Module Information

Lectures
1. Introduction to module. Provides a road-map to the module, with a brief overview of main concepts and how they interrelate.

2. Construction technologies. Examination of technical solutions for building enterprise applications as provided by enterprise Java and .NET for building distributed applications. These include support for server-side MVC, e.g. JavaServer Faces and ASP.NET MVC; business objects, e.g. Enterprise JavaBeans; object to relational mapping, e.g. MS LINQ, Java Persistence API; messaging systems, e.g. Java Messaging Service; interoperability, e.g. SOAP-based web services.

3. Design issues. A number of enterprise application design patterns will be reviewed within the context of technologies discussed in 2. Building multi-tier applications requires developers to know more than just technologies, they must also know and use design techniques suited to their development. Students will learn about reusable enterprise design patterns, and in particular those used for the development of distributed, multi-tier applications.

4. Wider issues. Examination of current issues that are related to 2 and 3, e.g. scalability; approaches to testing and deployment; the use of cloud computing.

Group project
1. Group Project Tutorials. Students will be required to undertake a group project where materials taught in this and earlier modules will be applied to build a distributed application. Students will be required to choose, justify and follow an appropriate software development methodology.
Tutorials will be undertaken throughout the project to set out the content of the project, and the terms on which it will be developed and assessed. Such tutorials will be undertaken where students are able to complete their project with the help and advice of teaching staff.

2. Written Material. Various written material giving guidance on carrying out the project, assessment issues, and the project submission is provided by the Department.