Web Application Development using JavaScript, jQuery and Mobile Apps tools for Web Developers, Digital and Web Designers
This five day summer intensive course provides structure, best practices, curriculum, standards, teaching resources and tools, labor market information, standard DOL job descriptions, and certification preparation for the Web developer, Digital and Web design faculty who want to create or modify web programs to align with industry best practices.
The event is supported by the WebProfessionals.org, a 14-year-old non-profit professional association dedicated to the support of individuals and organizations who create, manage or market web sites and Adobe Systems one of the world’s largest and most diversified software companies. WebProfessionals.org provides education as well as certification, technical, employment and member advantage services to thousands of aspiring and practicing web professionals worldwide. Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information. Its award-winning software and technologies have set the standard for communication and collaboration for more than 25 years, bringing vital and engaging experiences to people across media and to every screen in their lives, at work and at play.
Abstract
Web development: for a technology that’s not relatively that old, it has certainly gone through changes at a breakneck speed. Whereas a designer used to be able to focus solely on graphic design and HTML, and a developer rarely had to look beyond her lines of code, Web development today mandates that both designers and developers wear many hats. No longer can you just attend to your immediate realm; these days, especially considering a poor economy, it is expected that every developer and designer be at least familiar with, and ideally knowledgable of, related topics and technologies, too. The hurdle, then, is how both groups of people expand their sphere and attain the necessary comfort with a wider range of languages, applications, and skills. Thus: Web Application with JavaScript, jQuery, and Mobile App Tools for Developers and Designers.
Over five days, this course covers not only the depth and breadth of knowledge developers and designers need, but also within a common context. By the end, developers and designers alike will be able to fulfill–and teach–the more demanding role that is Web development today and in the near future.
During this course, participants will:
•Learn how to future proof your Web design and development community college program and employ cutting edge techniques today.
These, and other “best practices,” will be covered during this week long seminar. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptop, or lab computers will be provided, to follow along with hands-on sessions. We will be emphasizing web standards throughout the week. Participants will leave with numerous working examples employing these technologies and have a clearer understanding of what can be presented to students today to make them employable professionals tomorrow.
Specifically, you will learn:
Day 1
JavaScript has been a key component to Web development for years, but it’s only been relatively recently that JavaScript has been an expected component. No longer just used for tricks and eye candy, JavaScript is now the primary tool for enhancing the user’s Web experience. One could say that proper integration of JavaScript is like the plumbing in a house: when done right, users won’t think twice about it; when done wrong or altogether missing, the result is a noticeable mess. This is why both Web designers and developers need to embrace JavaScript and learn how to use it appropriately.
JavaScript brings many important features to a Web site, from simple form validation, to modal dialogs and lightbox effects, to correcting for a browser’s deficiencies (e.g., inconsistent CSS support), and more. One of the most important uses of JavaScript, which will be unseen by the user, is to perform Ajax requests. Ajax greatly improves the user’s experience, making the client-server gap virtually seamless. Because of the rise of Ajax alone, JavaScript is now definitely in the domain of both the designer and the developer.
During this day of the course, you will learn:
•Key points in JavaScript’s history
•How JavaScript compares to other technologies and languages
•JavaScript’s core attributes as a language
•Proper JavaScript programming approaches
•What development tools are available
•What debugging tools are available
•The JavaScript strengths and weaknesses of the main browsers from a developer’s perspective
•The basics of debugging
•How JavaScript code is integrated into a Web page
•The fundamental JavaScript syntax
•How to create and use variables
•What control structures exist
•How objects in JavaScript work
•How to define and invoke functions
•What the event model is and how to handle events
•What the Document Object Model (DOM) is and how to manipulate it
•How to handle and improve HTML forms
•The relationship between JavaScript and HTML5
•Many JavaScript best practices
Day 2
Whereas day one presents the core concepts of JavaScript and how to develop using best JavaScript practices, day two takes the knowledge and use of JavaScript to the next level. The focus is on three key areas of Web development with JavaScript:
1.Ajax
2.Libraries and frameworks
3.The jQuery framework, in particular
Real-world JavaScript often uses these additions to core JavaScript and any JavaScript developer will quickly come to rely upon them.
Ajax is the process by which JavaScript in the client makes a request of a server resource without any overt action by the user (i.e., the user may not even be aware that the request is being made). Ajax by definition puts one foot in the designer’s world and another foot in the developer’s world. Understanding the benefits of Ajax, its fundamental aspects, and how to best implement it is vital in today’s Web development.
Libraries and frameworks make any type of development both more efficient and more reliable. Being familiar with, and knowing how to tap into the power of, the best libraries and frameworks available will greatly expand what a designer or developer can do, and how quickly.
Of the available frameworks, jQuery is perhaps the most popular, and for good reason. Being very accessible and extendible, jQuery has become the go-to framework of choice, particularly for beginning developers and designers.
During this day of the course, you will learn:
•The Ajax process and its parts
•The data formats used by Ajax
•How to create server-side resources for Ajax requests
•How to perform Ajax requests using straight JavaScript
•How to debug Ajax requests
•What some of the best available libraries are
•How to use third-party libraries in a site
•How to choose a framework
•The most commonly used frameworks today
•How to integrate jQuery into a site
•How to select elements using jQuery
•How to create event handlers using jQuery
•DOM manipulation using jQuery
•What the jQuery User Interface (jquery UI) library is
•How to use jQuery UI to create tabs, accordions, date pickers, effects, and more
•How to use third-party jQuery plug-ins
•How to perform Ajax requests using jQuery
•The fundamentals of mobile site development via jQuery Mobile
Day 3 and 4
TRACK 7: ADOBE SOLUTIONS FOR DIGITAL MEDIA DESIGNERS AND DEVELOPERS
Short Class Description:
New markets for mobile and other small devices has spurred a demand for technologies that can help businesses create one set of content for different platforms. The knowledge how to use these technologies is in great demand in the industry right now. Faculty and students need to keep up with the technological changes in these fields since that is where students will find high-paying jobs. This Track will provide an opportunity for current digital-media and computer programming instructors to upgrade curriculum with different software to reflect the demands of the current marketplace using today’s cutting-edge technologies.
Class Description:
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information. Its award-winning software and technologies have set the standard for communication and collaboration for more than 25 years, bringing vital and engaging experiences to people across media and to every screen in their lives, at work and at play. The impact of Adobe software is evident almost everywhere you look. Whether people are collaborating at work, transacting online, or socializing with friends, businesses use Adobe software and technologies to turn digital interactions into richer, high-value experiences that reach across computing platforms and devices to engage people anywhere, anytime. With a reputation for excellence and a portfolio of many of the most respected and recognizable software brands, Adobe is one of the world’s largest and most diversified software companies.
Adobe InDesign and the Digital Publishing Suite
This session will offer designers an overview of some of the basics of using InDesign to create content, test it in a simulator and publish it to an App Store to be consumed on a mobile device. Adobe InDesign has allowed designers to create and layout materials for every possible print solution. Now, with the fast-paced delivery of mobile devices, including mobile phones, tablets and more, Adobe offers solutions to designers as well. With InDesign designers can create immersive, interactive content that may be viewed on a variety of different devices, oriented in portrait or landscape and customize it for their audience. With the Digital Publishing Suite (DPS), Adobe offers a solution that can publish content to consumers as an app, allow the publisher to analyze usage data and later fine tune that data based on user trends as the consumer interacts with that media. InDesign offers multiple modules for slide shows, embedded videos, interactive content and more.
Adobe Air/Flash– Mobile App Design Tools for Designers and Developers Alike
This session offers designers and computer science faculty to take a Flash-developed solution, compile it in Air and deliver it to a mobile device without any coding. These tools may be used by designers and developers alike. Taking the vast knowledge base of Flash designers and delivering an app that may be run on iOS devices, such as Android, Blackberry, personal computers and televisions, is at the core of this solution. Designers can build immersive apps without needing to code anything. Coders can create a proof of concept for developing apps that allow for quick and immersive understanding of the start to finish workflow for developing Apps, before they have touched a line of code. These creations can then be distributed to a variety of app stores or developed further by including programming techniques.
Adobe Dreamweaver and Edge – Designing Immersive, Modern Web Content with HTML5
Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Edge allow web designers to create content that will be consumed on a desktop screen, tablet device or a mobile phone, simply and easily. With web standards moving extremely quickly with the advent of modern operating systems for both the desktop and mobile devices, all of the major technology companies are supporting standards like HTML5. Dreamweaver can be used to create cross-platform web sites. While Edge allows designers to use a simple tool and understand the capabilities of HTML5 by creating animated content for the web. This session will offer designers and web programmers alike, who need to learn the capabilities of HTML5 and the code behind the dynamic content, the tools they need to build dynamic content for multiple devices.
Adobe Tools for Optimizing Web Site Experience
Customers use a variety of different tools to access online material, whether it’s through social networks, mobile devices, computers, publications, video or other forms of access. Most major web sites use some form of a solution to track and optimize this information. Adobe’s Web Experience Management and Digital Marketing Suite solutions allow an organization to control the information, unlike many other free or paid solutions. Fortune 500 companies are using these solutions to better deliver, market to and monetize consumers they have attracted to their sites. Think of a web store that remembers what your interests were on a previous visit and is now offering complimentary solutions to products you have purchased or considered in the past.
Whether a professional is designing and publishing this content or a computer scientist is optimizing the delivery mechanisms, this session will help average users understand how to design and deliver content to small, medium and large organizations so that the content is created to optimize for these solutions.
Day 5
WebProfessionals.org has spent well over a decade promoting web standards and working with many entities and organizations. In conjunction with the U.S. Department of Labor, WOW has also helped standardize web professional position titles (such as web designer, web developer, and webmaster). [http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/15-1099.04]
As we progress we should focus on “best practices” which will help your students succeed. Come to this track to learn why map-able, stackable and portable web standards-based education is the best solution for your students, and learn how to implement that solution at your school! Walk out of this week with web professional education standards, support for web professional job demand to justify your programs, curriculum aligned to those standards, a pathway to more widely recognized web professional certifications than you have today, teaching tools that you have learned to use, confidence that you are ready to deliver the best web educational services to your community, and preparation for a new web professional certification for yourself.
Prerequisites: It is assumed participants in this class have some knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (not extensive knowledge, but some exposure).
Instructors Biographical Information:
Larry Ullman is a writer, Web and software developer, trainer, instructor, speaker, and consultant. He has written 22 books and numerous articles. His books have sold over 350,000 copies world wide in more than 20 languages. As his readers, students, and co-workers can attest, Larry’s strength is in translating geek into English: converting the technical and arcane into something comprehensible and useful.
About DMC Insights, Inc.
You may have previously been familiar with, or just tried to access, www.dmcinsights.com, the Web site for Larry Ullman’s company. Although parts of that site are still available, most of its content has been moved here. LarryUllman.com will be the home for all of Larry Ullman’s books, work, and related content from here on.
Rick Miller is a Senior Solutions Engineer for Education at Adobe Systems where he helps Adobe’s education customers find the solutions they need to enhance the pedagogical experiences of their students. Before working at Adobe Systems, Rick taught Photoshop/Digital Imaging at the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and Digital Design at Cal Poly Pomona University, so he’s cognizant of the unique challenges that face educators. Rick is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop, Lightroom, Acrobat X, and Acrobat Connect. Rick is also a professional photographer who is certified on the Leaf and Phase One digital backs, and trains users on the Hasselblad digital back. Rick continues to consult with Law Enforcement agencies in the Forensic application of Photoshop.
Bill Cullifer is the founder of the Webprofessionals.org (WOW), a non-profit professional association established in 1996, providing community, education and certification for Web professionals worldwide. As the organization’s executive director, Cullifer participates in a variety of industry, government and educational advisory boards that assist WOW in developing and delivering professional standards and improving communication between all Web professionals and business and industry. He acts as the organization’s chief evangelist to stimulate the continued growth and opportunities of the Web. He also provides daily podcast regarding a variety of Web professional topics.
Beth Cataldo is the coordinator of the Multimedia Studies Program at City College of San Francisco, teaching and creating curriculum and certificates that reflect employment trends in the Bay Area. She began teaching in 2001, and received a Master’s in Instructional Technology from San Francisco State University in 2003. Before teaching, she worked for more than 15 years in the publishing world, starting up and running new magazines and web sites about technology and entertainment for a variety of companies, including Microsoft, Ziff-Davis, IDG and Inc. Publishing.
