School of Informatics Course Descriptor

Course Descriptor

Course: Enterprise Computing

Credit Points 10

Credit Level 10

Acronym INF-3-EC

Study Pattern Study Format Hours

Lectures 20

Tutorials 8

Timetabled Laboratories 0

Non-timetabled assessed assignments 30

Private Study/Other 42

Total 100

Pre-requisite Courses Informatics 2

Other Pre-requisite Requirements Successful completion of Year 3 of an Informatics Single or Combined Honours Degree, or equivalent by permission of the School.

Co-requisites/Forbidden Combinations

Credit Points	10
Credit Level	10
Acronym	INF-3-EC
Study Pattern	Study Format	Hours
Lectures	20
Tutorials	8
Timetabled Laboratories	0
Non-timetabled assessed assignments	30
Private Study/Other	42
Total	100

Short Description

Enterprise computing is the name given to distributed computing as practised in medium-sized or large organisations where the need to share data between physically-distributed sites is the primary motivator for the creation of a distributed system. The course is biased towards the acquisition of practical skills rather than an investigation of the theoretical limitations of distributed systems. The aim is to treat the dominant relevant technologies in depth rather than to give a more superficial survey of a larger number of technologies. The technologies studied are based on XML (the eXtensible Markup Language) as a data representation language and Java as a companion programming language for distributed programming.

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Outcome
1.	This course provides an introduction to the design and implementation of distributed computing systems and encourages an understanding of semi-structured data. This understanding is demonstrated by being able to construct small-scale examples of systems which use these components.
2.	The intellectual skills encouraged by the course include the ability to reason about the effect of design on remote evaluation, recovery from failures and performance. These skills can be applied in the design of new enterprise systems or the modification of existing ones.
3.	The practical skills acquired in the course include understanding XML parsing technology, client-server systems and multi-tier systems, Java distributed programming techniques and Web services. Students demonstrate their understanding of this technology through essay-based examination questions and programming exercises undertaken as coursework.
4.	The transferrable skills acquired in the course include design of distributed computing systems and modern data structuring methods. Students display these skills through being able to use the APIs and technology of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) platform productively.
5.

Assessment Weightings (%)	Assessment	%
	Written Examination	75
	Assessed Assignments	25
	Oral Presentations	0

Assessment

There will be a single assessed practical work which will be a group-based exercise.

Syllabus

The structure of an enterprise computing system. Basic definitions and concepts.

Using XML (the eXtensible Markup Language) to represent data.

Validating XML with DTDs (Document Type Definitions) and Schemas.

Parsing XML. Document Object Model (DOM) parsers. Simple API for XML (SAX) parsers.

Java's distributed computing technology. Remote method invocation (RMI). Server-side computing.

Java enterprise computing technologies. Servlets, Java Server Pages, Enterprise Java Beans.

Java Web Services.

Relevant QAA Computing Curriculum Sections: Web-based Computing

Reading List

Java EE 5 tutorial. Sun Microsystems. Available on-line at http://java.sun.com/javaee/5/docs/tutorial/doc/
Java Web Services tutorial. Available on-line at http://java.sun.com/webservices/docs/2.0/tutorial/doc/

Last updated 17 April 2008 by ito

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Pre-requisite Courses	Informatics 2
Other Pre-requisite Requirements	Successful completion of Year 3 of an Informatics Single or Combined Honours Degree, or equivalent by permission of the School.
Co-requisites/Forbidden Combinations