| CODE | CIS2054 | ||||||
| TITLE | Web Applications Architecture and Systems Development | ||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Computer Information Systems | ||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Web applications are becoming ever more important in both business and domestic domains, with tools ranging from simple word processors to complex business suites being ported onto the online sphere to increase mobility, availability and increased collaboration facilities to existing and new systems. This study-unit will give students a solid foundation upon which to build their careers in today's web-oriented industries, ranging from start-ups to large corporations around the world. Cutting edge technologies will be used to exemplify the core concepts taught throughout the unit, including web-application architectures and development frameworks. Other important constructs will be explored, including User Experience (UX) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Study-unit Aims: This unit builds on the core principles of web application development discussed in CIS1053. Development frameworks will be introduced, together with a number of best practices required to build the next generation of secure and scalable web-based systems and APIs (the latter includes API-centric system architectures involving different data interchange formats). Techniques will also be presented to facilitate connectivity with most open-sourced and commercial database servers (e.g. MySQL, SQL Server, MongoDB) as well as light-weight databases such as SQLite. New developments in content delivery will also be explored, including caching techniques offered by various frameworks as well as content delivery networks. UX and SEO will be given their due importance. Cutting edge research topics will also be discussed, in preparation for more advanced courses at postgraduate level. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Establish strategies to reason about, design, build and manage scalable, maintainable, robust, secure, dynamic and usable web systems and APIs following best practices while adopting cutting edge technologies; - Understand the nature of new challenges in web development and adopt state of the art research to provide appropriate/relevant solutions. 2. Skills: The study-unit revolves around the development of problem solving skills for tomorrow’s web challenges rather than simply providing mechanical skills, and these are transferable to other units. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: - Allamaraju, S. RESTful Web Services Cookbook: Solutions for Improving Scalability and Simplicity, Yahoo! Press, 2010. - Millett, Professional ASP.NET Design Patterns, Wrox, 2010 (ISBN-13: 978-0470292785). - Shklar and Rosen. Web Application Architecture: Principles, Protocols and Practices, Wiley, 2009. - Nixon, Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites, O'Reilly Media, 2009 (ISBN-13: 978-0596157135). - Gourley, Totty. HTTP: The Definitive Guide, O'Reilly Media, 2002. |
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| RULES/CONDITIONS | Before TAKING THIS UNIT YOU ARE ADVISED TO TAKE CIS1042 OR TAKE CIS1053 OR TAKE CIS2101 While TAKING THIS UNIT YOU ARE ADVISED TO TAKE CIS2090 |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Students taking this study-unit need to have a technical background. | ||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Christopher Porter (Co-ord.) |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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