CS 257: Software Design

Web Application, Phase 7: the last phase!

For this phase, you'll complete your web application. You will produce a functioning website based on your API, providing people convenient and pleasant-to-use access to a variety of ways to search and view your chosen database.

Components of the final product

Your web application should be left running at your 52XX-numbered assigned port on perlman.mathcs.carleton.edu. (Forgotten your port numbers? Check the email sent to you by Mike Tie in August.) The "/" route (i.e. http://perlman.mathcs.carleton.edu:52XX/) should return your site's home page. Of course, for your web application to run, your API will also need to be running. Leave it running too, listening at your 51XX-numbered port.

Your cs257 repository, tagged with "webapp_final", should contain the following.

• Your webapp/api.py from phase 5. (It's OK to modify api.py if you discover that you need more or different service from your API for your web application.)
• Your webapp/website.py, a Flask app distinct from your api.py Flask app. All of your web site's pages will be accessed via routes in website.py. You can see this separation in my books example in my github repository.
• Any template files in webapp/templates/ and static files in webapp/static/ required to support your app.
• Your data, either in csv form (one file per database table) or as a .sql dump file produced via pg_dump:
  pg_dump --no-owner --no-privileges yourdatabasename > yourdatabasename.sql

Grading rubric

Phase 6 grading will be graded as follows:

Other notes

• After midterm break, I'll provide you with tutorials/labs/samples/etc. to help you learn enough HTML, CSS, and Javascript to complete your project. (As you might imagine, it takes a long time and lots of practice to become a real expert on these subjects.)
• You should, of course, use your mockups and user stories / feature lists as a rough guide, but don't feel overly constrained by them. It's natural for your understanding of a project to evolve as you work on it, so you should feel free to diverge from your original conception if you have better ideas now.
• Remember the first five sections of Don't Make Me Think!—it will help you think about good UI design.
• Don't wait to get started. There's lots to do and it will take the time to make the pieces fit together and think about how to make your app a good experience for you users.

Have fun!