The CIS241 course on internet application development and administration will cover many topics. Each week a new technology or language will be covered. It is nearly impossible to go very deep into any one of the topics given that the course meets once a week for four hours. We will get an introduction to many issues involved in the development of internet application development. The focus of the course will be breadth.

The first week will include introductions of all sorts. You will be introduced to course and each other. All the administrative issues for the course will be covered.

The first topic of the internet will be the internet itself. You will learn about the internet and how it is defined. Also you will learn about the duties of internet professionals.

A central theme of the course is website design. Discussions of this theme will begin on the first day. You will learn design issues about everything from creating a website idea to putting the website on the internet and turning it into a profit machine.

The first level of internet application development is HTML. This is the foundation programming language for the internet. You will learn about HTML and its use in development of applications.

At the next level of programming is style. You will learn how to create basic web pages and then added elements of style to them.

XML is another programming language for the internet. It has the same goals as HTML but adds a bit more complexity to creating pages. You will be introduced further to the notion of "content-presentation" separation paradigm. There is also a style companion to XML called XSL, to which you will be introduced.

Often it is necessary to add programmatic elements to your web page. This was mostly accomplished through scripting in the early days of internet application development. One of the most powerful languages used to accomplish the scripting is JavaScript. You will learn how to add some programmatic elements to your website using JavaScript.

Scripting works well for simple programmatic tasks such as user input validation but it falls short in creating complete applications. More traditional programming languages are used for the more complex tasks required on a website. Java is used quite often as it was developed during the "gold rush" days of the internet in the mid 1990's. It contains many intrinsic functions required to develop a website. You will learn how to add in Java programs for your website.

This is not only a course on internet application development. You will also learn about the administrative issues involved with a website. ASP will be discussed as a "middleware" type of language that facilitates communication between website clients and servers.

The server side of a website requires programming and development just as much of what you ultimately see in your web browser. Most of the server side development involves managing information on the computer to which you do not want the end user to gain direct access. Much scripting is also done on the server side as well. You will become familiar with the most popular scripting language used today, Perl.

The internet requires many protocols in order to function. One of the most important protocols is the hypertext transfer protocol. Indeed, this is the protocol that facilitated the internet being adopted by society at large. We will cover a few important points about the protocol.

Actual web servers are not very complicated and there are literally thousands of them available today. We will review a few of the servers and contrast them. You will learn how to install and configure a couple of different servers.

The last major topic of the course is that of database systems. It is inevitable that your website will use a database of some kind. Companies are often providing customers with access to their internal databases. This course will teach you how to use a database in your website application.

The field of internet application development and administration is quite large. This course cannot possibly cover everything in the area. In order to get a more broad exposure, each student will conduct research on a topic and give a presentation to the class.