WT1 Web Applications

Website of Prof. Dr. Barne Kleinen, Professor for Media Informatics (Bachelor/Master) at HTW Berlin

Welcome!

WT1 Web Applications is the introductory class for the Web Technology focus. The Prüfungsordnung states

Lernergebnis und Kompetenzen

  • Die Studierenden lernen die Probleme und Potentiale von Web- basierten Anwendungen im Gegensatz zu stand-alone-Anwendungen kennen.
  • Sie sind dazu in der Lage, eine eigene Web-Anwendung zu konzipieren und zu implementieren.
  • Sie lernen, Effektivitätsmetriken für Web-Anwendungen zu definieren und geeignete Methoden, um Daten zu sammeln und auszuwerten
  • Sie wissen, wie sie die Usability von Web-Anwendungen messen können
  • Sie sind dazu in der Lage, die Sicherheitsrisiken für Web- Anwendungen abzuschätzen und können geeignete Maßnahmen ergreifen, um eine Web-Anwendung abzusichern.

Meetings and Time

The class is a practical class; we only meet once a week for 2hrs (see LSF) - but it has 5 ECTS Points, which means that you will have to devote 125-150 h altogether for this class - with 17 weeks in the semester this is something about 7.5 - 9 hrs or roughly one day each week!

Schedule

As I’ll be away from Berlin for the first two weeks of this term, our first actual meeting will be on Thursday, Oct. 22. Thus, the first two weeks will be e-learning:

  • Install Ruby & Rails on the Machine you’ll be working on during this semester (for most of you this will be your personal laptop; you can of course work in the Lab as well)
  • Work through the Getting Started with Rails Guide: https://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html (that is, type in the examples, get them to work!)
  • If you’ve never seen Ruby before, read up on it: https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/ , e.g. by going through Ruby in 20 min
  • Think of a project idea that you want to be working on. Anything that is something about entering, storing and retrieving some data on a web application will be fine.

Web Technology: Web Applications will be split in two parts this term:

During the first part, you will be working on a Rails Application to get an understanding a the basics and general principles of Web Applications. We will go through basic principles and technologies in class, and you need to find a way to apply these technologies into your own project.

The second part will be devoted to working on a topic of your choice. You may learn another web framework, or work on a specialized subject such as responsive design, web security to give just 2 examples. You need to prepare and hold a presentation about your topic as well as build a second project making use of the technologies you learned about (or extend the first project if that is possible). We will collect and decide on possible topics together during class. You’ll find details in the schedule soon.

Grades

This is a practical course. You will be required to create two practical projects including documentation, and have to prepare and hold one presentation. Each of this three parts will count one third towards the final grade.

You can and should work on all assignments in pairs (groups of two). You switch partners for each assignment, although if you use the topic/technology you present on in your second practical project, it probably makes sense to work with the same person, although it may also be interesting to switch and match.

Language

This class will be held in german, but all (or almost all) written material will be in English. You are free to choose either language for your written assignments; as long as you don’t switch languages within one sentence and do your best to adhere to the grammar and spelling rules of the respective language.

Course Literature