INFO323
Distributed Information SystemsSemester 1, 2012Course InformationContents1 Objectives 12 Prerequisites 13 Teaching Staff 14 Course Timetable 15 Course Notices and Materials 26 Laboratories 27 Semester Project 38 Practical Tests 49 Electronic Submission of Assignments 410 Extensions and Special Consideration 411 Plagiarism 412 Final Examination 513 Final marks 514 Textbook 515 Course Wiki 51 ObjectivesThis course involves a study of the principles and practice of distributed information systems softwaredevelopment.1Topics include current middleware technologies such as message broker systems, JEE, .NET, RMI,and Web services.Students will gain practical experience in developing distributed applications using Java, Web ser-vices, the ActiveMQ message broker and the Apache Camel service integration framework.2 PrerequisitesINFO221 or COSC241, and 36 further 200-level INFO or COSC points.3 Teaching StaffStephen Cranefield (Course Coordinator; room: 9.17,e-mail: scranefield@infoscience.otago.ac.nz)Mark George (room: 10.05, e-mail: mgeorge@infoscience.otago.ac.nz)Tony Savarimuthu (room: 9.18, email:tonyr@infoscience.otago.ac.nz)4 Course TimetableThere are two lectures each week:Wednesday 12:00 noon – 12:50 pm Room Commerce 2.21Friday 11:00 am – 11:50 am Room Commerce 2.21Students will be expected to have read specific readings from the textbook before each lecture. Thesewill be listed on the schedule of lecture and lab topics.Students are also streamed for one two-hour laboratory session each week.For more information regarding labs see section 6 “Laboratories”.There will be two practical tests during the semester. These tests will be conducted outside of normallab times:Test 1 Thursday 29 March COG04/05 5:00pm - 7:00pmTest 2 Thursday 17 May COG04/05 5:00pm - 7:00pmThere are two streams for each of these tests, held concurrently in different (but adjacent) rooms.Check PIMS or Blackboard to find which room to go to.COG04 and COG04 are School of Business labs that are in the old EastCAL building (not the Com-merce building as the CO prefix would suggest). They are also known as the Rabel (COG04) andMacGregor (COG05) labs.2Add these tests to your calendar/diary now since there is only one time available so there is no roomfor movement!For more information see section 8 “Practical Tests”5 Course Notices and MaterialsCourse materials (lecture notes, assignment details, etc.) will be made available via a course “wiki”web site at http://info323deki.otago.ac.nz/.Course announcements will be made regularly at lectures and on the course wiki. We reserve the rightto change assignment deadlines, tutorial dates, and test dates if necessary (but will give a reasonableamount of warning).Individual students’ assignment and test results can be accessed via Blackboard. Please check yourresults regularly and notify Mark George of any discrepancies.6 LaboratoriesEach student will be streamed for a two-hour laboratory session to be held each week. You can alsoget this information from PIMS, or from the School of Business streaming system which is linkedfrom the course wiki.In order to preserve a reasonable tutor-to-student ratio, students should only come to their streamedlab. Students who are not in the correct stream may be asked to leave.Labs will be held in the Commerce PC laboratories 3.16 and 3.03. Check the streaming informationto see which room your lab stream is held in.Students should bring text books and other relevant course materials to their lab session.There will be an exercise given out most weeks at labs. The lab will begin with a short tutorial sessionexplaining the exercise and the related concepts. The rest of the lab session will involve studentscompleting the exercise.In other weeks labs may be used to review lecture material and assignment work or the time may beleft free for students to work on and seek assistance with a current assignment. Material covered inlabs may go beyond that covered in lectures and is examinable.Note that this is an 18 point paper – it is expected that on average students will work for eight hoursper week on this course in addition to the scheduled contact hours for this course. This additionaltime should be spent reviewing lecture material, reading the recommending readings, and practicingthe concepts learned in lectures and labs, and working on assignments.Outside the scheduled lab times, PCs in any other accessible computer laboratories in the Universitythat run the standard student desktop may be used provided that they are not being used for classes.Note that in periods of peak demand the use of machines may be restricted to course-related work3only (e-mail and Internet browsing is not considered to be course-related work). You should howevernote that the software used in this course may not be already installed on computers in labs otherthan those that we use in this course – you may have to wait for the software to install itself on othercomputers before you can use it (which can take a long time).7 Semester ProjectThere will be a single semester-long project that involves implementing a distributed information sys-tem using the Java programming language, Java Messaging Service (JMS), Jaa RMI, Web Servicesand the Apache Camel service integration framework. Each student will be responsible for construct-ing an implementation of the assignment project.You will be given instructions on how to build and integrate the various components of the assignmentproject during lab sessions. You are advised to do your project work in labs as well as outside thosetimes in order to complete each project component. You may consult other students as well as thetutors during the implementation of your assignment project but may not copy other students’ code.You should always include a comment identifying the source of any code you hand in that you didnot write, e.g. if found in a book, on the Internet, or if a tutor or another student helped you.We have a minimum expectation for the quality of submitted assignments. Projects that don’t compilewill not be marked. We will require a minimum amount of functionality for submitted projects –projects that don’t have the minimum functionality will not be marked. The minimum functionalityrequirements will be specified on the project handouts.8 Practical TestsThere will be two practical tests during the semester (refer to section 4 “Course Timetable” for in-formation about the times). These tests are worth 15% each, contributing a total of 30% to your finalgrade.9 Electronic Submission of AssignmentsWe will inform you of how to submit your practical assignment work closer to the due date.10 Extensions and Special ConsiderationIn cases of sickness or other special circumstances, we may offer individual students extensions toassignment deadlines or alternative forms of assessment to replace tests that have been missed. To beeligible for this, an affected student should inform Mark George as soon as possible and before thedeadline has passed. We require the completion of the Health Declaration for Special Consideration4Applications 1. Please consult with us about whether you will be required to get a doctor to completepart B of this form. We DO require this form to be completed if the assessment under considerationis a practical test.Extensions to assignments will be given at a penalty of 1.5 marks per day, unless there are exceptionalcircumstances. Note: Asking for an extension because you were sick for the last few days beforethe deadline, or you couldn’t get hold of your partner for the last week are not considered to beexceptional circumstances. You will have several weeks to work on each assignment deliverable – werecommend that you plan ahead, and don’t leave your assignment work until the last minute.If there is any way in which we can help students with disabilities please let us know. We are happy tooffer whatever assistance we can, but need to know in advance of any potential problems that mightarise.11 PlagiarismStudents should ensure that all submitted work is their own. Plagiarism is a form of dishonest prac-tice. Plagiarism is defined as copying or paraphrasing another’s work and presenting it as one’s own(University of Otago Calendar 2012 page 190). In practice this means plagiarism includes any attemptin any piece of submitted work (e.g. an assignment or test) to present as one’s own work the work ofanother (whether of another student or a published authority). Any student found responsible for pla-giarism in any piece of work submitted for assessment shall be subject to the University’s dishonestpractice regulations which may result in various penalties, including forfeiture of marks for the pieceof work submitted, a zero grade for the paper, or in extreme cases exclusion from the University. TheUniversity of Otago reserves the right to use plagiarism detection tools.While we will enforce the plagiarism regulations of the University we don’t want to discourage youfrom discussing your work with your classmates or referring to other resources (such as the Internet,or textbooks) when you have problems. If you use code in your practical work that is not writtendirectly by you then you should add a comment stating who wrote it (in the case where anotherstudent or tutor helped you), or the source of the code (in the case where you found the code in abook, on the Internet or some other resource).We do encourage you to seek help from other resources, tutors, or classmates if you get stuck, but weexpect that you are the main author of your work. If we have reason to believe otherwise then youwill be referred to the head of department as per the University guidelines.12 Final ExaminationThe final examination will be three hours long and will be conducted by the Registry during the finalexamination period. It will cover material from the entire semester. The date, time, and location ofthis examination will be announced during the semester.1http://www.otago.ac.nz/study/exams/Special%20Consideration%20Health%20Declaration.pdf513 Final marksThe final mark for each student will be determined as follows:Project 20% (2 deliverables, each with a written report and a practical component)Two practical tests 30% (15% each)Final examination 50%14 TextbookWeb Services – Concepts, Architectures and Applications. Alonso, Casati, Kuno, Machiraju. Springer2004.15 Course WikiThe course wiki (http://info323deki.otago.ac.nz/) will be used to post any course announce-ments and notices. You should check the course announcements for INFO323 daily.Course documents (lecture notes, assignment handouts, etc.) and any other resources that we thinkyou will find useful will be made available via the wiki.Comments may be posted on most wiki pages, enabling you to discuss issues relating to the projectand lectures. You should feel free to post any queries relating to these topics on the discussion boards.If you know the answer to another student’s query, then you should feel free to post the answer.