Read all these instructions first. Yes, I know they're longer than anything you've ever read before in your whole life. But try to read them anyway. Say the words out loud if it helps.
This is a 'project' that will last until the end of term. It will be done in pairs. One thing you must do today is tell me who your partner is.
The goal is to build a webapp.
With your partner, decide on a scenario where you would want to maintain a database and to update and query the database from your web browser. For example, a club or society may wish to keep membership records; a lepidopterist may wish to catalogue his/her collection of butterflies; a bookshop may wish to keep track of its stock; a quiz program may need to store questions, answers, and the performances of its users;... Your chosen scenario can be real (e.g. an actual UCC society) or fictitious (e.g. a shop you've made up).
Make sure your chosen scenario is ambitious enough to warrant a 'project' that will be undertaken by two people for several weeks. (E.g. a database with just one table, one form for insertion and one form for retrieval is almost certainly no good.)
Discuss your scenario with me if you are uncertain.
Start to design your database. Start to work out what forms and scripts you'll need. (It may be relevant for you to know that we have some up-coming lectures covering cookies, sessions and user authentication, all of which may be helpful if you're building a more ambitious webapp.)
Bear in mind that I will help you to design the database and to write the SQL. But, if you leave everything to the last minute, I will be overloaded and you will not get the help you need. Start asking me for help NOW.
You will be tempted to leave labs before the full hour is up, or to stop attending labs because the deadline seems so remote. Do not do so. Start designing and programming NOW.
Use everything we've learned about writing well-formed XHTML, about stylesheets, about usability, about accessibility, about images, as well as about PHP.
The work should, of course, be your own. Do not submit the work of others (e.g. taken from the Web) as if it were your own. If you do use anything from the Web, give proper credit to the original source. If you're in doubt, ask me.
Deadline: 5pm, Thursday 20th March. (Not our usual Tuesday deadline.)
Only one member of your pair should submit the work. (If both of you submit, I shall grade only the files that come from the person whose user id is alphabetically first. I shall not even look at the files submitted by the other person.)
Put all the files (web pages, stylesheets, images, scripts) into ONE folder called
lab15. Make sure the webapp still works when all the files
are gathered together in this folder.
lab15.zip. Choose LAB15 when prompted.
After submission, do NOT alter your database in any way. If you do, then your webapp may not run when I come to grade it.
In fact, there is no reason to alter anything after the submission date. For example, improving it over Easter serves no purpose. The version that will be graded is the submitted version.
Each member of the pair will receive the same mark.
I may chose to 'interview' members of some pairs in order to check that both members 'pulled their weight'. If I discover that one member of the pair has done substantially less than the other (e.g. due to differences in ability or enthusiasm), both members of the pair may receive a lower mark for lack of teamwork.
If, for some reason, your partnership breaks down or you feel that equal marks is unfair, then speak to me about the situation AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE.
Open Day! We will use the lab sessions on Tuesday 22nd April as a kind of Open Day. Your attendance at this Open Day will contribute to your grade for the work (unless absence is for a proper reason and covered by documentary evidence). Both members of the pair must be present.
Further details of the Open Day will be announced by email before Easter.