Term Project

You will plan, design, and construct a database-driven web application ("weblication") as your individual term project. You will proceed through all of the stages typical to the development of such projects in the real world: from the requirements-gathering stage, right through to the perilous demonstration of the completed application to the client. You are free to choose any theme you wish for your application: perhaps something work- or hobby-related.

Regardless of your choice, it is more than likely that the scope of your project will grow. This will especially be the case if you choose a work-related topic for your project--precisely because you will be aware of the complexities of the problem domain, and will want to model them faithfully. This "scope-creep" is the reason for the two drafts of the project proposal; you may need to be reigned in a bit after the first draft so that your final proposal isn't overly ambitious.

Although you are expected to work on your project by yourself, class members are encouraged to share their ideas and code. Students that incorporate pieces of other projects into their own are required to first solicit permission to borrow the code, and then must also acknowledge the original author of the code in both internal (comments) and external documentation.

The instructor will also build a parallel project, intended both as a reference for marking purposes and as a method to ensure that the individual student projects remain somewhat synchronized. The deliverables from the instructor's project will be posted to this page.

Project Webserver

All of the student project websites can be found by visiting the project server's home page <199.247.245.45>.

Requirements

To be elligible for full marks, the final release of your project must include:

• at least six application screens (HTML pages), not including those used for purely administrative purposes (e.g. managing users, or a logon screen);
• the facility for authorized users or the public to search for specific records relevant to the problem domain;
• at least one onscreen report that meets the business needs of the client;
• at least two different types of user account (roles);
• the facility to add, change, and remove users; and
• a logon screen for users requiring authentication, as well as a logoff mechanism.

In addition, all of the generated HTML pages that make up your application must conform to either the HTML 4.01 Specification or the XHTML 1.0 Specification. In either case your pages may conform to the Strict (difficult) or Transitional (easier) versions of the specification.

Deliverables

The project will be graded as a series of deliverables to be submitted on specified dates. Please remember that all deliverables must be submitted at the beginning of class (6:00 pm) on the date they are due. Late deliverables will be penalized 20% per working day, unless prior arrangements have been made with the instructor.

To view the detailed description of each deliverable, click the links in the Deliverable column below. These descriptions will be posted to the site over the course of the term, and will also be handed out in class.