Introduction to Web Programming

Course: Computer Science 106 A, Introduction to Web Programming, Spring 2004, Central College.
Professor: Tom Linton, 129 Vermeer Science Center, (641) 628-5264, email: lintont@central.edu.
Class Meets: MWF 9:00 to 9:50 AM in VSC 141.
Office Hours: Mon and Thur 10-10:50 AM, Tues 12-12:50 PM, Wed 1-1:50 PM, or by appointment.
Text: Programming the Web Using XHTML and JavaScript, by Larry Lagerstrom.
Technology: We will make extensive use of computers and software related to "programming on the internet". No prior knowledge of these tools is assumed. The class web page is located at the URL http://www.central.edu/homepages/lintont/classes/spring04/webprogframeset.html and there is a Blackboard site for this class as well. Information relevant to this course may come via email. You should check your email and the class web pages on occasion.
Final Exam: Wednesday May 12, 8 AM, VSC 141.

Class Overview

This class provides an introduction to programming on the internet that is intended for the general population. Students who are familiar with word processing and surfing the web will be well prepared for this class. To skillfully publish information on the internet, one must gain a proficiency with HTML and web page construction. To process information, one must learn programming fundamentals. The treatment of JavaScript in our book is geared toward supporting HTML forms in such a way as to teach programming fundamentals, especially objects. With our newly learned programming skills, we will be able to provide interactive capabilities to our web pages. The class will give you a sufficient programming foundation to allow pursuit of virtually any other programming endeavor on the internet. It is important to learn the fundamentals now so that one has the tools necessary to learn newer, emerging technologies as they become more commonplace. Simply put, this class will cover those core fundamentals.

Goals and Objectives Upon completing this class, students will

Have a basic understanding of several internet and world-wide-web protocols.
Understand web servers and how to transfer files to and from them.
Be comfortable creating simple web pages by hand.
Possess the ability to read fairly sophisticated XHTML using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
Be familiar with at least one HTML editor (like FrontPage) and its use to create complicated web pages.
Understand the fundamentals of the programming language JavaScript.

American Disabilities Act: Central College abides by interpretations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that stipulates no student shall be denied the benefits of an education “solely by reason of a handicap.” Disabilities covered by law include, but are not limited to, learning disabilities, hearing, sight or mobility impairments, and other health related impairments. If you have a documented disability that may have some impact on your work in this class and for which you may require accommodations, please see me and Nancy Kroese, Director of Student Support Services and Disability Services Coordinator, (x5247) so that such accommodations may be arranged.

Grades

Grades, based on the letter, or A, A-, B+, B, B-, . . . system, will be based on a curve of the total points in the class. The curve used will be the traditional 100-93 A, 92-90 A-, 89-88 B+, etc. (or an easier curve). The breakdown of the points in the class is given below. There is no extra credit for this class. You are encouraged to work together on group assignments (including homework), but copying answers of others (including those in the back of the text) will result in no credit. Several assignments in this class will be completed on an individual basis (working with others is forbidden).

Exams: There will be three midterm exams worth 100 points each. Tentatively, these exams will occur after we complete chapters 3, 6 and 10, or approximately on the dates February 6 (exam 1), March 5 (exam 2) and April 2 (exam 3). We will also have a 150 point cumulative final exam on Wednesday May 12 at 8:00 AM.

Homework, Activities, Quizzes: I will collect homework sets from the text after each chapter is completed. You should keep your homework in a separate notebook so that it can be collected at any time. Recording "just the answer" will receive little or no credit. You should show and/or explain your work on all assignments for this class. You are encouraged to work together on homework assignments, but this does NOT mean copying the work of others nor copying answers from a solution set. We will complete several activities (mostly in groups), some in-class, others may be out of class. These activities will involve the current topics of the course and normally replace a lecture. We will have regular (every other week or so) quizzes. Quizzes will normally be announced ahead of time and will contain questions similar to the homework problems. There will be about 450 total points for homework, activities, and quizzes in this course.

Programming Assignments: We will have regular programming assignments, typically one or more small programming assignments per chapter. Some of the programming will be done in class, some of it will be done outside of class. The programming assignements will total about 150 points for the semester.

Class Participation and Attendance: There will be 50 points based on your class participation (asking questions, taking part in discussions, contributing to your group in activities, etc.) and attendance. I will determine your score for these 50 points. You are responsible for all of the material covered in class each day, even if you are not present.

Late assignments and academic dishonesty: Late homework, activities, etc. will be penalized by 10% each lecture they are late. I am fairly flexible about giving exams at alternate times, BUT you MUST warn me before the exam is missed, and plan on taking it early rather than late. Quizzes missed due to un-excused absences can NOT be made up. Plagiarism, or copying answers from other people or books without citing the source is a serious offense and will result in no credit for the work. It is OK to discuss your answers with other groups on group assignments, but the work you turn in must be your own.

Central College's Academic Honesty Policy
"Academic dishonesty is defined as behavior that is inappropriate for academic pursuits, including plagiarizing, cheating and other such dishonest activities. Some examples of misconduct are

presenting other's work as your own: copying homework or test answers from other students, unauthorized collaboration on class activities, using unauthorized materials in a test, having someone else write your paper or test,
improper computer usage: inappropriate or illegal use of computers, including such things as pirating of programs or files, unauthorized access to files or passwords, altering records, and/or damaging programs
plagiarism and/or misuse of ideas from other sources: deliberately using or adopting materials, ideas, or images produced by another person and taking credit for them, regardless of the format in which they originally appeared, including books, journals, web pages, video or audio recordings, and/or computer files, accessing or using privileged information without authorization, quoting, paraphrasing, and/or copying materials without footnoting or proper attribution, using privileged information without authorization.

Depending on the nature of the offense, the penalty for academic dishonesty ranges from permission to redo the project (if plagiarism was inadvertent), failing the project, to failing the course. A second offense is grounds for dismissal from Central College."

Class Materials

Sample Web Pages

Chapter 2 sample uses of tags (headers, paragraphs, strong, emphasize, etc.).
The top of file lines for XHTML source documents.
Using an external style sheet example.
Precedence example in internal vs external vs local CSS declarations.
A start-up file for XHTML and CSS.
JavaScript alerts and history.go( ) commands in the head and body of HTML documents.
Using buttons and links to change colors.
Some JavaScript examples using prompt() and document.write().
An example with lists and a table.
A table using rowspan and colspan.
Using functions to change colors.
Image rollovers and buttons.
A chameleon web page to base lab exercise 9.1 upon.
The basics of simple interactive forms.
A look at the difference between object parameters and property parameters.
Submiting form data using email.
If statements with checkboxes and radio buttons.
Drop down menu example.

Activities, Lab Exercises, and practice exams

FTP activity. A quick introduction to using an FTP program to upload an HTML source document to a web server.
Chapter 2 Lab Exercise. Make a XHTML file using someone else's text, and adding some tags and elements.
Practice questions for exam 1 on chapters 1 to 3.
CD-cover, recipe page, and mylinks file.
Lab Exercise for chapter 7.
Lab Exercise for chapter 8.
Lab Exercise for chapter 4.
Images and links with FrontPage activity.
Lab Exercise for chapter 5.
Exam 2 practice problems.
Lab Exercise for chapter 11.
Activity on if statements, and the RISK backbone web-page.
Study guide for exam 3, and some answers.

Web Resources

Point and click Hexadecimal color picker.
Live demonstration of some CSS style properties and values.
Reference sheet for basic CSS properties and values.

Schedule

Relevant information will be added to this schedule as we progress through the semester. An up to date version is available on line at http://www.central.edu/homepages/lintont/classes/spring04/webprog/webprog.htm#schedule, as well as on Blackboard.

Week

Dates

Sections

Assignment

1-19 to 23

Chps 1 and 2

RQ =	Review Questions
EX =	Exercises
DE =	Debugging Exercises
LE =	Lab Exercise

Chp 1 RQ #3,4,6,10 EX #2,4,6 LE #1.1,1.2*
* See this simple web page.
FTP simple web page activity.

1-26 to 30

Chps 2 and 3

Chp 2 RQ #2,5,9,11,12 EX # 3,6,9
DE #1 LE click here to see it.
sample tags page.

2-2 to 6

Chp 3

Chapter 3 RQ #2,5,6,7,9
EX #2,4,5,6,7,9,10 DE #1 LE #3,4
exam 1 practice questions

2-9 to 13

Chp 3, Exam 1

colors, styles and links assignments.

2-16 to 20

Chp 7

Chp 7 RQ# 2,3,4,9,11,12
EX# 5,6,7 DE# 1 (the only one there)
LE exercise 8.

2-17 to 27

Chp 8

Chp 8 RQ# 1,4,7,8,9,10,11 EX# 2,3,4,5,8,10
DE# 1, Lab Exercise.

3-1 to 5

Chp 4

Chp 4 RQ# 1,3,6,9,10 EX# 2,3,5,6,7,8,10
DE #1, lab exercise handout
due Mon 3-8

3-8 to 12

Chp 5

Chp 5 RQ# 3,5,7,8,9,10 EX# 2,4,6,8
DE# 1 Lab Exercise.
FrontPage images and links activity

3-15 to 19

Spring Break!

3-22 to 26

exam 2

exam 2 practice problems

3-29 to 4-2

Chp 9

Chapter 9, RQ#1,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11
EX# 1,3,4,6,9 DE#1
LE#4 chameleon sample page, Due Mon 4-5

4-5 to 7

Chp 9, 10

Chapter 10 RQ#1,2,4,5,7,10
EX# 1,3,4,5 DE# 1 LE# 10.4

4-14 to 16

Chp 10

4-19 to 23

Chp 11, 12

Chp 11 RQ#3,4,5,6,9,10
EX# 2,3,4,6,7,8,9 DE# 1
Lab Exercise
If statements activity and RISK page

4-26 to 30

Chp 12

exam 3 practice problems and answers
Chp 12 RQ# 2,4,5,6,7,9,10
EX# 2,3,4,5,6, DE# 1, LE NONE

May 12

Wed 8:00 AM

Cumulative Final Exam