COMP3170

WEB-BASED APPLICATIONS
DR. CURTIS GITTENS
LECTURE I

Overview
2

Introductions
What this course is about
Your Responsibilities

Course Outline
Plagiarism
Setting Up Your Development Environment

Who Am I?
3
QUICK INTRODUCTION

Who Am I?
Dr. Curtis Gittens
Office: Top floor CMP Building
Office Hours:
Wednesdays & Thursdays: 10:00am 12:00pm
Telephone: 417-4473
Or by appointment
Email: curtis.gittens@cavehill.uwi.edu
I am your facilitator
Provide context & insight to what you discover

What is this Course About?

5

What is Web Based Applications?

Requirement for IT Majors
Knowledge on how to build scalable Web-based

applications
Backend development only, no frontend work!
By the end of this course you will:

Have intermediate knowledge of PHP

Understand software architecture for Web applications
Have intermediate knowledge of design patterns
Understand the role of design patterns in large scale
applications
Know how to build and use your own application framework

Your Responsibilities
7

What is Expected Of You

8

Read the chapters

Readings provide a broad view of multiple issues
Allows you to discover things not possible in lectures
Make notes or rewrite/summarize important information as
you read
Attend the lectures
Lectures uncover subject matter and provide insight and
greater detail
Undertake additional problem solving and discussion on topics
Work out solutions to problems, which will form the final
exam

What is Expected Of You

9

Participate in the lectures

Learning is not passive. Just sitting there wont help you
Engage in discussions. Participate with your peers
Ask stupid questions!

Do the labs
You can pass without doing the labs
Very ill-advised strategy
Have your labs completed for evaluation
Above all, keep up with the work
Use the course calendar as a guide to plan your

schedule!

Course Outline
10

Course Outline
11

Course Hours
Three lecture hours
Disseminates course material. Workshop style interactive with
group discussions and code walkthroughs
Based on chapters assigned for the lecture

Two lab hours

Attempts to solve discrete, incrementally difficult application
development problems.
Course assignment is broken down in these lab sessions

Course Outline
12

Required Texts
PHP and MySQL Web Development, 4th edition

Luke Welling and Laura Thomson, Addison-Wesley

PHP Objects, Patterns & Practice, 4th edition

Matt Zandstra, Apress

Check Safari Online

www.safaribooksonline.com
Free trial but have to provide a credit card
Monthly rate of $9.99US for 5 books ($20US for 3 months)

Course Outline
13

Course Schedule
Lectures:
Tuesdays
1pm 2pm

Wednesdays
2pm 4pm

Labs Start Monday January 26

Mondays & Wednesdays: 8am 10am

Course Outline
14

Coursework: 40% of Overall Grade

Fail the course work, fail the course
Eight Coursework Components
Coursework Component

Date

Lab Exercise 1

Feb. 8

Lab Exercise 2

Mar. 1

Lab Exercise 3

Mar. 22

Coding Assignment

Apr. 17

13

Class Quiz 1

Feb. 10

Class Quiz 2

Mar. 10

Class Quiz 3

Apr. 7

Jan. 20 Apr. 17

Class Attendance/Participation

Course Outline
15

Final Examination: 60%

Fail the final, fail the course
During the April/May examination period
Date/Time: TBA
Duration: 2 hours
Multiple choice, short & long answer questions
There will be coding questions

e.g. Write a code snippet that does x

Use old exams to prep for final

Plagiarism
WHAT IT IS, WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES,
AND HOW TO AVOID IT

Plagiarism & Intellectual Property

The UWI Examination Regulations ... clearly state

that plagiarism is a form of cheating (Reg. 78iii).

The University treats cases of cheating very seriously
and it is therefore important that you understand
what is plagiarism and how to avoid it. Plagiarism is
in essence presenting someone elses work as your
own.

Plagiarism & Intellectual Property

Plagiarism is representing the work of another as

your own original work, without appropriate

acknowledgement of the author or the source. This
category of cheating includes the following:

Plagiarism & Intellectual Property

Collusion, where a piece of work prepared by a
group is represented as if it were the student's
own;
2. Acquiring or commissioning a piece of work,
which is not his/her own and representing it as if
it were, by
1.

Purchasing a paper/code from a commercial service,

including Internet sites, whether prewritten or specially
prepared for the student concerned
Submitting a paper written by another person, either by a
fellow student or a person who is not a member of the
University;

Plagiarism & Intellectual Property

3. Duplication of the same or almost identical work

for more than one assessment item;

4. Copying ideas, concepts, research data, images,
sounds or text;
5. Paraphrasing a paper from a source text, whether
in manuscript, printed or electronic form, without
appropriate acknowledgement;
6. Cutting or pasting statements from multiple
sources or piecing together work of others and
representing them as original work;

Plagiarism & Intellectual Property

7. Submitting, as one own work, all or part of

another student's work, even with the student's

knowledge or consent.

A student who willingly assists another student to plagiarize

(for example by willingly giving them their own work to copy
from) is also breaching academic integrity, and may be subject
to disciplinary action.

Plagiarism & Intellectual Property

If you copy/commission/craft:
A strangers work
A friends work
Your own work

If you have help copying/commissioning/crafting

A strangers work
A friends work
Your own work
If you help a friend do any of the above...

Plagiarism & Intellectual Property

Consequences
Reduction in the grade that would normally have been given
Zero for the assignment in question
Potentially fail the coursework component and consequently,
the course

Plagiarism & Intellectual Property

To avoid plagiarism
Ensure you use your own code
When using someone elses code, credit the source.

Using others code will mean lower marks unless the code is given
as part of the assignment

Even if you modify some elses code, you must credit your
source.
Credit the source of any data, illustrations, computer
programmes or any intellectual property you use.

Creating Your Web App Dev

Environment
25
WHAT SOFTWARE TO USE; HOW TO USE IT

Creating Your Web App Dev Environment

26

Setting up yourself for...

Creating Your Web App Dev Environment

27

This is YOU building web apps over the Internet

FTP/SFTP to Web
Server
INTERNET
Web app
developer

Response from
Web server

Web server
containing the
application stack

Creating Your Web App Dev Environment

28

How do you do that?

Use (or install) a text editor on your notebook/desktop

Notepad or a better free editor, e.g. Notepad++

Install and configure an FTP client that has secure FTP

capabilities
FileZilla, WinSCP or others
Host name = servers IP address, username/password is assigned
to you

Edit/save your PHP code locally on your notebook/desktop

FTP your code to the server
to have it run in the browser
INTERNET

Creating Your Web App Dev Environment

29

Remember...

Upload a copy to the

server using Filezilla or
another FTP client that
has SFTP capabilities

Create, edit and

save your code in a
folder on your
computer with a
text editor

Store it on the server

where it can be
accessed by your
favourite browser

Creating Your Web App Dev Environment

30

I wonder... isnt
there an easier way
to build PHP apps
over the Web?

Creating Your Web App Dev Environment

31

This is YOU building web apps with an IDE

The IDE contains all the

software needed to edit, save
and upload your software. You
can even edit/save the files
remotely on the server without
having to store them locally

IDEs allow you to edit

the PHP code exactly
where it is stored
without having to use
an external FTP client

Creating Your Web App Dev Environment

32

I think IDEs are sooo

dreamy. Theyre ideal
cause they come with
all the Web stuff I need.

Creating Your Web App Dev Environment

33

You DONT
need the
Web to
build Web
Apps

Creating Your Web App Dev Environment

34

A self-contained app dev environment

Simply pick one of these self-contained packages and install
them on your Windows/Linux system
Pre-configured LAMP stack with the latest versions of each
component
Easy installation, with all servers running at the click of an
icon
Editor/IDE sold separately.

Wamp Server

XAMPP Server

Creating Your Web App Dev Environment

35

Much Needed Resources

IDEs and Editors
Pay
Zend Studio: www.zend.com/en/products/studio
NuSphere PhpED: www.nusphere.com/download.php.ide.htm

Free

FTP/SFTP Client

Netbeans - http://netbeans.org/

Filezilla, WinSCP

Shrink-wrapped Application Development Stack (Windows)

WampServer: http://www.wampserver.com/en/
XAMPP: https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html