Here is a guess at a schedule for the semester. It is organized by
weeks, each topic given one, two, or three.
We meet Monday and Wednesday, so I'm assuming you can figure out which
days under each topic are Mondays and Wednesdays.
Aug 19 – 23: Introduction and History
History
of hypertext, the World-Wide Web, the HTTP protocol, web browsers and
the industry that grew up around them. Client and server technologies.
History notes
Aug 26 – 30: HTML and CSS
The class does not concentrate on
HTML
and
CSS,
but we should spend some time
reviewing or reintroducing them.
HTML notesCSS notes
Sep 2 – 13: JavaScript and the Document Object Model
Mon Sep 2: Labor Day holiday
JavaScript
is the main language that runs on the client side, in browsers.
The Document Object Model is a JavaScript data structure which directs
the browser what to display. JavaScript can read and manipulate the
DOM, which allows it to update the screen and interact with the user.
Sep 16 – 27: JavaScript Frameworks
JavaScript has been slow to build up a useful set of standard
classes and utilities
But the language itself is very flexible, hence
there are, at last count 4,987,123 JavaScript frameworks to
simplify coding.
We'll look at the venerable
(more than two weeks old)
jQuery, and perhaps something
newer as well.
jQuery notes
Sep 30 – Oct 11: PHP
Also, bit left of JQuery.
Mon Oct 7: Exam I: material up to, excluding PHP.
Topics Exam.
Yes, we're going to talk about
PHP.
- It's far from dead (apart from questions of whether it
should be).
- Simple things can be done simply.
- Complicated things are complicated because you have to
do so much more yourself. But then you learn how stuff works.
PHP notes
Oct 14 – 25: Client/Server Relations
Forms, cookies, browser storage, transmission of user data,
accounts, logins, sessions and related security issues.
Oct 28 – Nov 1: SQL
Very few web sites do anything simple like write data in ordinary files
on the server. Hopefully, you've run into SQL before, but maybe you
haven't. In any case, we could use a review.
Nov 4 – 22: Flask
A dynamic web site is a complicated thing, and must manage server
storage and accounts, including logins and sessions.
It must format and and transmit web pages, and receive and use
data from users.
As such, there are a perfectly unreasonable number of different
frameworks available for managing all the peices on a server,
so we should consider one. We'll use
Flask.
Flask uses the Python language, and comes with related tools
for web page templating and database support.
Wed Nov 20: Exam II: PHP, SQL client-server, and however much Flask
seems good when we get there.
Nov 25 – 29: Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving holiday
Dec 2 – 6: Whatever Seems Good
Possibly more Flask, some review, and generally playing it by ear.
The comprehensive final exam will be on Wednesday, December 11, at 3:30 pm.