Objectives
Publish a managed code web project to a cloud service
Course Outcomes
C1 – Design, Build, and Deploy a Database Driven Client-Server Web Application
Assignment
.NET Stack – This is the second step in creating a fully supported cloud publishing capability. For .NET applications I recommend a Microsoft Azure account ( https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/ ). You may also use any other cloud service (such as Amazon Web Services – AWS), however for simplicity all the examples and lectures I use will be using Azure. This is simply because it integrates very well with Visual Studio and the frameworks we will be using in this class.
.NET Stack – For this assignment you can simply use the default MVC application or default Windows Forms Application that are easy to create in Visual Studio. This is pretty easy and will not require any coding as you are simply going to create the project and use the default template. You will then need to publish that project to your Azure (or other) account and send me the link to your finished project.
WordPress Stack – If you are going to use the WordPress stack then you can either create your own wordpress site, or the instructor can build one for you (and send you credentials necessary to work in the site). If you are doing one of the recommended WordPress projects that I have created – then I will install the base files to the site.
MEAN Stack – I am working on guidance for the different application stacks. Most of this will occur on the discussion boards. If you select a stack that is not one that is currently covered you will still have the responsibility of ensuring you have the expertise to use the stack and publish.
Once again – this entails discussion, I expect to see discussion of your choices on the discussion boards.
Information
.NET Stack (using MVC) – You will need to get started on Visual Studio and here is the best places to get started. https://mva.microsoft.com/en-US/training-courses/introduction-to-asp-net-mvc-8322?l=nKZwZ8Zy_3504984382 – This 8 hour course goes through MVC and also covers many other basic concepts of what will be covered in the class. Here are instructions on how to publish in Azure (step by step) https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/web-sites-dotnet-get-started/?wt.mc_id=N0416_DE_ActivateAzure
.NET Stack – To do these assignments you will also need to have a connection to an instance of SQL Server. You can do this on your local machine or an instance on Azure or any other service that will host SQL Server. When you publish the database one of the options is to point the connection to the database to a cloud service if it is locally using a local instance on your machine. One option is to have Visual Studio locally pointing to the cloud instance of your database. The configurations can be tricky and will make for some great conversations on the discussion board which is where you should aim your questions and discussions.
Estimated Completion Time
.NET Stack – You will need about 1 hour to setup Azure. The creation of the default project in Visual Studio takes about 1 hour. It will take about 8-9 hours to complete the MVC course.
WordPress Stack – For the WordPress projects supplied by the instructor, the environment will be created for you. You will be using MySQL and the tools for DB management of the MySQL. You will need to find, obtain, and learn a PHP editor. You can use Notepad++. Also to publish to the test site you will need FileZilla ftp client.
Supporting Lectures
Here is a video that shows an example of creating an instance of a node stack in AWS. It will be useful for other options too.
Here is a video of setting up simple publishing in .NET for publishing Web Forms Applications. It is a bit old, but the concepts are the same.
Questions and Answers
Q: When I publish my application – where will the data be stored?
A: In the .NET Stack when you publish you will need to have an instance of a database on a cloud service. In your case Azure will be your best location. Note that you will not actually be creating tables or doing any real database work as the Visual Studio does this for you. If you want to control the database design yourself – you can. You simply would need to issue the SQL necessary to create and maintain the tables. I also recommend that you point your local instance of Visual Studio at the cloud service. Unless you will be doing development in locations where you have no internet connectivity – you can use a single cloud instance for all of your work.
External Resources
There will be a lot of external resources and also hopefully quite a bit of discussion on the various options for development and options for the stack.
A good site for looking at different stack options is https://webinerds.com/6-web-development-stacks-try-2017/
Grading Criteria
Grade of 10 for a simple working project accessible on your web host. The project does not need to do anything, but it would be good if it did have a level of simple user management.