Overview
This unit shows you how to design and implement dynamic mobile web apps that allow complex user interaction and build on knowledge of responsive web design. You will examine the viability of web apps versus native apps, with particular attention being paid to cross platform considerations using tools such as Apache Cordova, implementing web middleware using server-side tools such as Node.js and integrating these with cloud databases to store mobile data. The business drivers for mobile portals will also be discussed, as will the social impact of mobile technology. Research skills will be introduced as a means of keeping up to date with the changing mobile development landscape.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-Req: COIT20268 Responsive Web Design Anti-Req: COIT20231 Mobile Computing
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2018
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Unit feedback link
Tutorial code was found not to work.
Tutorial code is based on open source API's that change and cause example programs to fail. These problems will be corrected by the coordinator during the term as they arise. This is a common problem when using contributed APIs and is typical of what happens in the real world.
- Design, create and implement a mobile web app
- Design, create and implement a hybrid mobile app, a web service and then use these to store mobile data to a cloud database
- Analyse and evaluate design alternatives for the app
- Use an integrated development environment (IDE) build, debug and test mobile systems to develop a working app
- Assess the current and future business impact of mobile web apps
- Critically evaluate key research areas in mobile web apps.
Australian Computer Society (ACS) recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is in use in over 100 countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles.
ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile at https://www.acs.org.au/professionalrecognition/mysfia-b2c.html
This unit contributes to the workplace skills as defined by SFIA. The SFIA code is included:
Systems Design (DESN),
Systems Integration (SINT),
Data Analysis (DTAN),
Database/Repository Design (DBDS),
Testing (TEST),
Release and Deployment (RELM),
Applications Support (ASUP).
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 20% | ||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 30% | ||||||
| 3 - Project (applied) - 50% | ||||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | ||||||
| 2 - Communication | ||||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | ||||||
| 4 - Research | ||||||
| 5 - Self-management | ||||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | ||||||
| 7 - Leadership | ||||||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 20% | ||||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 30% | ||||||||
| 3 - Project (applied) - 50% | ||||||||
Textbooks
Beginning Mobile Application Development in the Cloud
(2012)
Authors: R. Rodger
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Indianapolis Indianapolis , IN , USA
ISBN: 978-1-118-03469-9
Binding: Other
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Android studio (latest version)
- Apache cordova from https://cordova.apache.org/
- mongodb from http://mongodb.org
- nodejs from http://nodejs.org
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
r.balsys@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Introduction mobile computing using Javascript. Mobile application development.
Chapter
Rodger, Chapter 1, pp. 1-29.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Introducing cloud computing. Mobilising your application.
Chapter
Reading 1: Singh and Jangwal, April, 2012.
Rodger, Chapter 2, pp. 31-67.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Building mobile web applications. The jQuery and JQuery Mobile JavaScript APIs.
Chapter
Reading 3. Charland and Leroux, May, 2011.
Rodger, Chapter 3, pp. 71-108
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Enhancing Your Apps. Context aware mobile computing.
Chapter
Reading 4. Chen and Kotz, 2000.
Rodger, Chapter 4, pp. 111-132.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Building Apps in the Cloud. Using the Cloud.
Chapter
Rodger, Chapter 5, pp. 136-174.
Rodger, Chapter 6, pp. 177-209.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Tab-bar interfaces, Audio and video. Working with the Cloud. Installing Java, Eclipse + SDK + ADT toolkit and Ant.
Chapter
Rodger, Chapter 7, pp. 211-232.
Rodger, Chapter 8 pp. 235-271
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assignment 1 due
Practical Assessment 1 Due: Week 6 Friday (24 Aug 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Using PhoneGap. Native hybrid Apps. Business model for location based services.
Chapter
Reading 5. Dhar and Varshney, May, 2011.
Rodger, Chapter 9 pp. 273-294.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
The Phonegap API. Building a blogging App.
Chapter
Rodger, Chapter 9 pp. 294-311.
Rodger, Chapter 10, pp. 315-345.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Mobile web usability and system testing. Issues in mobile cloud computing.
Chapter
Reading 6: Frederick and Lal, 2009
Rodger, Chapter 10, pp. 345-369.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Social mobile computing. Software principals and patterns in mobile middleware.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assignment 2 due
Practical Assessment 2 Due: Week 10 Friday (21 Sept 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Module/Topic
The App store and selling Apps. Introduction to the scientific philosophy of research.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Revision.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Creative work/project due
Creative work Due: Review/Exam Week Friday (12 Oct 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Practical Assessment
You are assigned the task of creating a data logger to capture package location data in a mobile application that stores the data in a local database. The app has fields to record data for each of five cities were the app is employed. If a city is selected, a page (fragment) is shown to record data values for that city. An entry consists of city data. When the Save Log Entry button is pressed this data is saved locally in the application in a SQLDatabase. When the Show Log Entries button is pressed a related page (fragment) is shown that list all the date/time and data entries made for that city.
We will refer to our app as CityLogs. More details of these pages will be given on the Moodle course website. You should also consult the weekly lecture/tutorials on the Moodle website for help and more information on completing the assignment. The tutorials contain step-by-step procedures for working through the assignment as well as some tips and extra help.
The specification of this app will be further refined in Assignment 2.
This app is to be tested using the Safari, FireFox or Chrome browser and tested on an Android or iPhone mobile device.
Week 6 Friday (24 Aug 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Week 8 Monday (3 Sept 2018)
| Assignment Component | Criteria | Marks | |
| Client Side application | |||
| Cow.html / cow.css | ☐ The required scripts are all correct and available ☐ The multi-page logic is correct ☐ The home page displays and works as intended ☐ The navigation buttons on the pages are correct and function as expected ☐ The cow id, time, weight, height, age and condition fields are displayed correctly and have the right hints ☐ The Show log page shows all the cow' data logs, and has the required functionality | 6 | |
| Cow.js | ☐ Click on a cow breed button on the home page takes you to the correct cow breed page ☐ Location data added to cow data when Save log entry button pressed ☐ Show log shows all saved entries for the cow breed ☐ All required dialogs are displayed ☐ The Clear button on the page header clears all fields and resets the condition spinner ☐ Clicking on the Show logs button takes you to a new page where the current logs are all listed in required format ☐ The cow breed pages pageinit and pageshow methods are implemented correctly ☐ All navigation buttons have the required effect on the page view ☐ Cow data is saved in localstorage so when the application quits and restarts the values are retained (unless the Send logs button is used) ☐ The Send logs button clears all cow breed data in localstorage as required | 10 | |
| Hardware/Software & commentary | |||
| Hardware / Software requirements | 1 | ||
| Application commentary | 2 | ||
| General | |||
| Feedback given as required Use appropriate naming conventions Adequate commenting Correct grammar Citation of references, copyright use | 1 | ||
| Penalties | |||
| Total | 20 | ||
- Use an integrated development environment (IDE) build, debug and test mobile systems to develop a working app
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
2 Practical Assessment
We will refer to our app as CowLogs. More details of these pages will be given in the sections below. You should also consult the weekly lecture/tutorials on the Moodle website for help and more information on completing the assignment. The tutorials contain step-by-step procedures for working through the assignment as well as some tips and extra help. Please read the lecture/tutorials on the Moodle website.
You are assigned the task of creating a data logger to capture package location data in a mobile application that stores the data in a local database. The app has fields to record data for each of five species of cattle. If a cow type is selected, a page is shown to record data values for that type. A cow entry consists of a date and log data. When the Save Log Entry button is pressed this data is saved locally in the application in a SQLDatabase. When the Show Log Entries button is pressed a related page (fragment) is shown that list all the date/time and log entries made for that cow. When the Save Log Entry button is pressed cow breed data is logged to the local server as well as added to a MLab cloud database collection. When the Get button is used cow breed entries for the given cow breed are retrieved from the cloud database and displayed on the phone.
This app is to be tested using the Safari, FireFox or Chrome browser and tested on an Android or iPhone mobile device.
Week 10 Friday (21 Sept 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Week 12 Monday (1 Oct 2018)
| Assignment Component | Criteria | Marks | |
| Cordova Phonegap Integration | ☐ The CowLogs app is successfully implemented in Cordova Phonegap | 2 | |
| Client Side application | |||
| Send/Get buttons | ☐ Javascript and HTML files correct ☐ Tap handler for Send sends data with feedback correctly ☐ Tap handler for Get gets data with feedback correctly ☐ Current logs page meets specification ☐ Cloud cow logs page meets specifications ☐ The data in the logs pages are formatted correctly | 6 | |
| Server Side application | |||
| Config.js / config file | ☐ The commonly used functions are all defined correctly | 2 | |
| server.js | ☐ Appropriate response messages are sent, and appropriate messages are written by the server as messages are routed (1 mark) ☐ The Cow_Logs collection at MLabs is successfully connected, opened and updated (2 marks) ☐ The log() methods appends each entry received to ./logs/logs.data on PC (1 mark) ☐ All entries for the given cow breed are returned in the response object when the search/:query is performed (2 marks) ☐ The :cow/log request writes the data to the cow_logs user collection of the mongdb database (2 marks) | 8 | |
| Documentation | |||
| Discussion of testing regime | ☐ Discussion of selection of mobile models ☐ Discussion of part emulators vs. the real devices play in testing ☐ Document functional and UI testing of the app | 3 | |
| Commentary | ☐ Successful/unsuccessful features ☐ Additional functionality ☐ Ethical considerations | 3 | |
| Financial case | ☐ Time costing ☐ Database costing ☐ Marketing ☐ Analysis ☐ Synthesis | 5 | |
| General | |||
| Feedback given as required Use appropriate naming conventions Adequate commenting Correct grammar Citation of references, copyright use | 1 | ||
| Penalties | |||
| Total | 30 | ||
- Design, create and implement a mobile web app
- Design, create and implement a hybrid mobile app, a web service and then use these to store mobile data to a cloud database
- Use an integrated development environment (IDE) build, debug and test mobile systems to develop a working app
- Assess the current and future business impact of mobile web apps
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
3 Project (applied)
For your creative work you are going to design, specify, implement and test a prototype of a simple web application. You are to come up with your own idea for the app you wish to prototype. Keep it simple as you have only a day a week during term to prototype and develop this idea. You do necessarily have to create a completed app, but you must develop and document enough to justify the time allocated to the project.
You should complete the work in a number of stages, developing new parts of your web application project in parallel with each assignment. The amount of work/time you spend on this about the same as the time spent doing assignment 1 and 2.
The following describes each part that will be assessed and guides you in this assessment process.
Review/Exam Week Friday (12 Oct 2018) 11:50 pm AEST
Exam Week Friday (19 Oct 2018)
App design and specification – 10 marks
App development – 25 marks
App testing, business case, marketing plan and research - 15 marks
No submission method provided.
- Design, create and implement a hybrid mobile app, a web service and then use these to store mobile data to a cloud database
- Analyse and evaluate design alternatives for the app
- Assess the current and future business impact of mobile web apps
- Critically evaluate key research areas in mobile web apps.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Self-management
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
