CTP208
Programming for the Internet

Fall 2001

Instructor : Can Ugur Ayfer
cayfer@bilkent.edu.tr

Assistant : Lale Duman
lale@ctp.bilkent.edu.tr

Course Outline:

• HTML Review (Week 1)
• HTML Form Elements (Week 1)
• http protocol basics (Week 2)
• Server Side Includes (Week 2)
• The CGI Environment, CGI support provided by the http protocol (Week 3)
• The Perl scripting language basics (Week 3, 4)
• CGI Programming with Perl (Week 5,  6,  7)
• Dynamic HTML and Javascripting for Better User Interface (Week 8)
• The PHP Scipting Language (Week 9, 10)
• RDBMSs and CGI Programming; the DBI modules (Week 11, 12)
• Socket Programming (in Perl) (Week 13, 14)

Prerequisites:

• Programming skills required. Language NOT significant.
• Students are expected to be familiar with the UNIX/LINUX environment and comfortable with the basic UNIX commands and especially with the vi editor. Students who do not feel confident with these issues MUST study and exercise by themselves!
• Familiarization and review of the UNIX environment WILL NOT be a part of the course.

Course Material:

• No specific text book is assigned for the course.
• Tutorials and application notes available on the Net will be used extensively.
• Links to useful references and notes will be posted here.

Assessment:

• Homeworks and assignments will be extensive and will require some hardwork.
• There will be 2 midterm examinations and one final.
• Homeworks and assignments : 30%
  MT1 : 20%
  MT2 : 20%
  Final : 30%

Attendance:

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT and full attendance is VERY STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.

Office Hours:

No specific office hours; students are always welcome to my office in B-316, Main Campus, B - Bldg.
Phone : x1609, e-mail : cayfer@bilkent.edu.tr

Useful Links:

• HTML Tutorial
• Guide for building "better" web pages
• Introduction to UNIX for WEB Developers
• LINUX İşletim Sistemi ( www.linux.org.tr de TBD çalışmalarından
• Using the "vi" editor (The standard UNIX Text editor)
• Just enough vi commands to survive!
• vi Reference
• A very good vi tutorial at Purdue University ECN
• WS-FTP Tutorial (WS-FTP is the MS-Windows Utility to upload/dnloa files to/from UNIX hosts)

• How web pages work?
• HTML Forms (Course Note)
• Complete List of HTML Tags Forms

• A "Server Side Includes" (SSI) tutorial
• Another "Server Side Includes" (SSI) tutorial Suggested by Serkan Bayhan
• An example web page using SSI

• A very good Perl tutorial by Rob Pepper; Covers Perl Installation for Windows

• Introduction to Perl (Course Note)
• Regular Expressions (Course Note)
• Microsoft web programming technologies (ASP, VBScript etc) (A web tour)
• Example Perl code for "Socket Programming"

Examples solved in lectures and assignment solutions

• The Web Based Regular Expression Exerciser

Exercises

• Perl, Regexp, CGI, PHP exercise questions

Assignments

• Assignment III (Due 10 April 2002 midnight)
  Implement a PERL CGI script which will enable you to maintain a "Favorites" list (or a "Bookmark List" on your personal home page on the smb.ctp.bilkent.edu.tr server.

  You should have a list of categorized favorite sites list in your new home page.

  There also should be a link/button on this page which will activate your CGI script; which in turn should pop up a new and small window which will contain a form.

  This form should have fields to enter a new web location (URL) and a list of available sections to file this new URL into. A description field also would be very useful.

  It will be a good idea to protect the service by a password.

  The user should be able to add new sections to the bookmark list.

  A sample home page would look something like :

  

  An example pop up form be something like:

  

  Bonus points will be available for those who would refresh the home page after a new URL or "Section" is added to the home page.

• Assignment II
  Implement a PERL CGI script to save the contents of a simple form which contains at least two text fields and save the contents of the form in a sequential text file in your home directory.

  Your CGI code must display a "thank you" page to the visitor after acceptingthe form.

• Assignment I - Due midnight 01 March 2002)
  Build a web page which uses "Server Side Includes" (SSI) to display the IP number of the client computer on which the browswer is running (that is; the visitor's computer).

  The page should contain some text like

  "CTP208 - Assignment I"
  Your IP number is : nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn

  Please note that SSI is not available on all web servers. The HTML code you write might not run as you expect it to on gunes, temel or other hosts. smb.ctp.bilkent.edu.tr, however, is configured to support SSI HTML code.

  You can finds notes on SSI commands on the CTP208 home page ( http://cayfer.bilkent.edu.tr/~cayfer/ctp208/ ).

  SSI topics will not be covered in the class. You are expected to learn and exercise SSI by using the references on the net. the Google search service returns very good links to SSI references when used with proper keywords.

  Please feel free use the CTP208 discussion board to discuss any difficulties you come across with.