CS4173 > Mats > Assig. #3

J. Blustein

Web-centric Computing

[Crs | Ann | Mats | Res]

Assignment 3: Stateful Calendar, Part 1

Purpose

To gain experience with saving state using cookies and simulated GET-protocol forms, in preparation for a realistic WWW-based calendar system in a later assignment, and to improve working knowledge of the following WWW technologies:

• Cascading Style Sheets for colour selection and layout,
• forms and related protocols,
• the HTML 4 & XHTML 1 table model, and;

to gain at least familiarity with the following technologies:

• cookies,
• saving state with forms,
• servlets (at least theoretically), and
• the CGI protocol

Dates

Assigned

02 Mar.

Due

08 Mar. (at 5p.m.)

Description

Create a webpage that uses server-side programming (in the language(s) of your choice) to

• create a one month calendar for any single month between the years 1799 and 9999
• give the user a simple way to view the next and previous months recursively, i.e. from every month the user will be able to jump to the previous or next month
• record the current month and year so that the next time the user visits the webpage that same month and year will be displayed.
  • our program must be able to record and use the data in two ways:
    • using cookies (if the user's browser supports them), and
    • by simulating GET if it does not support cookies

Help

• See the forms and Cookies examples, the staff of the Learning Centre or your prof.

• You do not need to become a Perl expert for any assignment in this course. You do not need to use Perl for any assignment in this course.

• The Ask Dr. Math FAQ: Calendar and Days of the Week webpage has lots of details about how to compute leap years and days of the week that you will need for your assignment.

• Use the CGI Debugging Advice

Tips & Suggestions

• Use only valid XHTML 1
• You may ask for the month number (e.g. 2 for February) instead of the name. It is more difficult to deal with names.
• Use CSS to format the calendar
  • See the text-align and border-collapse properties in particular
  • You might also want to read the how to centre example
• Compare your calendar with those produced by the Unix cal(1) program
• If the browser you have chosen does not work well with external CSS referred to in dynamically generated XHTML then embed the CSS rules in the head of the XHTML document instead.

Approximate Grading Scheme

Submission Instructions

1. You will be submitting an entire directory of files electronically.
2. The files you submit must all be in a directory named 3-state.
3. Your initial webpage must be named 3-state.html.
4. You may name the other files whatever you like.
5. Be sure that your name and student number are in all program source code files and XHTML pages.
6. turn in all the files in your 3-state directory using the submit program on torch.

Detailed submit Instructions

1. You will be submitting an entire directory of files electronically.
2. The files you submit must all be in a directory named 3-state.
3. Your webpage must be named 3-state.html.
4. You may name the other files whatever you like.
5. Be sure that your name and student number are in all program source code files and XHTML pages.
6. Be sure that your webpage clearly says which browser and version it is intended for. If the marker doesn't know which browser to use and your program doesn't work on the browser he/she chooses then your program does not work and you will lose many marks.
7. turn in all the files in your 3-state directory using the /opt/bin/submit program on torch.
   1. Before you run the program, make sure that your current directory is the parent of the directory you will be submitting. For example, if your assignment is in your ~/cs4173/3-state/ directory then use cd to make ~/cs4173 your current directory before you run submit.
   2. When submit prompts you for a file or directory name, input 3-state.

http://www.cs.dal.ca/~jamie/course/CS/4173/assig/3-state.html

Version:

02 March 2005

Previous:

(none)

CS 4173 Prof.:

J. Blustein <jamie@cs.dal.ca>