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CS 521. About This Course. CIS 521. The formal title of this course is “Advanced Web-Based Java Programming” The emphasis will likely be on “Web technologies” Some of these technologies are specific to Java Most of the technologies are language-independent This course, however, uses Java
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CS 521 About This Course
CIS 521 • The formal title of this course is “Advanced Web-Based Java Programming” • The emphasis will likely be on “Web technologies” • Some of these technologies are specific to Java • Most of the technologies are language-independent • This course, however, uses Java • Prerequisite: CIS 421 or proficiency in a high-level language • Translation: you had better already be a good programmer!
What this course is about • The explosive growth of the Web has greatly changed the face of computing • Before, we wrote programs under these assumptions: • We could use whatever language was convenient • We could write programs for the computer we happened to have available at the moment • We could design our own data formats and database schema • We did not have to interact with the rest of the world • Today, all of these assumptions are wrong! • Sun’s slogan, “The network is the computer,” is becoming true • Platform independence is no longer a luxury, but a necessity • There is a large and growing need for information interchange
Platform independence • The Internet has become indispensable • It connects millions of computers together • This network of networks runs on all kinds of computers, with all kinds of operating systems • Interoperability of programs and data has become a crucial issue • There are two possible solutions: • Microsoft’s preferred solution: Force everyone to use Windows • Much of Microsoft’s software is designed with this end in mind • If this happens, it will not happen quickly • Develop platform-independent languages and systems • This is what all the other software developers (including Sun Microsystems, the creator of Java) are working on
Java, HTML, XML, etc. • Java is (?) the most platform-independent language we have • This is one of the reasons for its popularity (there are many others) • HTML is not as feature-rich as MS Word, but it nevertheless serves an important purpose • HTML is the language of the Web • Most software documentation these days is distributed in HTML, PDF (Adobe’s Portable Document Format), or plain text • We will look at ways to create HTML from Java • XML is a platform-independent way of describing data • We may look at ways to process XML from Java • SQL is the most widely accepted database language • We will look at ways to access SQL databases from Java • Client-server architecture is used to communicate across the Web • We will look at creating server-side and client-side applications
Technologies • This semester you will learn a little bit of some of a large number of technologies: HTML, XHTML, XML, XSLT, XPath, SAX, DOM, Servlets, JSP, SQL, JDBC, others • You will get experience with some of these, and thereby gain a better understanding of many things you’ve already likely used • These technologies build upon one another--each topic is not, in general, a new beginning • You don’t have to be an expert in all of them, but you are expected to learn where to find out more
Software • All the software you need is on the Web • If you use your own computer, you need to install this software • Everything you really need is free (except RAM and disk space!) • You can avoid much proprietary (Windows-only) software • Recommended IDE: Netbeans
Textbook • Our textbook this semester is Advanced JavaTM: Internet Applications by Art Gittleman • Additional instructional material is on the Web • The Web is full of great (and some not-so-great) tutorials and specifications • We will sometimes use links to online tutorials and resources, and you are expected to use them • If you find better links, please let us know! • The instructor’s web page has some links of interest • http://faculty.kutztown.edu/spiegel/Links.htm