88566 - Web Technology (9 ECTS)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student knows the most important technologies used in the World Wide Web context. The student is able to create web documents and simple distributed web applications, determine their visual aspects, verify their correctness and universality, and design and verify their usability and user experience.

Course contents

This course is held in the second semester of each A.Y. (February-May).The teacher is usually informed of the timetable and rooms at the very last moment, and never before January of the same year. 

This course is handled by the undergraduate programme in Computer Science for a total of 9 CFU. Other programmes refer to it for a local weight of 6 CFU.

The course Web Technologies of the programme Information Sciences for Management is actually a 6 CFU course and the student of other programmes can choose it if they so prefer. This course, too, is held in the second semester of each A.Y. (February-May).The teacher is usually informed of the timetable and rooms at the very last moment, and never before January of the same year. 

The course discusses the following topics:

1. Fundamentals: VII level protocols, character encodings, standard bodies
2. Basic web technologies: HTTP, URI, HTML, CSS, XML
3. Server-side technologies for web applications: php, python, NodeJs
4. Client-side technologies for web applications: JavaScript, Ajax, JSON, JavaScript frameworks.
5. Component-based web programming: Angular, React, Vue.
6. Introduction to some technologies of Semantic Web: RDF, OWL, SPARQL, ontologies.
7. User Experience Design for web sites: the Garrett model.

Readings/Bibliography

Due to the rapid evolution of the topics of the course, there is no textbook available that covers the whole discipline. Students therefore access the slides of the course and are directed to online resources for the necessities of the course and the deepening of the topics discussed.

Teaching methods

The course is composed of classroom lessons, exercises in the laboratory, and the implementation of a project to be carried out by 2-3 people teams. The project is a web application using the most recent technologies for the web.

Assessment methods

The assessment is based on two separate tests: the presentation of the project by the team and a written test carried out individually.

The presentation of the project is taken by the whole team, and is focussed on assessing the correctness, completeness and interoperability of the web application, as well as the individual contribution to the overall project.

The written test is composed of some exercises on the technologies described during the course and a few theoretical questions.

Teaching tools

The site virtuale.unibo.it contains slides, exercises, sample exam tests, details about the project and the results of the interactive activities carried out by the students during the implementation of the final project.

Office hours

See the website of Fabio Vitali