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IT231 -- Announcements

• Final exam scores will be posted before noon today (8/20) on the D2L website. Total course scores will be also posted today in the afternoon also on D2L. No projects will be accepted after 11:59pm on Tuesday, 8/21. Final course grades will be submitted to the registrar on Wednesday, 8/22.
  &nbnsp;
• Here is a sometimes hard to diagnose problem with the code for Project 6. In the controller method results, the line where you obtain the data from the form with the params statement should look like something like this:
  

  rec = SurveyRecord.new(params[:survey_record])
  

  The model name SurveyRecord should exactly match the symbol :survey_record, except that the model name is in upper camel casing, but the symbol is in lower case underscore notation. Make sure that there are no embedded spaces in the symbol (don't do this: : survey_record).
   
• Because the Final Exam contains some more advanced material than the midterm, and it is closed book, you will probably find the final to be more difficult than the midterm. Don't worry about this too much and do the best you can; I will probably scale the scores.
   
• Look at questions 8 and 9 of the Review Questions in the 8/13 Lecture Notes. Similar questions will be on the final exam. Also, remember that single quotes are interchangeable with double quotes for strings except when using variable interpolation for strings and escape characters like \n. For example
  

  amt = 2500
  print "Amount = $#{amt}\n"
  # Prints Amount = $2500 and goes to a new line.
  
  amt = 2500
  print 'Amount = $#{amt}\n'
  # Prints Amount = $#{amt}\n literally.
  

• Project 5 will not be counted late if it is submitted by noon on Thursday, Aug. 16. Project 6 is due by Friday, Aug. 17, at midnight.
   
• Submit your instructor evaluations for this class by Tuesday, 8/14. Submit your evaluation on the MyCDM website.
   
• The scores are posted for Project 4.
   
• The final exam is on Wednesday, 8/15. We will review the final on Monday, 8/13. There will be five sections on the Final Exam:
  
  Part A: Multiple choice questions.
  Part B: Predict the output of Ruby code fragments.
  Part C: Short essay question. (See the Final Exam Review Guide for suggested short essay questions.)
  Part D: Modify a Rails project with two scaffolds having a one-to many relationship. Modify the source code as you did in Project 5 according to specifications.
  
  
• The Takehome Midterm Exam scores are posted. See the comments for the detailed score breakdown. We will go over the midterm on Monday, 8/13.
   
• We will cover the Range class on Monday, July 13. You can see what we will cover in the 8/8 Notes.
   
• If Project 4 is submitted by Saturday morning, it will not be counted late.
   
• For Project 4, put your background image in the usual assets/images folder, not in the public folder. This was a typo in the Project 4 discription; before Rails 3.1, this was the correct place to put the background image.
   
• To specify a date for a database record, do something like this:
  

  q1.birth_date = Date.new(1945, 11, 21)
  

• Reminder: the final exam will be held on Wednesday, July 15, at out normal time in our normal classroom. Online students take the final exam at the time and testing center where you registered for the exam.
   
• Agenda for remaining class meetings:
  
  August 8: Discuss the FormHelper methods needed for Project 6. More about migrations.
  August 13:Review for Final Exam.
  August 15: In-class section takes final exam. Students in online section take exam on date for which they are registered.
  
  
• For Project 4, an easy choice to make for choosing persons for quotations is to choose only persons that are already deceased. You can display the birth and death dates like this:
  

  <p> 
  <%= @q.birth_date.mon %>/<%= @q.birth_date.day %>/<%= @q.birth_date.year %>
  to 
  <%= @q.death_date.mon %>/<%= @q.death_date.day %>/<%= @q.death_date.year %> 
  </p>
  

  where @q is a QuoteInfo object that is randomly chosen in the controller. If you want to include persons that are still living, you could do something like this:
  

  <p> 
  <%= @q.birth_date.mon %>/<%= @q.birth_date.day %>/<%= @q.birth_date.year %>
  to 
  <% if @q.is_living %>
     Present
  <% else >
     <%= @q.death_date.mon %>/<%= @q.death_date.day %>/<%= @q.death_date.year %> 
  <% end >
  </p>
  

  Build Example 22.5 (Flintstones2 Example) before starting Project 4. We did this example in class on 6/30.
   
• The dropbox is ready to accept the takehome midterm exam.
   
• Problems 9 and 10 from Part A were revised on 7/31 at 1:00pm.
   
• Craig Miller will be the substitute professor on Wednesday, August 1. If you are in the in-class section, make a strong effort to attend the class as a courtesy to him. Students in the online learning section are welcome to attend as well. He will discuss the the material on ActiveRecord statements and one-to-many relationships that is needed for Project 5. Project 5 will be due on Tuesday, August 14.
   
• The takehome midterm exam is posted. It is due on Tuesday, August 7, at 11:59pm. It cannot be submitted late. Submit a zip file containing your deliverables on D2L as explained in the document.
   
• The scores are posted for Project 2.
   
• The due dates have been changed for the remaining projects.
   
• The examples that we worked in class to help you with the test-time.rb and test-student.rb files for Project 3 are shown in the Project 3 Section of the 7/25 Notes.
   
• Reminder to the live section: we meet in CDM 206 tonight (Wednesday, July 25) from 6:00 to 7:30. We meet in our usual classroom for the second half (7:50 to 9:00).
   
• If you are in the online learning section, please sign up for the final exam if you have not already done so. (Exactly half of the online students have already signed up). You can take the exam with the live section if you wish (6:00pm on Wednesday, July 15). You can take the exam between 9:00 and 9:00 on Thursday, July 16, but can only take it between 9:00 and 5:00 on Friday, July 17, or Saturday, July 18.
   
• Project 2 is officially due tonight at midnight. However, if you submit this project by Friday 11:59pm (1/27), it won't be counted late. If you submit Project 2 after August 1, it counts as more than 1 week late (30% penalty).
   
• The scores for Project 1 are posted.
   
• A note about the project grading: to receive a grade of A (94 - 100) on the projects, it is not enough to follow directions. A project that receives a grade of A should exceed the project requirements in content, creativity, and design.
   
• Our class will meet in the CDM 819 for all class meetings with this exception: for the first half (6:00pm to 7:30pm) of the class on Wednesday, July 25, for which we will meet in CDM 206. For the second half of the class on July 25, we will meet in the usual PC lab in CDM 819.
   
• Thank you to all of the Online Learning students that emailed me of your intention to remain in the class. However, I have only received emails from about half of you. Email me before Friday if you have not yet responded. Otherwise I must report you to the university as a "no-show".
   
• Online Learning students: let me know if you have trouble accessing the recorded lectures or the D2L website.
   
• The first meeting of IT231 for Summer II, 2012, is on July 16, 2011 from 6:00pm to 9:15pm, in Room 819 of the CDM Building (243 S. Wabash).
   
• Project 1 is due on Monday, July 23. (I know that's coming up fast.) Project 1 is to create a small website, using the Ruby on Rails framework, with three pages that tell me something about yourself: an Info Page, a MyFavorites Page, and a Photos Page. See the Project 1 description for details. You should already start planning what you want to include in Project 1.
   
• Use the following link to activate your CDM password:
  https://accountactivate.cti.depaul.edu

  This will allow you to use the machines in the CDM computer labs, and also allow you to use Remote Desktop Connection to login to an studentrds machine.

• Blackboard will not be used for IT231, the D2L website at d2l.depaul.edu will be used instead to submit projects, view grades, and access the online lectures. The course materials will be posted at www.depaul.edu/~sjost/it231/, the URL that you are currently viewing.

• We will use the following versions of Ruby and Ruby on Rails for this class: Ruby 1.9.3 and Rails 3.2.6. These documents describe how to install rails on your machine:   Rails Installation (Rafaella Settimi) Mac Rails Installation (Craig Miller).
   
• If you do not wish to install Ruby and Rails on your machine (or the installation does not work), you can also run Ruby and Rails via Remote Desktop. Here is a Terminal Services Guide to get you set up.
   
• To print a single frame on this website:
  Internet Explorer: Right click on frame >> Select Print...

  Mozilla: Right click on frame >> This Frame... >> Print Frame...

• Here are two MacIntosh Remote Login programs.

• Set Microsoft Explorer on your PC to show file extensions:
  1. To invoke the MS File Explorer, select Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> Windows Explorer.

  2. From the MS File Explorer, select Organize >> Folder and search options. Select the View Tab and uncheck the box for " Hide extensions for known file types."

  You should do this on the remote desktop connection computer as well as your local machine.