Projects for Advanced Internet Services

1. A project team can "claim" a project at any time after the first class by sending email to the instructor. First come, first serve. (This is meant to encourage that you think about the project sooner rather than later...) The people working on a project are noted underneath each project description.
2. Each project team selects a project and submits a URL of a webpage containing a short description of what is to be accomplished and what tools and existing efforts are to be used. The proposal should outline different steps, each producing a functional implementation, as it may not be possible to accurately predict the required effort. Based on this document, the team should discuss approach and task assignments with the instructor. The project description must outline at least one functional milestone (see below) that can be demonstrated and tested.
3. At a designated time during the semester, the project progress is submitted for grading to the teaching assistant. It will be evaluated against the project description, with points deducted for failure to adhere to the guidelines.
4. The deliverable to be graded consists of:
   • A Detailed project description, written in HTML (see style file for guidance on formatting and also note some hints on writing style), including a "man"-page like usage and installation description. The project description must include justifications for design choices, sample screen shots for programs with a GUI and/or program output.
   • An installable executable packaged as a gzip'ed tar file, including a Makefile and README file; the README file must document the installation and indicate any system dependencies such as required libraries. The tar file must also contain the HTML report, named report.html. Be sure to use the exact names, not readme.txt or other variations. The code should follow the coding style guidelines.

     The program must be easily installable and runnable using the existing Columbia CS computer configurations. In particular, the use of JDBC, Oracle databases and the like is not possible. If in doubt, ask before embarking on the project.

     To make it easier to look at the source, please create a link from your project page to your source directory. I must be able to easily test the program on a local platform. Thus, either you must provide a Solaris or Windows NT executable or, where appropriate, set up a demo web page.

   • A 20-minute presentation and demonstration of the software, with no more than 8 PostScript slides.

As far as possible, projects should be done in these languages or a combination thereof:

• Java
• C or C++
• Tcl/Tk

Projects typically consist of two people, but may also be done individually or in groups of three.

It is the responsibility of the project team to investigate and document existing efforts in their project area. The Network Bibliography, the Internet resource pages and Gamelan might be useful.

Sharing of code modules between projects and re-use of publicly available code fragments, modules and applications is highly encouraged, as long as proper credit is given.

All projects should strive to produce tools and results which are presentable to outsiders. Code structure and documentation matters, including for the project grade.

The grade will be computed according to the following criteria:

• functionality and robustness;
• adherence to protocol standards where applicable;
• ability to be used across platforms;
• user interface;
• report outlining usage, architecture and design decisions;
• coding style and clarity (comments, code organization); see my coding style reference;
• ease of installation;
• presentation of results.

If several groups want to work on the same project, the project is either enlarged and split or a random number generator decides. Project topics

If you have an idea for a project which is not listed here, talk to me.

Checklist

• Code follows coding conventions?
• Report follows conventions? Contains date of last modification at bottom?
• Every file contains comments describing purpose, modification date and author?
• Every function commented with purpose and arguments?
• Installable on Solaris and/or Windows NT by unpacking and minimal configuration? (Include binaries where possible)
• Tar file organized as "program_name/README" etc., so that it can be immediately unpacked?
• Tar file contains README (by that name)?
• README describes installation, step-by-step?
• Package contains report.html?
• All system dependencies identified and minimized?
• Javadoc documentation generated?
• Report contains screen dumps and precise description of functionality?