ITEC 325 2012fall ibarland

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hw02
Forms

We shall start developing a file of useful utility functions for php. We'll have two files, named something like util.php and util-test.php. The second file will just require the first, and then contain calls to test (as per lecture and hw01). You can migrate the functions/tests hyperlink and pluralize from hw01. Unless otherwise specified, none of these functions should print any output — they should return a value.

1. (10pts) Write a function which takes in an array of strings, and returns a single, long string: a comma-separated list of all individual strings, with “and” before the last element (if more than one)¹. The resulting string should be suitable for splicing into the middle of a paragraph of prose, and should be proper, grammatical English. (This function has nothing to do with html.) Include at least three test cases, each testing a different situation.

2. (20pts) Write a function which takes in (a) an array of strings (checkbox-descriptions) and (b) a group-name, and returns a string that happens to be valid html for a series of checkboxes. (The string should include newlines, and (if you want) each line might start with 6 spaces, to serve as indentation.)

   For example, the checkboxes( 'family', array('Brother', 'Sister', 'Pet') ) would return html which renders as something like:
   Brother
   Sister
   Pet
   
   Include at least two test cases; you'll probably want to write a sample series of checkboxes by hand, to serve as your expected-output. Use a label tag, to group the checkbox with its adjacent text.

3. (10pts) Write a function show_source_between, which takes three strings: a filename, a start-date, and and end-date. The function will print (not return) html for:

   1. the name of the file and a link to it,
   2. the file's last-modified time (see filemtime),
   and
   3. that file's source (if between the start- and end-dates), or a message along the lines of “this file's source only available between 2012-Sep-31 23:59 and 2012-Dec-31 23:59.”
      (Recall the functions strtotime and date.)
   The result should render nicely in a browser. Feel to add extra markup or any class attributes you like.

   Since this is a void function (it only prints), testing is problematic, and so we won't have any unit tests for it. (So be extra-sure to test it carefully by hand.)

4. (Very similar to the lecture notes:) Write a function getTrimmedInput which takes in a string (the name attribute of an input tag), and returns the value of that element in $_POST, or false if that element didn't exist in $_POST. Your function should stripslashes iff gpc_get_magic_quotes. Your function should trim the result.

   (5pts) You can test this be assigning to $_POST, and then calling your function, and verifying the result. It's slightly tricky, writing a test case regarding gpc_get_magic_quotes. Your testing-code can also call gpc_get_magic_quotes, and store a plain-or-quoted string into $_POST appropriately. (Yes, this test only tests the code for the current server configurations; we'll just mumble under our breath about how global state makes testing difficult, and accept the weakness² of our test suite.)

5. (5pts) Write a function sanitizeHtml which takes in a string of raw text, and returns sanitized html: that is, nl2br and htmlspecialchars are both applied to the string, appropriately. Include at least two test cases.

Note that fully half the points are awarded for having good tests (when possible), a good signature (function and parameter names), and a short description of the arguments/types (one sentence usually suffices). In addition to correctness, code quality and readability count.

Scenario

You are working for Lizard Entertainment, makers of the popular adventure game, .World of Wowcraft (“.W.o.W.”). In .W.o.W., players choose a type of character: either warrior, mage, priest, or rogue. Over the course of the game, their characters can learn various skills, depending on type: For example, the diplomacy skill (which is learnable only by rogues and priests), or the acrobatics skill (which is learnable only by rogues and warriors), etc.. Each skill is be tied to one of six built-in character traits: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. Finally, each skill has a minimum-level (between 30 and 100 inclusive).

Your boss decides that a key feature of the game is that people can add their own skills to the game. Your job is to build a web-page that lets people enter new skills for the game to use. People will enter the name of the skill, a detailed description, which character-types can use it, what trait it's tied to, and their own name (to get the glory). When they submit their form, they will see a response page summarizing the information they entered.

An example of filling out the form	The result of the processing the form

Your task

• (30pts) Build two PHP pages: the form, and a page to handle the form and display the results.

  Your pages don't need to look identical to the above images³, but should look well-organized, typo-free, etc. When I grade, it will be from the mindset of a small-company owner who has hired you to create my web-site. … A grumpy, perfectionist small-company owner.

  Call your functions from Part I appropriately.

  You do not (yet) need to validate any data (including the minimum level being between 30 and 100); we'll add that over the next few assignments. However, do make sure that any special characters like < or & are handled correctly (that is, the displayed description shows those characters, without any markup), and that newlines are preserved.

• (10pts) Define a css class “important” that centers its text and puts a green border around the item; use this for the page's title (which might be in an h1 tag). Similarly, define a css class “additional-info” that has font-size: smaller and font-style: italic. Use this for both the page's signature at the bottom, and reminder information about the restriction on min-level.

• (10pts) Finally, have a file index.php which starts with a link to your form (for part II), and a link to this hoemwork. Then, follow that with calling show_source_between for each function used in this homework (including your test cases, and index.php itself). Show the source between this assignment's due-date, up through shortly after the end of the current semester (say, 2012.Dec.31).

  Important note: I will grade your homework by visiting https://php.radford.edu/~yourUserId/itec325/hw02/, and going from there. If I cannot locate/view your file, there will be a minimum 15% penalty. Please double-check your own page via the web, reasonably soon after the due-date.

  If you need to modify your files after the due-date:

Other requirements

• Each file start should start with with a PHP or HTML comment with your name, class, etc. (after a doctype declaration and perhaps <html>).
• Use meaningful variable names, function names, and good comments as needed.
• Write functions (both php and javascript) as appropriate, to avoid repeated work.
  I recommend writing functions that return strings rather than print (as convenient⁴), and including one or two test-cases as examples. Writing the test-case first often clarifies exactly what your code needs to return.
• Use standard XHTML tags and make sure any javascript does not use browser-specific constructs.
• All code/html should be well formatted with appropriate white space and indentation so it is easy to read.
• Strive to minimize lines that wrap.
• If you have any questions, use the discussion board.
• Do not modify your final submission after the due-date; if you want to make changes, copy all your files to a new directory and work on those. (Linux: use cp -pr to preserve timestamps and copy directories recursively.)

• Please run/check your program/html incrementally — don't write huge amounts of the assignment w/o even running it.

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©2012, Ian Barland, Radford University Last modified 2012.Sep.22 (Sat)

Please mail any suggestions (incl. typos, broken links) to ibarlandradford.edu