CS1109 Lab 17

Put your work for this lab into a new folder public_html\cs1109\lab17.

Part 1: You shouldn't have skipped those lectures

Take a copy of to_binary.html; do not modify it. It allows a user to enter a non-negative integer. You can assume that your user is 100% cooperative: s/he never enters any incorrect characters.

You must write to_binary.php, which computes and outputs a string that represents the binary that corresponds to the integer that the user has entered. For example, if the user enters "37", your program outputs the string "100101"

Reminder: you covered the algorithm in CS1101; it involves repeated division by 2, noting the remainders.

You do not need and must not use any built-in functions; in particular, use of decbin is not allowed.

Part 2: No sign of Jedward

This exercise allows you to practice using databases.

Database

First you must create a database. Save a copy of the following file in your lab17 folder; do not edit it: eurovision.sql.

As you did in Induction, use ssh (or PuTTY) to login to cs1.

On cs1, type the following:

mysql -u userid -p

replacing userid with your database user id (the one you used in CS1106).

You will be asked for a password. Again, use the one you used in CS1106.

When you are logged into the database, type the following:

use dbname;

replacing dbname with your database name (the one you used in CS1106). Next type:

source ~/public_html/cs1109/lab17/eurovision.sql;

(assuming that this is where you stored the eurovision.sql file).

If all of that worked OK, then you now have one database table called winners, which has the following columns: year, country, song, performer & points.

If you want to check, then type:

select * from winners;

You should see a table of Eurovision winning songs.

You can now close down ssh/PuTTY.

HTML, CSS, PHP

Take a copy of eurovision.html; do not modify it. It allows a user to enter a country and/or a number of points.

You must write eurovision.php, which will work as follows:

In all cases, your script should output the relevant winners in an HTML table.

You can use output_functions.phps and validation_functions.phps if you wish. If you do use either of these files, please store them (as output_functions.php and validation_functions.php in your lab17 folder, and not somewhere else.

Here are some optional activities:

If you tackle any of the optional activities, make sure you don't break your program, resulting in a grade of zero.

Deadline: 1pm, Tuesday 5th March.

If you have named your files and folders correctly, your work will be collected automatically at that time by my software.

In preparation for next week

The final lab sheet, lab 18, will be a 'project' that will last until the end of term.

In time for next week, think of 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 social network will want to store its members, their connections, and so on; a bookshop may wish to keep track of its stock; a busy house-husband may wish to keep a diary of dental appointments, birthdays, and Pilates lessons; a quiz program would store questions, answers, and the scores of its users in a database;...

Examples from previous students include: database-driven quiz programs, CD/DVD/gaming shops, libraries, social networking sites, bulletin boards,...

Make sure your chosen scenario is ambitious enough to warrant a 'project' that will last until the end of term. (E.g. a database with just one table, a form for insertion and a form for retrieval is almost certainly not challenging enough.)

You should check your chosen scenario with me. You can do this at any point, no later than the start of next week's lab. Once I have agreed it, you can start designing your database, your forms and your scripts.

Bear in mind that there will be lectures on PHP for cookies, sessions (including shopping carts), and user authentication (i.e. user registration and user login).

Bear in mind that access to the labs might be reduced in the penultimate week of term due to the public holiday on the Monday and to Year 4 students holding their Project Open Day.

(There's no challenge exercise this week. Instead, you'll be eager to begin lab 18.)