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IT231 -- Announcements
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:
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:
Here are two
MacIntosh Remote Login programs.
Set Microsoft Explorer on your PC to show file extensions:
- To invoke the MS File Explorer, select Start >> All Programs >>
Accessories >> Windows Explorer.
- 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.