- Calendar Course assignments Assignment 4 Assignment 7 Assignment 10 Assignment 15 Examples

Frequently asked questions

The following questions/answers include some basic tips for this course. You are recommended to read these questions/answers carefully before you get in touch with the course instructor with a question.

• Why do we need personal access codes?

  There are several reasons for using personal access codes: It is necessary to limit the users of the course resources to the students accepted because of capacity limitations. In a web-based course, the instructor must have a reliable way to identify each student, and each student is entitled to be credited in a safe way with his/her own work. If someone is gaining entrance to the course illegitimately, it may result in problems for the students and in the worst case create damage in the form of lost assignment reports, progress reports, etc. You should therefore take as well care of your access code as you do with your credit card PIN codes to avoid any misuse.

• Why should I logout?

  For the safety of your own and other course students' tests, reports and progress, always logout of the course if you are sharing the PC with somebody else. If not, unauthorized persons may enter the course when open with your access code.

• Why is not all sessions available when the course starts?

  If all sessions were available at the beginning of the course, some students might be tempted to rush through the course. On the other hand, the course workload is quite extensive, and students are strongly recommended against postponing session work, tests and assignments. Experience indicates that the best results are obtained if work is evenly distributed during the length of the term.

• Why is each assignment report submittance period limited?

  Previous cources indicated that the best results were obtained by students who worked on the course through the whole term. The learning seemed to be very much reduced if all tests and assignments were done in the last few weeks of the course period.

• How do I get back to the referencing page after clicking on a hyperlink?

  When you want to get back to the referencing page, click at the BACK icon in you browser window. This will function well with the most popular browser. Some browsers may, however, send you back to a another page. In this case, look in the browser's toolbar for a drop-down GO or a TOOL menu, which may include a BACK option which are working correctly. Don't use the BACK button when you are taking the tests.

• Can I print out text and illustrations for study off line?

  No problem. If you prefer to print out the text and the illustrations, display the text/illustration you want to print on the screen, mark the text/illustration by a click on the mouse and activate your printer. The course comprises several hundreds text pages and illustrations. Printing it all will take some time. Also note that the hyperlinks are not active on printed paper!

• Is there any reason to explore the hyperlinks?

  Yes, always click on the hyperlinks when you see them. They refer to important additional information from which you will benefit to get acquainted. You can return to the referring page easily by a click on the Back button.

• Why are error messages turning up?

  There are several reason: A timeout is embedded in the system. It will Disconnect you from the course if you have not been active during the last 15 minutes. If you are distracted for some time in the middle of a session, you will get an error message when you return to the course site. You may also have tried to do something which the course system does not accept. If you wish to continue your work, click on the Entrance link and enter through the Entrance . Occasionally, special system error messages may also turn up because of errors outside the course. Try first to get back to business by backing up, and refresh the previous location. If that does not work, log out and log in again.

• Why are there tests at the end of the sessions?

  The Tests are included to check that you have acquired a reasonable level of knowledge from the previous sessions before you rush into a newsession. You must pass the test at the end of each session to get access to the next session. If you fail, you will get the opportunity to try again, but you will not be permitted to repeat a test you have already passed. The tests also permit the instructor to monitor the progress of the individual participant and take an initiative if something goes wrong. The tests are composed of questions with multiple choice answers, and the requirements to pass are not strict. The questions are selected randomly from topics in all sessions you have so far gained access to.

• Can I review my own progress?

  Yes, if you go to the Communication section and click on Progress report , you will get a personal status report which contains the results of all tests you have completed satisfactory as well as a record of other assignments carried out. You will be able to retrieve your own progress report only. No other students can get access to your personal progress report.

• How can I try the application examples?

  In the folder of each session, you will find a link named Read session examples . When clicking on this link, you will get a list of the examples related to the session. Select the example you want, and click on the link, which usually starts the execution of the application. The example code is explained in the session.

• What is the Message board ?

  The Message board is a simple bulletin board. It will be used by the course instructor to make general announcements. Students are also invited to use the board for discussions related to the course topic and its applications.

• How can I use Question and Answers from the Instructor?

  The Question and Answer section should be used if you have a question of general interest to the instructor. It may save the instructor for answering identical email questions several times, and give the students additional information to avoid some future pitfalls. Open the page for uploading your question and type your question. It will be recorded, and the instructor will upload an answer.

• How can assignments be submitted?

  Before submitting any assignments, study the general information you find from the Calendar and the Assignment links. For submitting or reading assignment reports, click on the relevant session and select Read/submit assignment from the session menu. When you want to submit an assignment report, remember that only MS Word files will be accepted for uploading. It is also important to observe that the file name must be without spaces and not include any special characters. The uploading facility is open for 2 weeks after the opening of the session in which the assignment was announced. After the facility is closed, no reports can be uploaded and you must discontinue the course.

• Can I get in private Email contact with the instructor?

  If your problem is not a general problem (general problems should be posted in the Questions and Answers board), please feel free to email the instructor about special course problems you encounter. use the course name as Subject in your email signalling to the instructor that the message is related to this course. The instructor will also appreciate comments to, identification of errors and improvement proposals for the course by email. You should not expect, however, that the instructor will have opportunity to engage in lengthy individual discussions.

• What is the Online (Synchronous) connection ?

  The Online/Synchronous connection is a real time discussion option which the instructor can activate for a limited time and a limited number of participants. Since it requires that the instructor and students all are online at the same time, the use of this option must be programmed. Synchronous discussion permits the participants to comment in real time, but will easily be chaotic if too many participates. If activated, it will require that the participants have signed up ahead of the discussion. All participants may follow the discussion, but contributions only from those enlisted will be accepted by the system.

 

Grading

The course is not considered completed if not all tests have been passed, and all assignment reports satisfactory submitted (min 10 points each for the 3 first assignments, and 60 points for the final report. The course work is weighted according to the following weights:

1. Each session 1-14 test (max. 8 , min. 6 points each), Session 15 test (max. 28 , min. 21 points)
2. Project proposal (max. 20 , min. 10 points)
3. Comment to another student's proposal (max. 20 , min. 10 points)
4. Template report (max. 20 , min. 10 points)
5. Final project report (max. 150 , min. 75 points)

i.e. top sum of scores for course work is 350 points, and minimum acceptable 210 .

You can check your own progress by inspecting your progress report . An assignment shows 0 points until your assignment report has been received. An assignment report will be given 1 point when received, but not yet reviewed. After reviewing, the points given for an assignment report will be between 2 and 20 except for the final report for which the maximum number of points given will be 150 .

Grading

The course is not considered completed if not all tests have been passed, and all assignment reports satisfactory submitted (min 10 points each for the 3 first assignments, and 60 points for the final report. The course work is weighted according to the following weights:

1. Each session 1-14 test (max. 8 , min. 6 points each), Session 15 test (max. 28 , min. 21 points)
2. Project proposal (max. 20 , min. 10 points)
3. Comment to another student's proposal (max. 20 , min. 10 points)
4. Template report (max. 20 , min. 10 points)
5. Final project report (max. 150 , min. 75 points)

i.e. top sum of scores for course work is 350 points, and minimum acceptable 210 .

You can check your own progress by inspecting your progress report . An assignment shows 0 points until your assignment report has been received. An assignment report will be given 1 point when received, but not yet reviewed. After reviewing, the points given for an assignment report will be between 2 and 20 except for the final report for which the maximum number of points given will be 150 .

A bibliography for further studies

IMPLEMENTING DYNAMIC WEB-SITES :

Bandyopadhyay, N (2001): e-Commerce: Context, Concepts and Consequences 1/e. McGrawHill. NY.

Brook-Bilson, R. (2003): Programming ColdFusion. Second Edition. O'Reilly. Ca.

Castro, E. (1999): PERL and CGI. Peachpit Press. CA.

Flanagan, D. (2001): JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 4th Edition. O'Rilley, Ca.

Forta, B. (2003): Certified Macromedia ColdFusion MX Designer Study Guide. Macromedia Press.

Forta, B. (2003): The ColdFusion MX Web applications Construction Kit. Macromedia Press.

Forta, B. a.o.(2003): Advanced ColdFusion Applications Development. Third Edition. Macromedia Press.

Hatfield, B. (1999): Active Server Pages for Dummies. IDG. CA.

McFarland, D. S. (2004):Dreaqmweaver MX 2004: The Missing >Manual. O'Rilley, Ca.

Mohammed, R., Fisher,R., Javorski, B., and Cahill, A.(2001): Internet Marketing: Building Advbantage in the networked Economy 1/e. McGrawHill. NY.

Moock, C. (2002): ActionScript for Flash MXC. The Definitive Guide. 2nd Edition. O'Reilly.Ca.

Reding, E.(2001): Building an E-Business: From the Ground Up 1/e. McGrawHill. NY.

Wall, L., Christiansen, T. and Schwartz, R. (1996): Programming Perl. O'Reilly. Ca.

Searching sessions

You can search for which session files are the most relevant to study for a certain task. For search criteria , you can use either

• single words
• two or more words connected by OR
• two or more words connected by AND
• a logical expression with NOT ahead of one or more words
• a logical expression with combinations of OR, AND and NOT

Search words:

The search engine used, VERITY , is bundled with CFMX . Use of the searche enginge in your own applications is discussed in Session 6.

Software.

The course requires that you have access to a PC with Windows 98 , XP , NT 4 , or 2000 operating system connected to Internet. In addition, you need MS Word and a modern browser, e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape , installed.

You will also need some special software components for this course:

1. An editor for preparing templates.

To develop templates during the course you will need an editor . Several options exists:

• The simplest is to use MS NotePad which comes bundled with Windows and does not cost anything. Do not try to use a word processor like Word for this purpose.
• You can look for a more advanced editor as Dreamweaver MX 2004 from Macromedia , which requires that you willing to spend some money. It is developed for writing ColdFusion scripts as well as also serving many other purposes.

2. A ColdFusion application server

The ColdFusion MX Application Server (API) from Macromedia is needed for testing and publication of applications yopu develop. The ColdFusion MX comes in several versions. As long as you are doing development work, as you will do in this course, you can manage with a single-user API which is free for downloading.

• I suggest that download a free trial version of Macromedia ColdFusion MX , Professional Edition for Windows. It contains all features discussed in this course. When you download it, it comes as a full multi-user version. When the trial time expires, the server becomes a single-user server, which you can continue to use. You can develop and test your own templates with a single-user application server, but you will not be able to publish your application on the net and invite your friends to admire them. That will require a multi-user version. The address for downloading the free trial version is:

  http://www.macromedia.com/downloads/

Note that when you install the API , you will be asked about which Web server you are running. Check the stand-alone option. That is a Web server which is bundled with the application server and installes itself. If you later decide to become a professional web site host, you will have to install a more powerful web server.

• If you buy a Dreamweaver MX editor from Macromedia , a free single-user ColdFusion Application Server is also included, and you will be saved from downloading a trial version.

You should be prepared that the application server requires requires quite a lot of disk space.

3. A data base system

You will very soon want to work with back-end database applications , and you will need a database system installed on your computer. Options are:

• You can obtain a free database on the net. A free, very popular database is MySQL . It can be downloaded from:

  http://www.mysql.com

• A second alternative is to acquire a desktop database as for example MS Access , or a big system like MS SQL Server, IBM DB2, Oracle 9i, etc.

An important condition for using a database is that you have an JDBC/ODBC driver for the particular database. For the most usual databases, as for example MS Access , drivers will usually be pre-installed in your operating system. For other less popuilar databases, you will probably be able to find the required drivers on the net.

4. An Adobe reader

To be able to read the papers in the section Articles formatted as .pdf files, an Adobe Reader is required. A free copy can be downloaded from:

http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html

Adobe Reader is a registered trademark of Adobe, ColdFusion MX , HomeSite and Macromedia Dreamweaver MX are registered trademarks of Macromedia, Windows 98 , Windows NT 4 , Windows 2000 , SQL Server , Access , NotePad and Word are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, DB2 is registered trademark of International Business Machines, and Oracle9i is registered trademark of Oracle Corporation

Links to URL's with material of interest

In RBB, Programming ColdFusion, you will find a number of links in Appendix D, ColdFusion Resources .

On the net, you will also find a large amount of information related to web applications in general. The following links to URL's are a rather arbitrary sample which may be of interest in connection with this course:

http://www.microsoft.com/iis

http://www.macromedia.com/software/cfstudio/

http://www.macromedia.com/downloads/

http://www.forta.com/cf

http://www.houseoffusion.com

ihtml is a alternative rapid develoment system which has some characteristics in common with CF, and can be located at:

http://www.ihtml.com/ihtmlep.htm

 

Other information: