Server Side Systems CW02

Academic Year: 2024-2025

Term: 1

TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF LARAVEL BASED ON THE DEMO PRESENTATION                     (UP TO 30 MARKS)

Marks will be awarded based on the technical skills demonstrated during the demonstration of your Laravel application, accounting for 30% of the entire Honours module.

Key Areas for Assessment:

• Basic Implementation: Some students may choose to enhance an existing application (e.g., a lab exercise). Note, however, that no credit will be given for unchanged database designs.

• Core Functionality: User authentication and authorisation are essential for any real-world application. Incorporating file uploads and serving files will also be important aspects.

• Use of Taught Techniques: Students who primarily use the techniques taught in lectures and labs will demonstrate solid foundational skills. By referencing class materials during your presentation (e.g., “as discussed in Week X, Slide X”), you not only show your engagement with the module but also provide clear evidence of how you have applied course content to your project.

Higher Marks Criteria:

To achieve higher marks, students are encouraged to go beyond the basics and demonstrate more advanced skills. This may include:

• Developing from Scratch: Building a Laravel application entirely from scratch, rather than adapting a lab exercise.

• Using Advanced Techniques: Incorporating specialised Laravel techniques not covered in lectures or labs, showcasing independent learning and technical exploration.

• Fully Debugged Work: Presenting a thoroughly tested and debugged application.

• Enhanced Functionality: Implementing features such as user roles, user management, backend administration, or superuser capabilities, all of which demonstrate a deeper understanding of Laravel.

Demonstrate the following:

1 Basic CRUD Functionality: Show that your application can perform. basic Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations, essential for most web applications.

2 Models: Present your database design and demonstrate the use of validation rules within your models, ensuring data is

correctly managed and validated. Discuss your Eloquent ORM (Object Relational Mapping) implementation.

3 Database Migrations: Showcase the migration files you created for this academic year. Clearly explain how these migrations were generated, how they work, and how they integrate with your current database structure.

3 User Accounts, Authentication, and Authorisation: Demonstrate how your application handles user registration, login, and roles/permissions.

4 Specialised Techniques: Highlight any advanced or unique Laravel techniques you’ve used in your project, beyond what was covered in the course.

5 User Interface Improvements: Show the UI/UX enhancements you’ve implemented, such as responsive design, navigation improvements, or user-friendly features. Present the overall visual design of your site, including layout, styling, and use of CSS to enhance the user experience.

6 Deployment: Demonstrate that your application is deployed on a publicly accessible domain with HTTPS security, hosted on the AWS platform.

CONTENT OF THE WRITTEN LARAVEL PROGRESS REPORT                         (UP TO 30 MARKS)

The written progress report should focus exclusively on your Laravel development work. It is a formal and substantial piece of work, accounting for 30% of the entire Honours module. The report must not be a general review of Laravel, but rather a detailed record of your personal development journey with the project.

Key Areas for Assessment:

Your Laravel progress report should clearly demonstrate essential graduate-level skills by documenting your ability to:

• Analyse Problems: Identify and explain the challenges you encountered during your development.

• Introduction and Conclusion: Don’t forget to provide a structured introduction to your project and a well-rounded conclusion summarising your progress and findings.

• Synthesise Solutions: Provide solutions to the problems you faced, showcasing your ability to apply critical thinking and technical knowledge.

• Code Samples: Include relevant code samples, thoroughly explained and discussed, to communicate your understanding of Laravel and the technical decisions you made.

• Apply Course Material: Show how you applied the techniques and concepts taught in lectures and labs to your project. Referencing Slides or specific labs of this module (e.g., “as discussed in Week X, Slide X”), you not only show your engagement with the module but also provide clear evidence of how you have applied course content to your project.

• Communicate Understanding: Ensure that your explanations are clear, focused, and demonstrate a deep understanding of the technical aspects of Laravel.

Higher Marks Criteria:

To achieve higher marks, your progress report should include:

• Detailed Analysis of Challenges: Address significant issues you faced with your development environment, toolchain installations, or web server configuration, and how you solved them. These challenges provide an opportunity to showcase your problem-solving abilities.

• Develop Skills Beyond the Classroom: Demonstrate how you went beyond the material provided in the course, applying new or advanced Laravel techniques. Everything must be properly referenced using UWS Harvard style.

• Learn Lessons and Make Recommendations: Reflect on the lessons learned throughout the project, draw conclusions, and make recommendations for future work or improvements.

+Include & discuss appropriate code samples to communicate understanding!!!

Provide the following:

1 Organisation, Structure, and Presentation: The report should be well-organised, with a clear structure and professional presentation. Ensure that your content is easy to follow, with logical flow between sections. Include relevant comments and observations to enhance clarity.

2 Project Overview: Clearly describe the nature and goals of the Laravel application you developed. This should include the purpose of the project and any specific features or functionality that were implemented.

3 Practical Progress and Challenges: Provide a detailed account of your development progress, outlining any difficulties you encountered and the solutions you implemented to overcome them. Show how you approached problem-solving throughout the project.

4 Code Extracts and Documentation: Include relevant code extracts that showcase the use of Laravel techniques in your project. These extracts should demonstrate advanced usage of Laravel, highlighting your technical skills.

5 Explanation and Understanding of Code: Ensure that your code extracts are accompanied by clear explanations. These explanations should reflect a deep understanding of relevant concepts such as web development, HTTP protocols, security, PHP, MVC architecture, Laravel, RDBMS (Relational Database Management Systems), etc.

6 Project Deployment and Accessibility: Provide details of how the project was deployed and made accessible. Include the steps taken to host the application on a public server, any security measures (e.g., HTTPS, authentication), and ensure the application is accessible for review and assessment. Provide GitHub access to your project for code review.

7 Lessons Learned and Conclusions: Summarise the key lessons you learned during the project. Your report should also include conclusions or recommendations based on these lessons, discussing how your experiences might inform. future development work.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND GUIDELINES

All the sections above will be assessed using the following criteria. To achieve a good mark, ensure that your report demonstrates essential Honours graduate-level skills. Specifically, your work should:

• Analyse problems effectively.

• Synthesise solutions based on your findings.

• Clearly explain the steps you took in your own words. AI-generated text for concepts and theory will not be assessed.

• Reflect on the lessons you’ve learned throughout the process.

• Draw logical conclusions from your work.

• Make recommendations where appropriate.

• Select the most relevant images to illustrate your understanding of the diagnosis and debugging techniques, showing that you grasp the significance of the information presented in each image.

• Communicate your understanding, rather than simply copying sections from a manual or AI generated texts.

• Choose text extracts that highlight the most important and relevant features, demonstrating your insight into the process. Select file extracts that are most appropriate.

• Ensure your documentation is related to your specific project, as this demonstrates that your report is based on your own work, making it harder to falsify.

• Make sure any images included are of individual windows (rather than full-screen captures), so they remain clear and legible when scaled to fit into an A4 PDF document (e.g., font size 10-12, at 100% zoom in a PDF viewer).

• Use captions and figure numbers for all images and refer to them clearly within the supporting text. This will ensure your explanations are well-supported and easy to follow.