CMS3407 Coursework 2 Assignment Brief : Portfolio report with web applications

CMS3407 Assignment 2: Portfolio report with web applications

1.Assignment Aims

• To develop a web client-server application and learn how to do a basic version of an API Gateway to pass information through the Gateway to the server and back the information to the client.

2.Learning Outcomes

1. Learning best practices for developing classical web client-server applications using Node.JS.
2. Appraise methods for the development of distributed applications.
3. Analyse advanced approaches for providing network services using an API Gateway.
4. Learn how to use a JSON file as static No-SQL database.

3.Assessment Brief

For this assignment, you will develop a web client-server application using a basic API gateway with a minimum of two (or more) routes through which you need to pass information from the client to the server and vice versa.

This will take the form of a client-server application that needs to be deployed through the Node.JS prompt command inside the VS Studio or in a separate command prompt window (if you are using any computer lab at the University).
This assignment is decomposed into two different parts, explained as follows:

1– Part: Development: (60%)

1. (10%) A client-server application developed using Node.JS. You can use the snippets 4JS extension to create your server file. A best practice is to help users when something goes wrong and send HTTP error messages to help them make the proper request.
2. (20%) A basic API Gateway with at least two different servers (routes) that you need to create and make all communication only pass through the API Gateway, masking all the ports of the servers to the client.
3. (10%) A No-SQL database using a JSON file format. Using that file, you need to perform the four main HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT and DELETE).
4. (20%) A text file containing all the curl tests you performed. You need to anticipate tests for the available and unresponsive routes (misspelt, wrong access, etc.) that an untrained user can send. This file is strongly connected with the way you've built your server.

2– Part: Report: (40%)

a.A written report with the provided template exported as PDF (only) where you should present and discuss the following:

1. You need to follow the paragraph rule of 5 +/- 2 lines.
2. The design/modelling (UML) components for your application, including a high-level architecture diagram (as presented in the lecture and available on the module page on BS) and a sequence diagram for a given call (you can choose any call from your text file with the curl tests and describe inside the sequence diagram). See Figure 1 on the following page.
3. It must contain screenshots of the tests performed with curl and a web browser. For each test, the images need to be placed side-by-side with the caption after each image.
4. A 600-word critical evaluation of your application, commenting on your experience developing the application, including the challenges you faced during the assignment development.
5. A 200-word discussion of the benefits of a client and server interaction using microservices.
6. A 200-word discussion of No-SQL databases, given examples of the advantages and disadvantages of using the JSON file as a database.

Your Portfolio should be around 1000 words (excluding tables, figures, diagrams, references, and appendices). It must be written in your own words and include at least one reference for items (4,5, and 6). Please pay attention to sources like Wikipedia and Internet blogs. It is strongly recommended that you use sources such as conferences or journal papers, as you did for the research paper assignment. For that, using the University Library system is strongly recommended, where you can freely access a wide range of scientific content, i.e., peer-reviewed publications.

Please remember to make the justify (alignment) of all paragraphs.

All paragraphs of your paper must follow the 5 +/- 2 rule. This means your standard paragraph contains five lines and can go down to three as a minimum and up to seven as a maximum. Moreover, you also need to ensure that your report strictly adheres to academic writing standards, especially regarding referencing your sources and paraphrasing. Your work will be submitted through Turnitin to ensure that no plagiarism has taken place.

Figure 1: Example of sequence diagram.

4.Marking Scheme

5.Grading Rubric

The following Grading Rubric contains grade descriptors, which provide an idea of the standard of work required to achieve each grade.