Nobius (Mobius Sheet Generator)

Python package to generate tutorial sheets for the EdTech Mobius platform from local JSON source files.

Configuration is driven by the repo-level nobius.json file rather than editing hardcoded URLs in the generator source.

The checked-in nobius.json contains named profiles. default_profile drives normal export/PDF workflows, while html_preview_profile drives preview_html.py.

Primary workflows:

• export Mobius packages with export_mobius.py
• create local HTML previews with preview_html.py
• create LaTeX and PDF outputs with export_pdf.py
• import Mobius XML/ZIP exports with import_mobius.py
• run the regression suite with pytest -q tests
• run lint checks with python -m ruff check Nobius

First render and stable UIDs

Nobius treats uid values as stable question identities. That matters when you export/import the same content to Mobius multiple times: if the uid changes, Mobius will treat the question as new content rather than an update.

Because of that, rendering refuses to proceed when a sheet or question is missing a uid. For a brand-new sheet, initialize and persist missing identities once:

python export_mobius.py "C:\path\to\sheet" --write-missing-uids --config nobius.json

After that, normal renders should be read-only with respect to the source JSON.

HTML mode

Nobius supports a first-class HTML response mode for questions that need a custom interactive widget.

This is intended for cases where custom_response is not enough:

• custom_response is for arranging standard Mobius response areas in a custom layout
• HTML is for authoring a real HTML/CSS/JavaScript component with grading hooks

Typical uses:

• canvas- or SVG-based interactions
• drag/drop or geometry widgets
• custom visual controls that return a structured response to Mobius grading

Example:

"response": {
  "mode": "HTML",
  "gradingType": "auto",
  "answer": "42",
  "html": "<div id=\"widget\"></div>",
  "css": "#widget { min-height: 20px; }",
  "javascript": "function initialize(interactiveMode) {}\nfunction setFeedback(response, answer) {}\nfunction getResponse() { return '42'; }",
  "grading_code": "evalb(($ANSWER)-($RESPONSE)=0);"
}

For auto-graded HTML questions, the JavaScript getResponse() value becomes $RESPONSE in the Maple grading code.

Current scope

The active Nobius workflow is centered on:

• standard sheet rendering
• profile-specific rendering via export_mobius.py --profile exam
• local HTML preview generation
• LaTeX and PDF generation from Nobius JSON
• Mobius ZIP/XML import back into Nobius JSON
• HTML response components
• document upload components

There is some validation scaffolding for adaptive-question constraints, but adaptive questions are not part of the current recommended authoring workflow.

Please read the documentation for this package in the repo docs/ tree or via the published site configured for your fork.