For the class final project, you'll create a website with several pages of content, demonstrating your knowledge of CSS, XHTML, and JavaScript.

Notice: You must get your website idea approved by me. Send me an email or turn in a printout/piece of paper telling me the following:

1. names of people in the group (if there is a group at all)
2. overall topic of the site (favorite band, fictional business, etc.)
3. simple description of what each page will contain (if doing a site for a band, there might be a discography page, an interview page, and history/introduction page)

The idea must be submitted to me before December.

The larger the group, the higher the requirements / standards:

• 1 person: 3 pages of content and a nice consistent site look, minor novel use of JavaScript
• 2 persons: 5 pages of content and a nice consistent site look, good looking graphics, a novel use of JavaScript
• 3 persons: 5 pages of content, professional graphics/look, a novel use of JavaScript and a novel use of CSS

The maximum group size is 3.

"Novel use" means that the site should feature some kind of JavaScript and/or CSS functionality that wasn't directly taught in class or done on a homework. This new functionality should be non-trivial (i.e., requires more than 1 line of new code/concepts) and the new functionality should contribute to the usefulness or look of the site (e.g., don't just throw something random into the site without thinking about whether it improves the site). Furthermore, it should be mostly your own work. E.g., it's fine to follow a tutorial, but the new feature should not just be copy and pasted. Judgment of how original something is, is left to me, but feel free to contact me if you want to double check on something.

If you want to have a friend help you out in a minor way, that's perhaps okay. For example, if you aren't good with graphics and a friend makes a background image for you, then that is okay so long as the background image design was mostly your idea (e.g., don't have the friend design your site look). Just be sure to list that person as having helped you on the citation page. If you're unsure whether someone is helping too much, email me and ask for clarification. You can also take some images from outside websites, just give credit and make sure most of the images are your own or that you had to modify the images to get them to match your site look. Again, ask for clarification if you're unsure about whether you're using too many outside resources.

Although the point value seems low, consider that the weight of this assignment is rather large (approximately 15% of your grade).

• 20 pts: site has 3 (5, if in a group) non-trivial pages of content
• 20 pts: consistent look on the site by using an external .css file or files
• 15 pts (pass/fail ONLY): the site's XHTML verifies as strict
• 10 pts: graphics quality (good color theme, nice use of images, site is not overly plain but the graphics do not distract from the content, etc)
• 10 pts: JavaScript functionality
• 10 pts: a separate citation page (which does not count towards the page count) detailing:
  1. Who worked on what parts of the site
  2. Any external resources consulted and what they were consulted for (tutorial sites, Wikipedia, etc.)
  3. What your novel uses of CSS/JavaScript are, how difficult they were to use/learn, and WHY they are novel (e.g., "I used the onblur and onchange event handlers, which we didn't work with in class, to automatically update the page's calculations as the user changes the form's data. This allows the user to see immediately how their choices affect the price of their order.")
• 10 pts: displays/works properly in Firefox (v3 or higher) and IE (v8).
• 5 pts: site is online (use your Pitt web space)

1. Upload your site to your Pitt web space (only 1 person per group needs to do this)
2. Make sure that your citation page is easy found and navigated to (perhaps just put a link to it on the bottom of each content page)
3. Email me, giving me the link to your website

A quick google for "advanced CSS" or "neat javascript tricks" should turn up a plethora of tutorials/sites. Here's 2 I found:

http://www.javascriptkit.com/cutpastejava.shtml http://personalweb.about.com/cs/javascript/a/aa102599.htm

In the citation page, remember to give the link to the tutorial/resource you use to help you add the new functionality.