07-17T12:00:00Z",
                 "start_display": "July 17, 2015",
                 "start_type": "timestamp"
             }
     """
 
-    serializer_class = CourseSerializer
+    serializer_class = CourseDetailSerializer
 
     def get_object(self):
         """

openedx/core/djangoapps/util/test_forms.py

@@ -28,8 +28,6 @@ class FormTestMixin(object):
         Check that the form returns the expected data
         """
         form = self.get_form(expected_valid=True)
-        print 'form.cleaned_data: ' + unicode(form.cleaned_data)
-        print 'expected_cleaned_data: ' + unicode(expected_cleaned_data)
         self.assertDictEqual(form.cleaned_data, expected_cleaned_data)
 
     def assert_field_value(self, field, expected_value):