Module: Web Application Development
Assignment No. = 3
Release Date = 08-03-2021
Due Date: 22-03-2021
Total Marks: 15
In this assignment, you are required to extend the client-side interface for your Web application
submitted as Assignment 1 & 2 and convert it into a server-side web application. The purpose
of this assignment is to apply the server-side web application development techniques we
have learned so far and apply them to host your web application on a Web server.
Q1: Convert your static web application submitted for Assignment 2 into a server-side
application. Convert a few pages (minimum 5) from static HTML pages to dynamic web pages
using servlets or JSP. You can either keep the original static web pages created in
HTML/CSS/JS and create equivalent of these pages dynamically (e.g. JSP/Servlet) or you
can transform the existing static web pages into dynamic server-side web pages using java
servlets or JSP. Adding new pages to your web application is also fine as long as they are
within the overall theme and don’t break the layout of existing web application. You can get
inspiration from the examples discussed in the lecture but you are strongly encouraged to
think of dynamic web pages which are befitting to the theme of your web application and
perform relevant tasks. Package your web application into a war file.
Q2: Create a login system for your web application. You are required to create a login page
having a form requesting a username and password. This page should be the new main
landing page of your web application. Authenticate the password using a servlet and return
the existing main page of your website in case of a successful login or display the wrong
password message and return the user to the login page.
You are also required to create multiple roles (e.g. admin or non-admin users) and after
successful login, the users with admin roles should be able to have additional links, contents
and/or menu bar items that won’t be visible for non-admin authenticated users.
For user authentication, you can hard-code a few sample usernames and passwords, store
login credentials on a local file, or create a dynamic registration process to collect usernames
and passwords on the registration of any new user.
Q3: Introduce the following 4 session management techniques in your web application. There
should be at least one page for each session management technique. Select one of the
session management techniques for your web application and provide a short discussion in
the briefing document explaining why you believe that the selected session management
technique is most suitable for your web application.
● Http Sessions
● Cookies
● URL Rewriting
● Hidden Form
Preparation/Submission Instructions:
You are required to add comments (wherever possible) in your code to describe
functions/statements you have written and their purpose.
A briefing document should be prepared for all questions, which should clearly describe your
approach and code written for addressing the assignment questions. In your briefing
document, you should clearly point to the appropriate section within the visual interface
(through screenshots) and code files (using the file name and line number or any other
handler) explaining the logic of your code and how it accomplishes the required tasks.
Assignment should be submitted on the loop as a single zip file containing all relevant code
files from the project directory, a war file ready to deploy on the Tomcat server, and a briefing
document (word doc or pdf).
Students must ensure that their web application must not have any broken links when
deployed on the server using the Tomcat app manager by uploading their project’s war file.
Students should ensure that they have tested their application for a variety of browsers
ensuring their compatibility. The main file (starting point of your application) must be named
index.html or index.jsp and for the login page it should be login.html or login.jsp.
Please note, your submission will be assessed qualitatively e.g. fix marks on completion of a
required task plus additional marks depending on the quality of the final appearance and
functionalities introduced by the student.
Please also note, in case of suspected plagiarism (whenever a template with all functionalities
is downloaded from the Web with a possibility that the student has no understanding of the
underlying code), you could be asked to be available for viva and present/explain your work.