Module 3: Software

Development and Design

DevNet Associate v1.0
Module Objectives
Module Title: Software Development and Design

Module Objective: Use software development and design best practices.

Topic Title Topic Objective

Software Development Compare software development methodologies.

Software Design Patterns Describe the benefits of various software design patterns.

Version Control Systems Implement software version control using GIT.

Coding Basics Explain coding best practices.

Code Review and Testing Use Python Unit Test to evaluate code.

Understanding Data Formats Use Python to parse different messaging and data formats.

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 2
3.1 Software Development

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Software Development and Design
Introduction
• The software development process is also known as the software development life cycle
(SDLC).

• SDLC is more than just coding and also includes gathering requirements, creating a proof of
concept, testing, and fixing bugs.

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Software Development and Design
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
• SDLC is the process of developing software, starting from an idea and ending with delivery. This
process consists of six phases. Each phase takes input from the results of the previous phase. 
• SDLC is the process of developing
software, starting from an idea and ending
with delivery. This process consists of six
phases. Each phase takes input from the
results of the previous phase. 
• Although the waterfall methods is still
widely used today, it's gradually being
superseded by more adaptive, flexible
methods that produce better software,
faster, with less pain. These methods are
collectively known as “Agile
development.”

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Software Development and Design
Requirements and Analysis Phase
 The requirements and analysis phase involves exploring the stakeholders' current situation, needs and
constraints, present infrastructure, and so on, and determining the problem to be solved by the
software.
 After gathering the requirements, the team analyzes the results to determine the following:

• Is it possible to develop the software according to these requirements, and can it be done on-
budget?
• Are there any risks to the development schedule, and if so, what are they?
• How will the software be tested?
• When and how will the software be delivered?
 At the conclusion of this phase, the classic waterfall method suggests creating a Software Requirement
Specification (SRS) document, which states the software requirements and scope, and confirms this
meticulously with stakeholders.

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Software Development and Design
Design and Implementation Phases
Design Implementation
• During the Design phase, the • The implementation phase is also
software architects and developers called the coding or development
design the software based on the phase.
provided SRS. • As all the components and modules
• At the end of the phase, the team are built during this phase, it is the
creates High-Level Design (HLD) and longest phase of the life cycle.
Low-Level Design (LLD) documents. • At the end of the phase, the
functional code that implements all
customer's requirements is ready to
be tested.

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Software Development and Design
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Phases
Testing Deployment Maintenance
• In this phase, code is installed • During this phase, the • During the maintenance
in the test environment software is installed into the phase, the team:
• Functional testing, integration production environment. • Provides support to
testing, performance testing • At the end of the phase, the customers
and security testing is product manager releases • Fixes bugs found in
performed. the final piece of software to production
• Testing continues until all the end users. • Works on software
codes are bug free and pass improvements
all the tests. At the end of this • Gathers new requests
phase, a high quality, bug- from the customer
free, working piece of • At the end, the team works on
software is ready for
the next iteration and version
production.
of the software.

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Software Development and Design
Software Development Methodologies
• A software development methodology is also known as Software Development Life Cycle
model.
• The three most popular methodologies are:
• Waterfall
• Agile
• Lean
• The type of methodology to be used depends on the:
• Type of the project
• Length of the project
• Size of the team.

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Software Development and Design
Waterfall Software Development
• The original waterfall model was created by Winston W. Royce.
• His original model consisted of seven phases:

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Software Development and Design
Agile Software Development
• Agile method is flexible and customer-focused.
• A group of 17 software developers came up with the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, also known
as the Agile Manifesto, in 2001. According to the Agile Manifesto, the values of Agile are:
• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan
• The Agile manifesto lists 12 different principles:
Agile Manifesto Principles
Customer focus Collaboration Working software Simplicity
Embrace change and adapt  Motivated teams Work at a sustainable Self-organizing teams
pace
Frequent delivery of working software Face-to-face Agile environment Continuous
conversations Improvement

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Software Development and Design
Agile Methods
• The popular Agile methods are:

• Agile Scrum: The Scrum focuses on small, self-organizing teams that meet daily for
short periods and work in iterative sprints.
• Lean: The Lean method emphasizes on elimination of wasted effort in planning and
execution, and reduction of programmer cognitive load.
• Extreme Programming (XP): XP deliberately addresses the specific kinds of quality-of-
life issues faced by the software development teams.
• Feature-Driven Development (FDD): FDD prescribes that software development should
proceed in terms of an overall model, broken out, planned, designed, and built feature-
by-feature.

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Software Development and Design
Agile Methods (Contd.)
• Sprints

• A sprint is a specific period of time, usually between 2-4 weeks, during which, each team takes
on as many tasks (also known as user stories) as they feel they can accomplish. When the sprint
is over, the software should be working and deliverable.
• The duration of the sprint is determined before the process begins and should rarely change.

• Backlog
• The backlog consists of all the features of the software, in a prioritized list.
• User stories
• A user story is a simple statement of what a user (or a role) needs, and why. Each user story
should be small enough that a single team can finish it within a single sprint.
• The suggested template for a user story is:
As a <user|role>, I would like to <action>, so that <value|benefit>

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Software Development and Design
Agile Methods (Contd.)
Scrum Teams

• Scrum teams are cross-functional, collaborative, self-managed and self-empowered.

• The scrum teams should not be larger than 10 individuals.

• The scrum master should have a daily stand-up meeting with the team at a fixed time
everyday for not more than 15 minutes.
• The goal is to go over important tasks that have been finished, are in progress, or are about
to be started.

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Software Development and Design
Lean Software Development
• Lean software development is based on Lean Manufacturing principles, which are focused
on minimizing waste and maximizing value to the customer.
• The seven principles of lean, given in the book “Lean Software Development: An Agile
Toolkit,” are as follows:
• Eliminate waste
• Amplify learning
• Decide as late as possible
• Deliver as fast as possible
• Empower the team
• Build integrity in
• Optimize the whole

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Software Development and Design
Lean Software Development (Contd.)
Eliminate waste 
• It is the most fundamental lean principle.
• There are seven wastes of software development:
• Partially done work
• Extra processes
• Extra features
• Task switching
• Waiting
• Motion
• Defects

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Software Development and Design
Lean Software Development (Contd.)
Amplify Learning with Short Sprints 
• To be able to fine tune a software, there should be frequent short iterations of working software. This
enables the following:
• Developers learn faster
• Customers can give feedback sooner
• Features can be adjusted so that they bring customers more value
Decide as Late as Possible
• When there is uncertainty, it is best to delay the decision-making until as late as possible in the process.
This is because it is better to base decisions on facts rather than opinions or speculations.
Deliver as Fast as Possible
Deliver As Fast as Possible
Enables customers to provide feedback Doesn't allow customers to change their mind
Enables developers to amplify learning Makes everyone take decisions faster
Provides customers the required features Produces less waste
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Software Development and Design
Lean Software Development (Contd.)
Empower the Team
• Each person must be allowed to make decisions in the area of their own expertise.  

Build Integrity In
• Integrity for the software is when the software addresses the customer’s needs as well as maintains the
usefulness for the customer.  
Optimize the Whole
• The software must be built cohesively. The value of the software will suffer if each expert only focuses on
their expertise and doesn't consider the ramifications of their decisions on the rest of the software.  

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Software Development and Design
Lab - Explore Python Development Tools
In this lab, you will complete the following objectives:​
• Part 1: Launch the DEVASC VM
• Part 2: Review the Python Installation
• Part 3: PIP and Python Virtual Environments
• Part 4: Sharing Your Virtual Environment

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3.2 Software Design Patterns

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Software Design Patterns
Introduction
• Software design patterns are best practice solutions for solving common problems in software
development.

• Design patterns are language-independent.

• In 1994, Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides (known as the Gang of Four
(GoF)) published a book called Design Patterns - Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software.
Patterns identified are:

• Program to an interface, not an implementation.

• Favor object composition over class inheritance.
• Software design patterns have already been proven to be successful, so using them can speed up
development.

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Software Design Patterns
The Original Design Patterns
• The Gang of Four divided patterns into three main categories:

• Creational
• Structural
• Behavioral
• They listed 23 design patterns.

• Two of the most commonly used design patterns are: 

• The Observer design pattern (a Behavioral design pattern)

• The Model-View-Controller (MVC)

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Software Design Patterns
Observer Design Pattern
• The observer design pattern is a subscription
notification design that lets objects receive
events when there are changes to an object
they are observing.
• To implement this subscription mechanism:
• The subject must have the ability to store
a list of all of its observers.
• The subject must have methods to add and
remove observers.

• The benefit of the observer design pattern is

that observers can get real time data from the
subject when a change occurs. 

• Subscription mechanisms always provide

better performance than other options,
such as polling.
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Software Design Patterns
Model-View-Controller (MVC)
• The Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern aims to
simplify development of applications that depend on graphic
user interfaces.

• MVC abstracts code and responsibility into three different

components: 
• Model: The model is the application's data structure
and is responsible for managing the data, logic and
rules of the application. It gets input from the controller.
• View: The view is the visual representation of the data.
• Controller: The controller is the middleman between the
model and view. It takes in user input and manipulates it to
fit the format for the model or view.
• The benefit of MVC is that each component can be built in
parallel.

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3.3 Version Control Systems

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Version Control Systems
Types of Version Control Systems
• Version control, also called version control systems, revision control or source control, is a
way to manage changes to a set of files in order to keep a history of those changes.
• Benefits of version control are:
• Enables collaboration
• Accountability and visibility
• Work in isolation
• Safety
• Work anywhere
• There are three types of version control systems:
• Local
• Centralized
• Distributed
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Version Control Systems
Types of Version Control Systems (Contd.)
Local Version Control
System (LVCS) 

• LVCS uses a simple database to keep

track of all of the changes to the file.

• In most cases, the system stores the

delta
between the two versions of the file.

• When the user wants to revert to the

file, the delta is reversed to get to the
requested version.

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Version Control Systems
Types of Version Control Systems (Contd.)
Centralized Version Control
System (CVCS)

• CVCS uses a server-client model.

• The repository is stored in a

centralized location, on a server.

• In CVCS, only one individual can work

on a
particular file at a time.
• An individual must check out the file to
lock it and make the required changes
and check in once done.

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Version Control Systems
Types of Version Control Systems (Contd.)
Distributed Version Control
System (DVCS)
• DVCS is a peer-to-peer model.

• The repository can be stored on a client

system, but it is usually stored in a
repository hosting service.

• In DVCS, every individual can work on any

file, at the same time, because the local
file in the working copy is being modified.
Hence, locking is not required.

• When the individual has made the

changes, they push the file to the main
repository that is in the repository hosting
service, and the version control system
detects any conflicts between file
changes. © 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 29
Version Control Systems
Git
• Git is an open source implementation of a distributed version control system that is currently the latest
trend in software development.
• A Git client must be installed on a client machine. It is available for MacOS, Windows, and Linux/Unix.
• One key difference between Git and other version control systems is that Git stores data as snapshots
instead of differences (the delta between the current file and the previous version). 

• If the file does not change, Git uses a reference link to the last snapshot in the system instead of taking
a new and identical snapshot.
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Version Control Systems
Git (Contd.)
• Git is organized by 3s- three
stages and three states.

• The three stages are:

• Repository (the .git
directory)
• Working directory
• Staging area

• The three states are:

• Committed
• Modified
• Staged © 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 31
Version Control Systems
Local vs. Remote Repositories
• Git has two types of repositories: local and remote.

• A local repository is stored on the file system of a client machine, which is the same one on
which the git commands are being executed.
• A remote repository is stored somewhere other than the client machine, usually a server or
repository hosting service.
• A remote repository with Git continues to be a DVCS because the remote repository will contain
the full repository, which includes the code and the file history. 
• When a client machine clones the repository, it gets the full repository without requiring to lock
it, as in a CVCS.
• After the local repository is cloned from the remote repository or the remote repository is
created from the local repository, the two repositories are independent of each other until the
content changes are applied to the other branch through a manual Git command execution.
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Version Control Systems
What is Branching?
• Branching enables users to work on code independently without affecting the main code in the
repository. When a repository is created, the code is automatically put on a branch called Master. 

• Branches can be local or remote,

and they can be deleted and have
their own history, staging area, and
working directory.
• Git's branch creation is lightweight,
and switching between branches is
almost instantaneous.
• When a user goes from one branch
to another, the code in their working
directory and the files in the staging
area change accordingly, but the
repository (.git) directories remain
unchanged. 

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Version Control Systems
GitHub and Other Providers
• Git and GitHub are not the same.
• While Git is an implementation of distributed version control and provides a command line
interface, GitHub is a service provided by Microsoft that implements a repository hosting
service with Git.
• In addition to providing the distributed version control and source code management
functionality of Git, GitHub provides additional features such as:
• code review
• documentation
• project management
• bug tracking
• feature requests
• GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’, which is a way of formalizing a request
by a contributor to review changes such as new code, edits to existing code, etc., in the
contributor's branch for inclusion in the project's main or other curated branches.
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Version Control Systems
Git Commands
Setting up Git

• To configure Git, use the --global option to set the initial

global settings.
Command: git config --global key value
Create a New Git Repository
• Git provides a git init command to create an empty Git
repository, or make an existing folder a Git repository.
• When a new or existing project becomes a Git
repository, a hidden .git directory is created in
that project folder.
• The .git directory is the repository that holds the
metadata such as the compressed files, the commit
history, and the staging area. In addition, Git also
creates the master branch.

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Version Control Systems
Git Commands (Contd.)
Command: git init
• To make a new or existing project a Git repository, use the following command:
     $ git init <project directory>
where the <project directory> is the absolute or relative path to the new or existing project.
• For a new Git repository, the directory in the provided path will be created first, followed by the creation of
the .git directory.
Get an Existing Git Repository

• Command: git clone <repository> [target

directory]

where <repository> is the location of the

repository to clone.

• Git supports four major transport protocols

for accessing the <repository>: Local,
Secure Shell (SSH), Git, and HTTP.
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Version Control Systems
Git Commands (Contd.)
View the Modified Files in the Working Directory

• Git provides a git status command to get a list of files that have differences between the
working directory and the parent branch.
• Command: git status

Compare Changes Between Files

• Git provides a git diff command that is essentially a generic file comparison tool.
• Command: git diff
• When using the git diff command, the file does not need to be a Git tracked file.

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Version Control Systems
Adding and Removing Files
Adding Files to the Staging Area
• Command: git add
• This command can be used more than once before
the Git repository is updated (using commit).
• Only the files specified in the git command can be
added to the staging
area
• To add a single file to the staging area:
    $ git add <file path>

• To add multiple files to the staging area, where

the <file path> is the absolute or relative path of the file
to be added to the staging area.
    $ git add <file path 1> ... <file path n>

• To add all the changed files to the staging area: $ git

add. © 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 38
Version Control Systems
Adding and Removing Files (Contd.)
Removing Files from the Git Repository
• There are two ways to remove files from the Git
repository.

• Option 1: git rm command is used to remove files

from the Git repository and add to the staging
area.
• Command: git rm
• To remove the specified file(s) from the working
directory and add the change to the staging
area, use the following command:
$ git rm <file path 1> ... <file path n>
 
where <file path> is the absolute or relative path
of the file to be deleted from the Git repository.

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Version Control Systems
Adding and Removing Files (Contd.)
• To add the specified file(s) to be removed from the staging area without removing the file(s)
itself from the working directory, use the following command:
$ git rm --cached <file path 1> ... <file path n>

The git rm command will not work if the file is already in the staging area with changes.

• Option 2: This option is a two-step process. First use the regular filesystem command to
remove the file(s) and then add the file to the stage using the Git command.
$ rm <file path 1> ... <file path n>
$ git add <file path 1> ... <file path n>

This two step process is equivalent to using the git rm <file path 1> ... <file path n> command.
Using this option does not allow the file to be preserved in the working directory.

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Version Control Systems
Updating Repositories
Updating the Local Repository with the
Changes in the Staging Area
Command: git commit
• This command combines all the content
changes in the staging area into a single
commit and updates the local Git
repository.

• To commit the changes from the staging

area, use the following command:
$ git commit
 
• To commit the changes from the staging
area with a
message, use the following command:
  $ git commit -m "<message>" © 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 41
Version Control Systems
Updating Repositories (Contd.)
Updating the Remote Repository

Command: git push

• This command will not execute successfully if

there is a conflict with adding the changes from
the local Git repository to the remote Git
repository.

• To update the contents from the local

repository to
a particular branch in the remote repository,
use the following command:
$ git push origin <branch name>

• To update the contents from the local

repository to the master branch of the remote
repository, use the command: $ git push origin
master
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Version Control Systems
Updating Repositories (Contd.)
Updating Your Local Copy of the Repository
• Local copies of the Git repository do not automatically get updated when another contributor
makes an update to the remote Git repository.
• Updating the local copy of the repository is a manual step.
Command: git pull
• When executing the command, the following steps occur:
• The local repository ( .git directory) is updated with the latest commit, file history, and so
on from the remote Git repository.
• The working directory and branch is updated with the latest content from step 1.
• A single commit is created on the local branch with the changes from step 1.
• The working directory is updated with the latest content.
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 43
Version Control Systems
Updating Repositories (Contd.)
• To update the local copy of the Git
repository from the parent branch,
use the following command:
    $ git pull
Or
  $ git pull origin

• To update the local copy of the Git

repository from a specific branch,
use the following command:
    $ git pull origin <branch>

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 44
Version Control Systems
Branching Features
Creating and Deleting a Branch

Option 1: git branch command to list, create, or delete a branch.

$ git branch <parent branch> <branch name>

Option 2: git checkout command to switch branches by updating the working directory with the contents of
the branch.
$ git checkout -b <parent branch> <branch name>
Deleting a Branch
• To delete a branch, use the following command:
$ git branch -d <branch name>
Get a List of all Branches
• To get a list of all the local branches, use the following command:
$ git branch   Or $ git branch --list
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 45
Version Control Systems
Branching Features (Contd.)
Merging Branches
• Branches diverge from one
another when they are modified
after they are created.
• When Git merges the branch, it
takes the changes/commits
from the source branch and
applies it to the target branch. 
• During a merge, only the target
branch is modified.
• The source branch is
untouched and remains the
same.
 
© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 46
Version Control Systems
Branching Features (Contd.)
Fast-Forward Merge
• A fast-forward merge is when the Git algorithm is able to apply the changes/commits from the
source branch(es) to the target branch automatically and without any conflicts.

Merge Conflicts
• A merge conflict is when Git is not able to perform a fast-forward merge because it does not
know how to automatically apply the changes from the branches together for the file(s).

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 47
Version Control Systems
Branching Features (Contd.)
Performing the Merge
• Git provides a git merge command to join two or more branches together.
• Command: git merge
• To merge a branch into the client's current branch/repository, use the below command:
$ git merge <branch name>

• To merge a branch into a branch that is not the client's current branch/repository, use the
following command:
$ git checkout <target branch name>
$ git merge <source branch name>

• To merge more than one branch into the client's current branch/repository, use the below
command:
$ git merge <branch name 1>...<branch name n>
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Version Control Systems
.diff Files
What is a .diff file?
• A .diff file is used to show how two different versions of a file have changed.
• By using specific symbols, this file can be read by other systems to interpret how files can
be updated.
• The symbols and meanings in a unified diff file are:
Symbol Meaning
+ Indicates that the line has been added.
- Indicates that the line has been removed.
/dev/null Shows that a file has been added or removed.
or "blank" Gives context lines around changed lines.
@@ A visual indicator that the next block of information is starting. Within the changes for one
file, there may be multiple.
index Displays the commits compared.

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 49
Version Control Systems
Lab - Software Version Control with Git
• In this lab, you will complete the following objectives:

• Part 1: Launch the DEVASC VM

• Part 2: Initializing Git

• Part 3: Staging and Committing a File in the Git Repository

• Part 4: Managing the File and Tracking Changes

• Part 5: Branches and Merging

• Part 6: Handling Merge Conflicts

• Part 7: Integrating Git with GitHub

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3.4 Coding Basics

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Coding Basics
Methods, Functions, Modules, and Classes
• As the project size and complexity grows, and other developers (and stakeholders) get
involved, disciplined methods and best practices are needed to help developers write better
code and collaborate around it more easily.
• What is a clean code?

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Coding Basics
Clean Code
• Clean codes are the result of developers trying to make their code easy to read and
understand for other developers. 
• They follow some common principles related to formatting, organization, intuitiveness of
components, purpose and reusability.
• Clean codes emphasize on standardization, proper organization, modularity, providing inline
comments and other characteristics that help make code self-documenting.

Reasons why developers want to write clean code

• Clean code is easier to understand, more compact, and better-organized.
• Clean code, being modular, tends to be easier to test using automated methods such as unit
testing frameworks.
• Clean code, being standardized, is easier to scan and check using automated tools.
• It simply looks nicer.

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 53
Coding Basics
Methods and Functions
• Methods and Functions are blocks of code that perform tasks when executed.
• Following are some standard best-practices for determining whether a piece of code should be
encapsulated (in a method or function):
• Code that performs a discrete task, even if it happens only once, may be a candidate for
encapsulation.
• Task code that is used more than once should probably be encapsulated.
• Methods and Functions can be written once and executed as many times as required.
• If used correctly, methods and functions will simplify the code, and reduce the potential for bugs.
• Syntax of a Function in Python:

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Coding Basics
Methods and Functions (Contd.)
Arguments and Parameters
• Arguments and parameters add flexibility to methods and functions.
• Syntax of a function using arguments and parameters in Python:

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 55
Coding Basics
Methods and Functions (Contd.)
Return Statements
• The return statement refers to the return value that is specified using the keyword return followed by a
variable or expression. A return statement ends the execution of a function, and returns control to the
calling function.
• When a return statement is executed, the value of the return statement is returned and any code below it
gets skipped.
• Syntax of a function with a return statement in Python:

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Coding Basics
Methods and Functions (Contd.)
Methods vs. Functions

Methods Functions
Methods are code blocks associated with Functions are standalone code blocks.
an object, typically for object-oriented
programming.

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Coding Basics
Modules
• Developers typically use modules to divide a large project into smaller parts so that the code can be
read and understood easily.
• They consists of a set of functions and typically contains an interface for other modules to integrate
with. 
• A module is packaged as a single file and is expected to work independently.
• Below is a module with a set of functions saved in a script called circleClass.py.

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Coding Basics
Classes
• In most Object-Orient Programming (OOP) languages, and in Python, classes are a means of bundling
data and functionality. Each class declaration defines a new object type.
• Classes may have class variables and object variables.
• New classes may be defined, based on existing, previously defined classes, so that they inherit the
properties, data members, and functionality (methods).

• A class may be instantiated (created) multiple times, and each with its own object-specific data attribute
values.

Note: Unlike other OOP languages, in Python, there is no means of creating 'private' class variables or
internal methods. However, by convention, methods and variables with a single preceding underscore
( _ ) are considered private and not to be used or referenced outside the class.

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Coding Basics
Lab - Python Classes Review
In this lab, you will complete the following objectives:
• Part 1: Launch the DEVASC VM
• Part 2: Review Functions, Methods, and Classes
• Part 3: Define a Function
• Part 4: Define a Class with Methods
• Part 5: Review the circleClass.py Script

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3.5 Code Review and Testing

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Code Review and Testing
What is a Code Review and Why Should You Do This?
• A code review is when developers look over the codebase, a subset of code, or specific code changes
and provide feedback. These developers are often called reviewers. 
• The code review process only happens after the code changes are complete and tested.
• The goal of code reviews is to make sure that the final code:
• Is easy to read
• Is easy to understand
• Follows coding best practices
• Uses correct formatting
• Is free of bugs
• Has proper comments and documentation
• Is clean

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Code Review and Testing
Types of Code Reviews
The most common types of code review processes
include:
• Formal code review: Developers have a
series of meetings to review the whole
codebase. 
• Change-based code review: Also known as a
tool-assisted code review, reviews code that
was changed as a result of a bug, user story,
feature, commit, and so on.
• Over-the-shoulder code review: A reviewer
looks over the shoulder of the developer who
wrote the code and provides feedback.

• Email pass-around: It can occur following the

automatic emails sent by the source code
management systems when a checkin is
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made. 
63
Code Review and Testing
Testing
•  Software testing is classically subdivided into two general categories:
• Functional testing seeks to determine whether the software works correctly. Does it
behave as intended in a logical sense, from the lowest levels of detail examined with Unit
Testing, to higher levels of complexity explored in Integration Testing?
• Non-functional testing examines usability, performance, security, resiliency, compliance,
localization, and many other issues. This type of testing finds out if the software is fit for its
purpose, provides the intended value, and minimizes risk.
• Developers capture design requirements as tests and then write software to pass those tests.
This is called Test-Driven Development (TDD).

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Code Review and Testing
Unit Testing
• Detailed functional testing of small pieces of code (lines, blocks, functions, classes, and other components
in isolation) is called Unit Testing. 
• These test frameworks are software that allows you to make assertions about testable conditions and
determine if these assertions are valid at a point in execution.
• Examples of test frameworks for Python:
PyTest unittest

• PyTest is handy. It automatically executes any • The unittest framework demands a different syntax
scripts that start with test_ or end with _test.py than PyTest.
and within those scripts, automatically executes • For unittest, you need to subclass the built-in
any functions beginning with 'test_' or 'tests_'.  TestCase class and test by overriding its built-in
• We can unit test a piece of code by copying it into methods or adding new methods whose names
a file, importing pytest, adding appropriately- begin with 'test_'.
named testing functions, saving the file under a
filename that also begins with 'tests_,' and running
it with PyTest.

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Code Review and Testing
Integration Testing
• Integration testing ensures
that all the individual units fit
together properly to make a
complete application.

• Running the code with PyTest

produces an output as shown
in the image:

Note: You can run this script

on your VM using pytest.
However, understanding the
output and fixing any errors
is beyond the scope of this
course.

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Code Review and Testing
Test-Driven Development (TDD)
• If you want to test to validate the application design in light of requirements, implies that you
should write the testing code before you write the application code .
• Having expressed the requirements in your testing code, you can then write the application
code until it passes the tests that you have created in the testing code.
• The basic pattern of TDD is a five-step, repeating process:
• Create a new test.
• Run tests to see if any fail for unexpected reasons.
• Write application code to pass the new test.
• Run tests to see if any fail. 
• Refactor and improve application code.

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Code Review and Testing
Lab - Create a Python Unit Test
In this lab, you will complete the following objectives:
• Part 1: Launch the DEVASC VM
• Part 2: Explore Options in the unittest Framework
• Part 3: Test a Python Function with unittest

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3.6 Understanding Data Formats

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Understanding Data Formats
Data Formats
• Rest APIs let you exchange information with remote services and equipment.
• The three most popular standard formats for exchanging information with remote APIs are
XML, JSON, and YAML.
• Parsing XML, JSON, or YAML is a frequent requirement of interacting with APIs. An oft-
encountered pattern in REST API implementations is as follows:
• Authenticate, usually by POSTing a user/password combination and retrieving an
expiring token for use in authenticating subsequent requests.
• Execute a GET request to a given endpoint (authenticating as required) to retrieve the
state of a resource, requesting XML, JSON, or YAML as the output format.
• Modify the returned XML, JSON, or YAML.
• Execute a POST (or PUT) to the same endpoint (again, authenticating as required) to
change the state of the resource, again requesting XML, JSON, or YAML as the output
format and interpreting it as needed to determine if the operation was successful.
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Understanding Data Formats
XML
• Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a generic methodology for wrapping textual data in
symmetrical tags to indicate semantics.
• It is a derivative of Structured, Generalized Markup Language (SGML), and also the parent
of HyperText Markup Language (HTML). XML filenames typically end in ".xml".
An Example XML Document

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Understanding Data Formats
XML (Contd.)
• XML Document Body: Except the first two lines of a XML document, the remainder of the
document is considered as the body.
• User-Defined Tag Names: XML tag names are user-defined. If you are composing XML for
your own application, pick tag names that clearly express the meaning of data elements, their
relationships, and hierarchy.
• Special Character Encoding: Data is conveyed in XML as readable text. 
• XML Prologue: The XML prologue is the first line in an XML file.
• Comments in XML: XML files can include comments, using the same commenting convention
used in HTML documents.
• XML Attributes: XML lets you embed attributes within tags to convey additional information.

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Understanding Data Formats
XML (Contd.)
• XML Namespaces:

• Namespaces are defined by the IETF and other internet authorities, organizations, and
other entities, and their schemas are typically hosted as public documents on the web. 
• Namespaces are identified by Uniform Resource Names (URIs) to make persistent
documents reachable without the seeker needing to be concerned about their location.
• The code example below shows the use of a namespace, defined as the value of an
xmlns attribute, to assert that the content of an XML remote procedure call should be
interpreted according to the legacy NETCONF 1.0 standard.

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Understanding Data Formats
XML (Contd.)
• Interpreting XML
• In the XML Namespaces example, the structure is represented as a list or one-
dimensional array (called 'instances') of objects (each identified as an 'instance' by
bracketing tags). Each instance object contains two key-value pairs denoting a unique
instance ID and VM server type.

• A semantically-equivalent Python data structure might be declared as shown below:

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Understanding Data Formats
JSON
• JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a data format derived from the way complex object
literals are written in JavaScript.
• JSON filenames typically end in “.json.”
• Below is a sample JSON file, containing two values that are text strings, one is a boolean
value, and two are arrays:

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Understanding Data Formats
JSON (Contd.)
• JSON Basic Data Types: JSON basic data types include numbers, strings, Booleans, or
nulls.
• JSON Objects: As in JavaScript, individual objects in JSON comprise of key/value pairs,
which may be surrounded by braces, individually.
• JSON Maps and Lists:  In this case, each individual key/value pair does not need its own set
of brackets, but the entire object does.  JSON compound objects can be deeply-nested, with
complex structure. It can also express JavaScript ordered arrays (or 'lists') of data or objects.
• No Comments in JSON: Unlike XML and YAML, JSON does not support any kind of
standard method for including unparsed comments in code.
• Whitespace Insignificant: Whitespace in JSON is not significant, and files can be indented
using tabs or spaces as preferred, or not at all. 

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Understanding Data Formats
YAML
• YAML Ain't Markup Language (YAML) is a superset of JSON designed for even easier human
readability.
• As a superset of JSON, YAML parsers can generally parse JSON documents (but not vice-
versa). 
• Hence, YAML is better than JSON at certain tasks, including the ability to embed JSON
directly (including quotes) in YAML files. 

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Understanding Data Formats
YAML (Contd.)
• YAML File Structure: YAML files conventionally open with three dashes ( --- alone on a
line) and end with three dots ( ... likewise). 
• YAML Data Types: YAML basic data types include numbers, strings, Booleans, or nulls.
• Basic Objects: In YAML, basic data types are equated to keys.
• YAML Indentation and File Structure: YAML indicates its hierarchy using indentation.
• Maps and Lists: YAML easily represents more complex data types, such as maps
containing multiple key/value pairs and ordered lists.
• Maps are generally expressed over multiple lines, beginning with a label key and a
colon, followed by members, indented on subsequent lines:

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Understanding Data Formats
YAML (Contd.)
• Lists (arrays) are represented with optionally-indented members preceded by a single
dash and space:

• Maps and lists can also be represented in a so-called "flow syntax," which looks very
much like JavaScript or Python:

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Understanding Data Formats
YAML (Contd.)
• Long Strings: They are represented using a 'folding' syntax, where linebreaks are
presumed to be replaced by spaces when the file is parsed/consumed, or in a non-folding
syntax. 

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Understanding Data Formats
YAML (Contd.)
• Comments: Comments in YAML can be inserted anywhere except in a long string literal,
and are preceded by the hash sign and a space.

• More YAML Features: YAML has many more features, most often encountered when using
it in the context of specific languages, like Python, or when converting to JSON or other
formats. For example, YAML 1.2 supports schemas and tags, which can be used to
disambiguate interpretation of values.
For example, to force a number to be interpreted as a string, you could use the !!str string,
which is part of the YAML "Failsafe" schema:

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Understanding Data Formats
Parsing and Serializing
• Parsing means analyzing a message, breaking it into its component parts, and
understanding their purposes in context.
• Serializing is roughly the opposite of parsing.
• Popular programming languages such as Python generally incorporate easy-to-use parsing
functions that can accept data returned by an I/O function and produce a semantically-
equivalent internal data structure containing valid typed data.
• On the outbound side, they contain serializers that turn internal data structures into
semantically-equivalent messages formatted as character strings.

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Understanding Data Formats
Lab - Parse Different Data Types with Python
In this lab, you will complete the following objectives:
• Part 1: Launch the DEVASC VM
• Part 2: Parse XML in Python
• Part 3: Parse JSON in Python
• Part 4: Parse YAML in Python

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 83