CS3172 > Course > About CS3172 > Goals and Topics > Topics (Summer 2001)

J. Blustein

Web-centric Computing
Advanced Web Programming
(Summer 2001)

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Course Topics

1. The WWW as a distributed document delivery system built on a client-server architecture running on the Internet
   1. Client-Server Architecture
      1. Role of the Client
         1. in the client-server model
            1. blocking
            2. requesting
            3. receiving
         2. markup vs. presentation
            1. HTML, XHTML, and background
            2. graceful degredation of presentation
               • logical vs. presentational markup
               • accessibility of webdocuments
            3. elements and parsing
               • block-level elements and in-line elements
            4. DTDs (document type definitions)
            5. syntax
               • anatomy of a webpage
               • comments and doctype declarations
               • tags, attributes, and entities
                 • tables
                 • forms
                 • paragraphs
                 • logical and structural markup
                 • frames
            6. hypertext links
               • anchors
                 • concept
                 • href, anchor text, name, title
               • URLs (Universal Resource Locators)
            7. relationships and metadata
            8. external files
               • meta, link, meta name="HTTP-EQUIV" (NOTE: so far we discussed HTTP-EQUIV only briefly during the Proxy lecture this year)
               • script, and style
               • rel and rev
         3. client-side programming
            1. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
               • components
                 • properties
                 • selectors
                 • rules
                 • in-line, per element, classes, @rules (NOTE: we did not cover @rules this year)
                 • div and span
               • syntax
               • cascading vs. inheritence
               • floating elements
                 • NOTE: we had very little discussion of floating elements this year
               • pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes
            2. Client-side scripting (using JavaScript as an example)
               • syntax
               • the DOM (the Domain Object Model)
               • HTML forms revisited
               • dynamic content generation
      2. Role of the Server
         1. in the client-server model
            • non-blocking
            • how it works
              • sockets
              • the accept() loop
         2. types of servers
         3. server-side programs
            • SSI (Server-Side Includes)
              • syntax
            • CGI (The Common Gateway Interface)
              • get and post methods
                • differences and advantages
              • parameters
              • advantages and disadvantages of different techniques and methods
   2. Web Applications
      1. Hit Counters
         1. How they function
         2. Why people might want them
         3. Why they often break
      2. Saving State
         1. cookies
            1. syntax
            2. issues
               • security
               • privacy
               • practicality
         2. servlets
            1. syntax
            2. issues
               • security
               • privacy
               • practicality
         3. (hidden) form elements
            • how to use them
            • issues
              • security
              • privacy
              • practicality
      3. Search Engines
2. HTTP (The Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
   1. headers
   2. proxies
      1. Firewall proxies
      2. Content Filtering proxies
         1. black lists
         2. white lists
         3. keyword profiles
         4. labels
            1. label bureaus
            2. PICS rules
3. WWW as part of the World
   1. XML (the Extensible Markup Language) and XSTL (Extensible Style Sheet Language Transformations)
      1. Generating new documents and document types using the WWW
   2. Accessibility
      1. types of users (people and web crawlers)
      2. equipment configuration issues
   3. Metadata and applications
      1. metadata concept
      2. uses of metadata
      3. Dublin Core scheme
      4. Semantic Web programme
         1. what is it
         2. how it is planned to work
         3. critical assessment

See Also

Lists of reference books, examples , lectures, and current topics

http://www.cs.dal.ca/~jamie/course/CS/3172/Course/goals/topics.html

Version:

25 November 2001

CS 3172 Prof:

J. Blustein <jamie@cs.dal.ca>