UB University of Baltimore
Merrick School of Business


INSS 452 - Web Server Management and CGI Programming
Fall 2004

Thursdays 5:30 - 8:00 PM - BC 305

Professor Al Bento
office BC 473 v-mail 837-5272
e-mail abento@ubalt.edu URL http://home.ubalt.edu/abento

Office hours: Wednesdays TBA and Thursdays 3:00 - 5:00 PM


[assignments][projects][outline] [Forum]

BRIEF COURSE DESCRIPTION

The objectives of this course are to familiarize students with:

  1. Web server installation, setup and management (particularly Apache and IIS)

  2. the development of interactive, server-based, applications with the Web Common Gateway Interface (CGI)and Active Server Pages (ASP)using Perl and Visual Basic, and

  3. the use of a data base server (MySQL) together with a Web server.

All software used in the course are free but Visual Basic, so that students can install the software in their PCs. Students will also have accounts in the MIS Lab and will be able to install the software in the Lab machines and use both the Windows 2000 and Linux version of the software when available.

The pre-requisites for this course are a working knowledge of Visual Basic (see INSS325) and web development basic concepts (see INSS401).


ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Assignments (5)25%
Projects (3)45%
Final exam30%

Assignments.

The assignments are to be done individually. You will create your program or report and will post it in the files area of the Forum.

  1. setting up the Apache Web Server.
  2. modifying two Perl scripts.
  3. a Perl form processing CGI.
  4. modifying an Active Server Page using VBScript.

Projects.

Your grade in the projects will depend upon the content and documentation. The projects are to be made in groups of two to three students and when finished should be posted in the Files area of the Forum.

  1. an intermediate Perl CGI program.
  2. Using Perl CGI to access a MySQL DB and display the results in a Web page (Apache will be the Web server).

Final Exam

The final exam is a modified multiple-choice, open book exam, covering the applied materials seen in the course.

TEXTBOOKS

Required: Colburn, Rafe. Sams Teach Yourself CGI in 24 hours, SAMS,Macmillan, 2002 ISBN: 0672324040 [Cx]

Recommended: Cozens, Simon and Wainwright, Peter. Beginning Perl, Wrox Press, 2000. ISBN: 1861003145 - (x)

REFERENCES

Randal L. Schwartz,Erik Olson & Tom Christiansen Learning Perl on Win32 Systems, O'Reilly and Associates, 1997. ISBN 1-56592-324-3 (on reserve) or
Randal L. Schwartz & Tom Christiansen, Learning Perl, 2nd Edition, O'Reilly, 1997, ISBN 1-56592-284-0

Randy J. Yarger, George Reese & Tim King, MySQL & mSQL , O'Reilly, 1999, ISBN 1-56592-434-7 (on reserve)

Alligator Descarters & Tim Bunce, Programming the Perl DBI,Ben Laurie & Peter Laurie,O'Reilly,2000, ISBN 1-56592-699-4 (on reserve)

Keith Morneau & Jill Batistick, Active Server Pages, Course Technology,Thomson Learning, 2001, ISBN 0-619-01525 (on reserve)

Ben Laurie & Peter Laurie, Apache the Definitive Guide, 2nd edition, O'Reilly, 1999, ISBN 1-56592-528-9 (on reserve)

HTML references:

Too many to list here. See my list of Web sites for a summary, at the following URLs:

and these other software specific pages:

Visual Basic references:

Perl references:


OUTLINE
Day 5:30 - 6:50 7:00 - 8:00 Assignments
09/02 Course overview, tools and Windows 2000 review HTML and Forms review [C5]  
09/09 CGI specifications [C1], Linux review, and more on Linux Apache Web Server (Windows,Linux) installation [C2] assignment 1
09/16 Perl - basic syntax (1,2,3) examples  
09/23 Perl - Control Structures and Functions (4,8) examples assignment 2
09/30 Perl - I/O Statements (6) examples  
10/07 CGIs and Perl scripts (12) Creating and porting CGI scripts [C3,C4,C6, C7] assignment 3
10/14 Object-oriented Perl nd CGI.pm module (11,10) examples  
10/21 MySQL - installation and setup [C19] Review of CGI programming  
10/28 MySQL - creating and manipulating tables [C19] examples project 1 due
11/04 Perl DBI and MySQL (13) examples  
11/11 Integrating Apache and MySQL examples  
11/18 Win CGI or ASP? [C12] and Visual Basic for Web Programming PWS installation and setup (Windows).  
11/25 Thanksgiving no classes  
12/02 ASP and VBScript: Introduction examples project 2 due, assignment 4
12/09 Course wrap-up and review for Final exam    
12/16 Final Exam Final Exam assignment 4 due

This page is maintained by Al Bento who can be reached at abento@ubalt.edu. This page was last updated on November 10, 2004. Although we will attempt to keep this information accurate, we can not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided.