2503ICT: Frequently Asked Questions

Out of date!

This page contains the answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about WP.

Questions may also be asked and answered on the course discussion forum.

Is Programming 2 a prerequisite for this course?

Yes. Much experience has shown that students who have not passed Programming 2 cannot pass this course!
Can I take this course in on-line mode?

No! Tbis is an on-campus course. Valuable information is provided only in lectures and laboratory classes and off-campus students will miss out on too much material to pass the course.
Is there a prescribed textbook for this course?

No, there is no textbook for this course.

However, you are expected to read the material on the course Web site and selected online tutorials and texts cited under Resources on the Web site. You will also benefit from referring to various texts available in the library (in print and online form) and in good bookshops.

You are also expected to work conscientiously through the lab exercises.
Which Internet clients should I use to accesss dwarf from Windows?
Answer from the dwarf system administrator:
```
Prefered Window Clients to access dwarf:
    Putty      A secure telnet-like SSH client program.
    WinSCP     An "explorer"-like SSH-FTP file transfer program.
    or
    Filezilla  An alternative SFTP client.
```
Each of these clients may be downloaded locally from http://mirror.griffith.edu.au/pub/pc_software/.
On Mac OS X, use Terminal for SSH access and either Fetch or Cyberduck or Filezilla for SFTP access. Cyberduck and Filezilla may be downloaded for free.
What editor should I use to prepare my HTML/PHP/JavaScript/SQL/... files?
Any good text editor is fine, e.g., notepad++ or textpad (Windows) or TextWrangler (Mac OS X). DreamWeaver is OK provided you set it up to generate valid, properly formatted, presentation-free HTML (or XHTML). Do not use Word (or notepad).
Notepad++ is also available from the above URL as npp.
What permissions should I give my files?
705 - all directories (except for templates_c)
707 - Smarty templates_c directories
604 - all HTML documents, PHP scripts, Smarty templates, CSS style sheets
604 - all read-only data files (e.g., mysql.php)
606 - all updatable data files (e.g., messages.txt)
How exactly do I copy, edit and run one of your (complex) examples?
See this description of the process.
How do I access dwarf, where the examples on this site are hosted, from off-campus?
Download and install the appropriate VPN software from this University Web page.