INFO 246
Information Technology Tools and Applications: Building Web Applications with PHP and JavaScript

After exposure to scripting languages in the Python class, I wanted some more hands-on experience with coding, so I took Building Web Applications with PHP and JavaScript with Professor Steve Perry in Fall 2023. I especially wanted to learn JavaScript since it can easily be incorporated while using Libguides - which my currently library utilizes. Also, Professor Perry is an excellent teacher and I jumped at the opportunity to take another class he was teaching.

As with the Python class, this class taught PHP and JavaScript through a series of problem solving assignments that started with the basics and continually added on more complexity. This course has allowed me to immediately start to 'trick out' my library's website by using JavaScript to enhance the existing framework created by Libguides. Making our website a more dynamic website using the skills learned in this class creates a better user experience for our patrons.

Course Description

This course is an introduction to using JavaScript to build dynamic web pages, that is, web pages that automatically change according to user's input, and to use PHP to create cloud-based applications. You will be reading from the class web site, watching videos, and doing programming exercises. The assignments will be problems that you solve by coding JavaScript and PHP in HTML pages that exercise the concepts learned to date.

Syllabus

Course Learning Outcomes

Use the basic syntax of coding PHP programs.
Using HTML forms with PHP.
Use standard PHP functions and be able to write their own custom functions.
Incorporate JavaScript into HTML.
Identify the types of data and operators in JavaScript.
Implement loops in JavaScript programs.
Declare functions and add objects along with their moethods and properties in JavaScript.
Manage JavaScript events by using event handlers.
Build a small Web application using PHP and JavaScript.