Week Nine (MGDP2050)
Lecture notes and exercises for Week Nine of Web Design and Development II (MGDP2050).
See also Week Eight (MGDP2050) - Week Ten (MGDP2050).
Contents
Review
Web applications
This module will discuss web applications in more depth.
Libraries and frameworks
Libraries and frameworks are similar and overlapping concepts.
There is no formal definition of which does what. The terms are used somewhat differently, in various sub-fields of computer science. Opinions vary from one software developer to another.
I think of it this way:
- A library is a smaller concept: more like a toolbox
- A framework is a larger concept: more like an automobile (or better yet, an automobile factory)
See Libraries and frameworks (computing) for more detailed discussion.
Backbone.js
Backbone.js is a JavaScript library which is widely used to build single-page applications.
Ajax
Ajax is a programming paradigm, widely used in web design and development.
Ajax is a number of things, the most important being the fact that JavaScript can:
- Send requests from a browser
- Receive responses from the server
- Update the browser's Document Object Model -- in other words, what the user sees (or hears) in the browser.
Ajax happens without the user browsing from page to page, handled automatically by JavaScript.
Horizonal rule
In HTML, the hr element instructs the browser to display a horizontal rule.
Question for open discussion: how does this element relate to the separation of concerns in web design?
Exercises: in class
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Exercises: for next week
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Reading
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