Module 06-19321 (2011)

• improve students' programming skills generally, and develop students' programming design and development skills to cope with large programs
• provide programming experience with more advanced but commonly used Java class libraries and other packages as appropriate
• teach specific skills in databases, web programming and concurrency, and distributed computing

• use Entity-Relationship diagrams to construct and explain conceptual models of databases, and then design tables for a relational database
• write and explain SQL queries for a relational database
• query and update a relational database from Java
• explain the servlet model and structure, including the servlet lifecycle and application/session/request/page scope
• configure, install and use servlet based web applications, implementing correct servlet request and response code, including html form processing, session handling, database connectivity and security
• explain and evaluate web application architecture and technologies
• explain the concepts and issues of threads and synchronisation, including thread pools
• implement, debug and test multithreaded programs with appropriate synchronisation, in a variety of contexts such as Swing, collection classes and network I/O mechanisms
• explain and implement socket based communication
• implement programmatic email sending
• explain and use object serialisation and use RPC to interact with remote objects

3 hrs/week lectures/tutorials, 2-3 hrs/week labs.

• Sessional: 2 hour examination (80%), continuous assessment (20%).
• Supplementary: By examination only.

1. An Introduction to the design and use of Database systems (4 weeks)
   • Background, alternatives and justification of DBMSs
   • Relational Databases: i. Relational model ii. Introduction to SQL iii. creating & manipulating DBs iv. Introduction to Transactions and concurrency
   • Database Design – ER diagrams and mapping to DB implementation
   • Java & SQL – using a DB through JDBC
2. Distributed Computing and Sockets (2 weeks)
   • Background: the network communication models
   • Sockets: purpose, justification and methods of application
   • Clients, servers and protocols
   • Implementation issues in distributed systems
3. Threads and Concurrency (3 weeks)
   • Background to concurrent processing
   • Threads: purpose, justification and methods of application
   • Concurrent processing and shared resources
   • Multi-threaded programming caveats
   • Patterns for concurrent systems
4. Internet Computing (2 weeks)