Topic outline
- General
- Course Introduction
The World Wide Web (WWW) has become the primary means by which we conduct searches and perform billing transactions-events that can only occur with the support of specific applications. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the design and development of such applications. This course will expose you to the basic fundamentals of the Internet and Web protocols, the different architectures that Web-related applications use, and the programming languages that enable the development of Web applications, placing particular emphasis on JavaScript, HTML, XML, AJAX, and Java Server Pages (JSP). We will also cover matters of security and reliability in the development of web applications via the use of transport encryption and authentication.
- Unit 1: The Internet and Web Protocols
This unit begins with an overview of the development of the Internet and the Web. Students will then study Internet Protocols, focusing on the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and the different methods by which certain servers are able to perform requests over the Internet. The last section will address extensible Markup language, explaining how it is used to present content on websites as well as how it can be used to transport hierarchical data over the wire.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 20 hours.
- 1.1: The Internet and Web History
- 1.1.1: The Internet vs. World Wide Web
Review the presentation and take notes accordingly. Note that this text is part of an independently published textbook that provides an overview of web programming concepts, tools, and techniques.
- 1.1.2: Internet History
Read this webpage. Note that this reading is authored by the Computer History Museum, a physical museum that contains artifacts around computing hardware and technology. The "Internet History" link captures the narrative of the artifacts with a focus on Internet Milestones.
- 1.1.3: Internet Governance and ICANN
- 1.1.4: World Wide Web History
Review the presentation, which reviews the history of the development of the World Wide Web, taking notes as appropriate. You can navigate using the bar at the top of the page.
- 1.2: Internet Protocols
- 1.2.1: Services Provided by IP
Read this presentation and take notes as appropriate.
Complete this review.
- 1.2.2: IP Reliability
Read this webpage for an introduction to IP Addressing and Routing.
- 1.2.3: IP Addressing and Routing
Complete this review.
Read this webpage for an introduction to IP Addressing and Routing.
- 1.2.4: The TCP/IP Stack
Review this presentation and take notes as appropriate. This portion of the course focuses on the mechanisms that ensure the proper delivery of packets to specific destinations, congestion control in TCP, and the schema of IPv4, IPv6, and routing protocols such as RIP and OSPF.
Complete this review.
- 1.3: Hypertext Transfer Protocol
- 1.3.1: The Request Message
HTTP is an application layer protocol provided by IP. The messages and methods that allow communication between a Web Server and a Web Client are introduced. Read this webpage and make sure you understand Figure 317, which illustrates the HTTP Request Message Format. This guide covers the HTTP Protocol and the HTTP Request Message.
- 1.3.2: The Request Methods
Read this page for an overview of HTTP Request Methods.
- 1.3.3: HTTP Status Codes
Web Server responses are status codes, and each has a specific number and description. Read this webpage for an overview of HTTP Status Codes.
- 1.3.4: HTTP 1.0 vs. HTTP 1.1
Read this page, which is a transcription of a paper presented at The Eighth International World Wide Web Conference that covers key differences between the legacy HTTP version 1.0 and the current HTTP version 1.1.
Complete the activity as directed.
- 1.4: Extensible Markup Language
- 1.4.1: XML Definition
XML is the general form of HTML; with it, a programmer can create his/her own tags. Read these slides and be sure you understand the XML Elements.
- 1.4.2: XML Elements with Components
Namespaces and XML DTD are components of an XML schema, a set of rules governing the ways in which a Web Server will parse user-specific XML documents for display. Read this chapter.
- 1.4.3: XML Namespaces
Read this webpage for an overview of the purpose, function, and format of XML namespaces.
- 1.4.4: XML DTD
Read this webpage.
- 1.4.5: XML Schema
Read this webpage.
Complete this review.
- Unit 2: Client Server Architecture
In this unit, you will learn about various types of Client-Server Architectures and discuss how requests and responses are sent between a client and server. We will then learn about two-tier, three-tier, and multi-tier architectures as well as the flexibility they bring to more traditional Client-Server Architectures.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 15 hours.
- 2.1: Client-Server System Characteristics
Review this presentation and take notes accordingly. Note that Client-Server architecture is hierarchical; the server provides services to the client, in this case, web services. This unit presents two Client-Server Architecture styles and demonstrates how their hierarchical architectures are divided.
Complete this review.
- 2.2: Two-Tier and Three-Tier Architectures
- 2.2.1: The Interface Layer
Read this article. Please note that the terms "client layer" and "presentation layer" are used interchangeably with "Interface Layer" in industry.
- 2.2.2: The Application Logic Layer
Read this article. Please note that the terms "business logic" and "business logic layer" are used interchangeably with "Application Logic Layer" in industry. This layer represents the processing component of the Client-Server Architecture application (Two-Tier Application and/or Three-Tier Application).
- 2.2.3: The Storage Layer
Review this presentation. Please note that the terms "Database" and "Database Environment" are used interchangeably with "The Storage Layer" in industry.
- 2.3: Multi-Tier Architecture
- 2.3.1: The Presentation Layer
- 2.3.2: The Application/Business Logic Layers
- 2.3.3: The Data Layer
- Unit 3: Web Software
In this unit, you will learn the three software components that are needed for the deployment and use of web applications: Web Browsers, Web Servers, and Database Servers. We will discuss the ways in which Web Browsers display Web Application contents and the process of user input, how Web Servers receive and process that user input, and how Database Servers allow that information to be stored and retrieved.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 15 hours.
- 3.1: Web Browsers
- 3.1.1: Functions
Read this article for an introduction to web browser software. What are their purpose? What three major activities do they perform?
Complete this review.
- 3.1.2: Features
- 3.2: Web Servers
- 3.2.1: Web Servers History
Read this article.
- Complete this review.
- 3.2.2: Static vs. Dynamic Content
- 3.2.3: Path Translation
Review the presentation, focusing on slides 13-20, which illustrate the request of a webpage (per URL entry) and the path translation process as a connection is established.
- 3.2.4: Web Server Load Limits
- 3.3: Database Servers
- Unit 4: Hyptertext Markup Language (HTML)
This unit will introduce you to Hypertext Markup Language, one of the languages that a Web Browsers parse and interpret in order to display information in an easily understandable manner. This unit is organized into four different sections: HTML history, HTML's various markups, HTML's syntax and forms, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
Completing this unit should take you approximately 25 hours.
- 4.1: HTML History
Read this article.
- 4.2: HTML Markup
- 4.2.1: HTML Elements
Refer to this list as a reference.
- 4.2.2: HTML Attributes
Refer to this list as a reference.
- 4.3: HTML Syntax and Forms
Read this article. HTML is a basic language in terms of syntax.
Complete this review.
- 4.4: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Read this article. Consistency among HTML pages is accomplished through CSS.
Complete this review.
- Unit 5: JavaScript, Ajax, and Java Server Pages (JSP)
This unit is the core of this course. It will introduce you to the three main programming languages used in developing web applications: JavaScript, a dynamic language whose features are very similar to Java; AJAX, a variation of XML; and Java Server Pages, a server-side java technology that permits the creation of dynamically-generated webpages with HTML, XML, or different document types to respond to a client request to a Java Web Application container (usually a Web Server).
Completing this unit should take you approximately 30 hours.
- 5.1: Scripting Languages and Their Place among Programming Languages
- 5.2: Using JavaScript
- 5.2.1: JavaScript Features: Imperative and Structured
- 5.2.2: JavaScript Dynamicity
Read the article and understand that JavaScript includes an eval function which can be run at run-time to evaluate an argument.
Complete this assignment.
- 5.2.3: JSP Functionality
Review this presentation, taking notes as needed.
- 5.3: JSP Syntax and Semantics
- 5.4: The Document Object Model
Read this article.
Complete this quiz.
- 5.4.1: The Node Interface
- 5.4.2: DOM Interfaces
Read this article.
- 5.5: Asynchronous JavaScript with XML (AJAX)
Read this tutorial.
Complete this review.
- 5.6: Java Server Pages
Complete this quiz.
Read this tutorial through the "Life Cycle of a JSP Page" section.
- 5.6.1: Basic Java Server Pages
- 5.6.2: Include and Forward Directives
- 5.6.3: Using Java Beans with Java Server Pages
- 5.6.4: Java Server Pages Taglibs
- Unit 6: Web Security and Encryption
Transferring data and personal information over the Internet should be done in a secure manner. This unit will introduce you to three protocols that ensure data security in web applications, HTTPS, TLS, and SSL, and will explain how these protocols (along with encryption) can provide a secure means of data transport in web applications.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 20 hours.
- 6.1: Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS)
Review this presentation. HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP. We implement HTTPS--which relies on two protocols in the TC/IP stack (TLS and SSL)--in all websites and Web Servers where information exchange must be secure.
- 6.2: Browser Integration
- 6.2.1: Server Setup
Read this article. Please note that this article provides an IIS-specific implementation technique. For other Web Servers, refer to appropriate vendor documentation.
- 6.2.2: Public Key Certificates
Certificates enable a Web Server to tell a Web Browser that it is who it claims to be. It relies heavily on public key cryptography and the secure exchange of certificates.
- 6.2.3: Acquiring Certificates
Read this article, which discusses ways you can use SSL to authenticate your server.
- 6.3: HTTP Authentication
- 6.3.1: Usernames and Passwords
Review this presentation, paying specific attention to slides 2 and 3.
- 6.3.2: The Base64 Algorithm
- 6.3.3: Advantages and Disadvantage of Basic Access Authentication
- 6.4: Data Validation
Read this article.