Program 4: PHP

Here is your fourth coding assignment, due November 13 by end of day.

Goal:
You will be implementing form handling for the form you have been working on using PHP. The functionality we are looking for is similar to the 'review order' part of an online shopping checkout, allowing the user to check the information entered, and go back and edit as necessary. The form should work as follows:

• On clicking submit, load a summary page that displays the information that has been entered into the form. Use CSS to style this page appropriately; it does not have to match the form styling exactly, but the styling should give an impression of continuity from the previous page.
• The summary page should include an edit button (or link).
• On clicking 'edit', reload the original form *but* with the previously entered information retained in the form field. Clicking the 'submit' button again should bring you back to the summary page with the updated information.

Grading:

• 10% Good turnin
• 20% accurately collect data
• 30% summary page, w/ basic styling
• 10% edit option on summary page
• 30% defaults sets on edit

Deliverables:

• HTML and CSS files
• PHP source files

More than half of all Google searches now happen on mobile devices

More than half of all Google searches now happen on mobile devices
// The Verge - All Posts

Google may be waging an ongoing battle against its competitors to keep smartphone owners using the web, but recent evidence suggests it's making progress. Google's Amit Singhal, senior vice president of search, said today Google now sees more than half of its 100 billion monthly searches occurring on mobile devices. Singhal, who's speaking at Recode's Code Mobile conference in Half Moon Bay, California, defined mobile as devices with screens smaller than six inches.

"For the first time, we're getting more searches on mobile devices than on desktop," Singhal said. The metric is significant because Google has been facing off against Facebook and Apple in a power grab for internet browsing habits. Google bakes search, which helps generate...

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Google wants to speed up the mobile web with AMP project

Google wants to speed up the mobile web with AMP project
// Ars Technica

Google has a plan to speed up mobile Web browsing. The recently unveiled AMP—Accelerated Mobile Pages—project is an open source initiative that restricts certain elements of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to produce leaner Web pages "that are optimised to load instantly on mobile devices." How much quicker is "instantly"? According to Google, early testing with with a simulated 3G connection and a simulated Nexus 5 showed improvements of between 15 to 85 percent.

It's all very clever, but at the same time very simple. "AMP HTML," which sits at the core of the idea, wants to do things like minimize HTTP requests to fully lay out a document and only downloads images when they're likely to be seen. There is a trade-off, however. Third-party JavaScript code, for example, has no place in the AMP environment. Even CSS is being constrained; properties like transition, filter, and animation are currently banned. You won't be able to implement scroll bars either, or have a CSS stylesheet that exceeds 50,000 bytes.

According to AMP tech lead Malte Ubl, part of this decision can be attributed to the performance issues caused by the usage of multiple JavaScript libraries, tools, embeds, and so forth. Ads and analytics are being subjected to similar treatment. AMP disallows ads from being directly embedded into a website, requiring instead that they are placed into sandboxed iframes with no access to the primary documents. On the other hand, it's possible to embed analytics that utilise so-called "tracking pixels" in AMP documents. Anything that requires the use of JavaScript, however, remains unsupported.

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Announcement: project evaluation

Folks,

As you prepare to submit your revised project plans, please be sure to include 10% for a lightweight project evaluation, as described here.

I didn't always remember to include this myself in my responses to your first draft plans.

Professor Watson

Program 3: Javascript

Here is your third coding assignment, due on October 23, by the end of the day.


Goal:
You will be adding several Javascript functions to the form you have been working on in the last two assignments. You may also choose to use JQuery where appropriate. Add the following functions to the form fields below:

• Temporary Category Field: Mouse over dialogue that says "See instructions at http://www.ncsu.edu/human_resources/hrim/TempEECat.php"
• Address Field: Use the Google Maps API to implement a autocomplete function for the address field
• Email Address Field: Validate that the entry is a correctly formatted email address
• Date Fields: Implement a Javascript/JQuery date picker for the two date fields

Constraints:
While working towards this goal, please:

• Do not significantly modify your content or styling
• You may improve your markup, especially as needed to meet the requirements for the Javascript you are implementing
• You may use Javascript or JQuery code you find online, but you must list your sources in your written report

Testing:
Test your page on various browsers ("crossbrowser testing") using Browserling, Browsera, BrowserStack or SauceLabs — or any equivalent tool. These tools make it easy to see how a page is rendered in different browsers without actually running those browsers. Test at least half of the following browsers:

• Firefox for Windows
• Firefox for OS X
• Chrome for Windows
• Chrome for OS X
• Chrome for Android
• Internet Explorer for Windows
• Safari for OS X
• Safari for iOS

Grading:
Marks will be assigned as follows:

• 10% Good turnin
• 15% Good style, including avoiding excessive mixing of js into html and css
• 25% Do cross browser testing and validation, report same 
• 50% Correct implementation, including:
• 10% category field
• 15% address autocomplete
• 10% email format validation
• 15% date pickers

Deliverables:
Using wolfware classic assignment "js_assignment", submit:

• one CSS file
• one matching HTML file
• your Javascript/JQuery source files
• a text file of at most 1-2 pages documenting your test results and any references/code sources you used.