Maarten Lamers > Webtechnology 2006 > lab assignment 2, PHP

Assignment

You must make a website where visitors can select postcards and "send them" to other people's e-mail address. You must not send the actual postcard via e-mail, but a unique reference to it on your website. For example, such a reference may look like "http://www.wherever.nl/pcard.php?id=19542".

Visitors must be able to select a postcard from at least 10 postcards in your system, and add a personal text to it (the personal text does not have to appear graphically on the postcard). Obviously, the visitor must be able to enter the e-mail address to which the card is sent. The receiver of the e-mail must be able to view the card and personal message on your website, and be able to send a postcard back to the sender.

Grading of the assignment will be based primarily on whether or not you demonstrated capability of working with PHP. Thanks to Willem van Vliet for developing this assignment. He even made an example postcard system for you to look at.
 

Requirements

• You must use a database system to store all the sent postcards and personal messages.
• Your postcard system must show a minimal level of PHP sophistication. Simple systems are allowed, as long as they meet the requirements. When in doubt, check with the lab assistant.
• The result of your work must be demonstrated to the lab assistant. You must also hand in the PHP source code, and all other files that your solution requires (e.g. HTML code, css files, image files, etc). All source code (also HTML) must be clearly structured and readable for humans. Beware of this when you use a WYSIWYG editor for making HTML documents, for example, because they will destroy the layout of HTML code.

Organization and rules

• The assignment must be done in teams of two students.
• For each group, an account was created on the lore.liacs.nl web server through which the PHP code can be run and tested. A (MySQL) database server is installed on this machine for you to use. The account name and password can be requested from Amalia.
• The due-date for this assignment is Tuesday, March 21st before 17:00h.
• Delays in turning in your work will not be accepted, you will fail the assignment if you do.
• Upon handing in your work the lab assistant will ask you to give a verbal explanation of your code. Our satisfaction with your explanation may affect the grading.
• The assignment is graded on a PASS/FAIL basis.
• When in doubt about what you should do: ask assistance.
• Plagiarism, or copying of other people's work, is not allowed and will result in failing the complete course.

Lab assistance

Tips

• some information about HTML forms from W3 Schools
• some information about HTML tables from Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition, by Jennifer Niederst, O'Reilly
• see the course webpage for links to PHP information