A Bottom-Up Approach to Teaching Server-Side Web Development Skills (Abstract Only)

Abstract

When dealing with the topic of back-end programming many CS web development courses typically focus on how to use a popular web framework, for example Spring MVC or Ruby on Rails. The problem with this approach is that students will most likely end up using some other different framework or technology if ever they decide to become professional web developers. Our students need to learn concepts and skills that serve as a foundation to learn whatever different technologies are used now or happen to appear in the future. This poster presents the author's experience on using a bottom-up approach to teach the fundamental aspects of how the HTTP protocol works, and how this knowledge can be used to get a deep understanding of the inner workings of the web by building a simple yet complete server-side web framework. Using Node.js as the development platform, students are able to take TCP sockets as the building blocks for higher-level web abstractions. This approach allows covering a variety of specific topics that are essential for a professional web developer: request and response structure and headers, HTTP methods, form processing, cookies and sessions, text encodings, MVC software architectural pattern, database integration using ORM (Object-Relational Mapping), REST (Representational State Transfer) architecture, security issues (HTTPS protocol, common web vulnerabilities), and client-side integration using AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). Anecdotal evidence shows that students with this knowledge repertoire are better suited for learning, using and debugging new and existing web technologies.