Project and Presentation Grading Guide

If you do well in the project, you will do well in the class. This is true for people trying to get an A or trying to get a C-. So, work hard and have fun with it. The total points of the final project is 250 and the project presentation is 100. And 40 extra credit points will be given. Thus, by doing well in the project ... you can have 250 + 40 + 100 = 390 points !!!

General Project Grading

If you implement all the basic functions under our project description, you will have a maximum of 200 points. Points will be taken off when something does not work.

For the other 50 points, you can get them by providing extra functions. Examples are using JDBC, priorty queue in scheduling, very nice interface, shipping cart, agent indexing, etc. But remember you have to write most of the code and docment down all the features.

Notes to Remember

• Read the project description over and over again and make sure you understand it. If you "get around" a certain feature in the project, document it down. For example, if you implement your own Java server instead of using a web server - Say so.

• Provide a quick checklist (not essay) for grading. List all the functions implemented (Basic or Extra).

• Provide DETAILED test cases for me to run.

• Document everything you DO. Basic functions or extra functions. Without documentation in the requirement document, design document, and a check list, I might not able to spot all the functions implemented.

• Write only what is needed. I need a project, not a phone book .. use double size printing, better fonts, bind it, etc.

• Test you code really really well and AVOID fatal mistake. In other words, if you have a bug that will hang the whole system ... fix it before you hand it in. For example, in the phonebook exercise, a lot of people do not use one line of code to check if PREV and NEXT walk out of bound. In most cases, if the phonebook is out of bound an exception will pop up and the whole thing hang. ... You really do not want to have similar scenario happen in grading the project.

• Do not put it stuffs that DOES NOT work. If it does not work, cut it out so it will not affect other features. Again for example, in the phonebook exercise, a few people put in a SAVE function that does not work and it will hang the whole program if clicked on ... avoid this kind of things in the project. 

• MAKE SURE YOUR PROJECT IS GRADE-ABLE ... otherwise, what can I do ?

• Remember to handin the requirement and design documents again (use double size and better fonts, otherwise, points off :(

• All documentations should be in hard as well as soft copy

• By the way, I will keep all the projects for audit purpose (so, they will not be return)

Extra Credit (40 points outside of the 250)

Internet Replication

• When sync up the Sales sites and the Main site in the project. You actually copy stuffs from mutliple (at least two) sale sites to the main site. And we called this "copy" - Replication - in the industry. Since we are doing that on the Internet, we could call it Internet Replication.

• In doing the project, all you need to do is to copy everything in the sales sites to the main site. But can you do it better ?

• What happen if your project is deployed in the Internet and multiple users are accessing all the sites at the same time ? Do you have a locking problem ? Can you keep the sites data in sync ? Do you need a controller ?

• What happen if the data in the sale sites are so big (millions of records) and replicating the whole site is not an option ? Can you just replicate the changes ?

• What happen if the format of your data file or the database schema changes in the sale sites, can you replicate the format changes dynamically to the main site ?

• (You could think of more problem with replication on the Internet ... )

In this extra credit part, you need to provide a  design as well as implementation for Internet Replication. You should be able to use your project to test out your implementation. Your design and implementation should address the above problems (data format change, replicate changes and multiple users). All coding must be in Java. A mini requirement, design and coding doc is required. Grading on this parts depends a lot on whether your idea as well as coding actually work.

(As pointers: 1. You might be able to use XML to "implement" your sales site data, so internet replication come with central control ... 2. You might be able to use an Agent (a separate program) to do indexing on sales/main sites and do replication based on the index ... 3. Think deep ... )

Presentation Grading

• Use PowerPoint

• Style is free but group relatively grading will be used (so, which ever group looks the coolest will be awarded the most points in this catalog)

• Do somekind of demo or screen capture

• Show you architecture and design

• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of your implementation

• Compared the difference with other people (you could guess)

• Show the cool extra features if there is any

• Discuss your replication theory/design/implementation if any

• Put other interesting stuffs you could think of

• Handin a soft copy as well as hard copy to me

• Distribute handout to classmate if recommeded

• Survive Q&A from your classmates

• (We will schedule time later on)

Final Remark

As I mentioned in the beginning of the class, this is a tough class with relatively easy grading. So, there is 110 points of extra credit in a 1000 points course ... For people looking for an A, work hard and get to the 90% mark. For people in the bottom of the scale, work hard and get out of it ! I only like giving A but not anything below C- ... YOU control your own grade ! ... 

(This page will be posted in the web site)