CS 343: Application Development
Spring 2025
"A user interface is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it's not that good."
- Martin LeBlanc
Learning to work with the tools and technologies that are used to build and
create web sites is both empowering and fun. With these tools, you can build
your own web sites and customize the experience of those you visit. You can
also create interactive applications for storing and manipulating personal or
enterprise data. And you can dynamically generate images and graphics to help
visualize data sets.
The goal of this course is to explore these technologies - HTML, CSS, and
Javascript - that define the structure, presentation, and interactions for
modern web development. In addition to covering the basics of how to use these
tools, we will explore guidelines to ensure the sites we create are accessible
for a variety of users, including users with disabilities. After completing
this course, you will have a solid foundation to continue learning more
advanced web development techniques.
Website:
https://w3.cs.jmu.edu/kirkpams/343
Time:
M/W/F 9:10 - 10:00 AM
Location:
King Hall 243
Textbook:
Fundamentals of Web Development, 3rd Edition
Following the successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Summarize the key steps and processes for retrieving and displaying a web page.
2. Structure text documents as HTML and publish them on a server.
3. Apply accessibility standards to web documents.
4. Create and adapt CSS style sheets for consistent web site presentation and styling.
5. Use a web framework to create a modern, responsive web site.
6. Generate HTML content dynamically with Javascript.
7. Create handlers to detect and respond to user input events.
8. Store and retrieve data in client-side storage.
9. Build images dynamically using provided data.
10. Learn to consult a web framework documentation and tutorials for additional help.
The lab descriptions are available at the following links:
// In this script section, use document.write() along with a loop to create an
// unordered list. Each list item consists of a link to a lab description for
// labs 1 through 10. The link for lab 1 should go to (other labs same except
// for the number):
// "https://w3.cs.jmu.edu/kirkpams/343/labs/lab1.shtml"
Projects or topics in computer science which are of interest to the lower
division student. May be repeated for credit when course content changes.
Topics may vary. Prerequisite: Fully admitted Computer Science majors or
minors only and students should consult the instructor prior to enrolling
for the course.
// IMPORTANT: Keep this line as the first line of your script:
(function() {
// Use document.getElementById to select the course, objectives, labs, and
// description heading elements (find their ID attributes in the elements
// above). Set their textContent fields to:
// 'Course Information'
// 'Detailed Course Objectives'
// 'Lab Descriptions'
// 'Course Catalog Description'
// YOUR CODE HERE...
// OPTIONAL:
// Do not modify this line. It sets the color variable to be the URL query string.
let color = window.location.search.substring(1);
// Use document.getElementById to get the footer image and the footer element.
// If the color variable (the query string) is set to 'black' change the image
// source to 'jmu-logo-rgb-horiz-black.png' and the image alt text to
// 'James Madison University logo in black'. If the color variable is 'none',
// replace the footer's innerHTML with a paragraph containing the text
// 'No logo color specified'.
// YOUR CODE HERE...
// IMPORTANT: Keep this line as the last line of your script:
})();