IMIS Programming and Web Applications

Theme: Development of Information Systems
Course: Diploma
Module Title: Programming and Web Applications
Module Code: D24
Resources: Software: Visual Basic (at least V6), Notepad
Assessment: By a single 3-hour externally set examination paper
CATS Equivalent: 200 Notional Hours:

• 80 Hours Structured,
• 120 Hours Directed Self-Study

SPECIFIC COURSE AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Demonstrate the basic principles of programming, and apply the techniques suitable for developing simple web applications.
• Describe the role of user participation in the Information Systems (IS) development process, and explain how prototyping may help this process.
• Demonstrate the communication and problem solving skills required by Information Systems professionals in the workplace.

MODULE AIMS:

To provide students with:

• An awareness of the development environment in which the programming activity is carried out, and the participants in that environment. (A1)
• An introductory programming course in the Visual Basic (VB) programming language. (A2)
• An introduction to Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and the design of web pages. (A3)
• An overview of the use of Visual Basic Script (VBScript) to enhance the functionality of a web page displayed in a web browser. (A4)

MODULE LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Students should be able to:

A1:

• Identify the commonly accepted levels of programming languages. (LO1)
• Recognise that computer programs are usually written to solve problems or perform tasks on a computer, and as part of an information system, are used to support business functions. (LO2)
• Describe the basic software required to create and run a computer program. (LO3)
• Describe the steps involved in the program development cycle. (LO4)
• Identify areas that may involve interaction with users and other developers. (LO5)

A2:

• Demonstrate competence in the use of the Visual Basic's Integrated Development Environment (IDE). (LO6)
• Demonstrate the ability to write simple programs in Visual Basic (VB) using some or all of the following: fundamental data types, control structures, procedures, functions and arrays. (LO7)
• Demonstrate the ability to create a Graphical User Interface (GUI) using a variety of VB GUI controls. (LO8)
• Demonstrate the ability to employ simple error handling and debugging strategies. (LO9)
• Demonstrate the ability to create, read, write and close sequential and random-access files. (LO10) 22

A3:

• Describe how a web browser communicates with a web server. (LO11)
• Demonstrate the ability to create a formatted HTML document and display it in a web browser. (LO12)
• Demonstrate the ability to create and display a structured web page containing text and graphics using HTML features. (LO13)

A4:

• Demonstrate the ability to access the Internet with Visual Basic. (LO14)
• Demonstrate the ability to create web pages with HTML and VBScript. (LO15)

DETAILED MODULE CONTENT:

LO1: Levels of Programming Languages

• Machine languages, assembly languages and highlevel languages.

LO2: Why Programs are Developed

• Problem-solving process represented as Input/Processing/Output.
• Programming support for the IT function; legacy systems.
• Programming-in-the-small: programs created by one or two programmers in a short space of time, typically to support small business units.
• Programming-in-the-large: Building large, enterprisewide systems employing teams of systems developers and programmers.

LO3: Supporting Program Development

• Programming tools: flow charts, pseudocode, hierarchy charts.
• Program editors, compilers, interpreters, debuggers, executables, and integrated development environments (IDEs).

LO4: Program Development Cycle

• Program development cycle: analyse, design, select interface, code, test and debug, document code and program.

LO5: Interaction with Others

• User involvement: requirements determination; verification, end-user programming; acceptance testing.
• Interaction with other developers.

LO6: Visual Basic’s Integrated Development Environment

• Overview of the Visual Basic IDE features: Projects, Forms, and Properties; Toolbox and Controls; Form Layout Window and Properties Window.

LO7: Writing Simple Programs

• Visual programming and event-driven programming.
• Arithmetic operators; number formats; declaring variables; numeric constants; expressions.
• Using text boxes for input and output.
• Decision making: comparison operators.
• Formulating algorithms with top-down, step-wise refinement.
• Introduction to control structures: If/Then and If/Then/Else; While/Wend, Do While/Loop and Do Until/Loop.
• Further control structures: For/Next, Do/Loop While and Do/Loop Until; Select Case; Exit Do and Exit For; data type Boolean and logical operators.
• Sub procedures and Function procedures.
• Arrays: Creating and accessing arrays; ordered and unordered arrays; control arrays; dynamic arrays; passing arrays to procedures.
• Strings: data type String; string constants and string variables; string concatenation with & and +; string functions.

LO8: Creating a Graphical User Interface

• Graphical User Interface (GUI): consistency of user interfaces for business applications, common "look and feel", ease of customisation.
• GUI components: event-driven control approach; default controls in Visual Basic; ActiveX controls.
• Designing and creating forms in Visual Basic: TextBox Control, MaskEdit Control, ComboBox Control, ListBox Control, Scrollbars, Menu Editor, Pop-Up Menus, the function MsgBox.
• Designing user interfaces consisting of multiple forms: creating additional forms using Add Form, using the Hide and Show methods to determine which forms appear, modal forms, the Common Dialog Control.

LO9: Error Handling and Debugging Strategies

• Program errors; trapping errors with On Error; writing error-handling routines.
• Debugging: desk-checking simple programs or algorithms; placing Print methods at strategic points in the program.
• Stepping through a program:
• executing a program one statement at a time (stepping into)
• executing the statements of a procedure one at a time (stepping through the procedure)
• executing the entire procedure at once (stepping over the procedure)
• execute the remainder of the procedure at once (stepping out of the procedure)
• setting breakpoints.
• Using the Visual Basic debugger: the Immediate Window, the Watch Window and the Locals Window.

LO10: Sequential and Random-Access Files

• Creating and using sequential files.
• Defining records and declaring them using a Type declaration.
• Creating and using random-access files; reading and writing records.

LO11: Communication Between Browser and Server

• Web server; web client/browser, how a browser communicates with a web server.

LO12: Creating and Displaying a Formatted HTML Document

• Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML); HTML tags; attributes of tags.
• Commonly used HTML commands: the structure of an HTML program; document head; document body.
• Titles and footers.
• Text formatting: paragraph breaks, line breaks.
• Emphasising material in a web page: heading styles, drawing lines.
• Text styles: bold, italic, underline; other text effects: for example, text justification.
• Lists: Types of lists: unordered lists (bullets), ordered lists (numbering), definition lists. 24

LO13: Creating and Displaying a Structured Web Page using HTML Features

• Adding graphics to HTML documents: picture file formats .GIF and .JPG, the tag , image attributes ALIGN, BORDER, WIDTH, HEIGHT, HSPACE, VSPACE, ALT.
• Tables: