Submission 02
Adding Date and Time, Dynamic Quotations, and a Product Slideshow

Submission Description

In this second submission you will enhance your website in the following ways:

• The welcome message at the top right of each page must now be followed by two lines giving the server date and time in the same format as shown in version 2 of the Amazing Stuff website. The time must update every minute and the date must update to the next day at midnight each day. This effect must be achieved via a client-side AJAX communication with an appropriate server-side PHP script, and not by a refresh of the entire page.
• The static quotation in version 1 of your website must be replaced by a dynamic quotation that changes daily. That is, a new quotation is generated (either randomly at midnight, or randomly by the first access to your website after midnight), and that same quotation must be the one seen by anyone who visits your site up until the following midnight. You must have at least a dozen quotations from which to choose, and a couple of dozen would be better. Since the daily quotation choice must be random, it is possible that the same quotation will be chosen two (or even more) days in a row. But the more quotations you have, the less likely it is that this scenario will occur. You can, of course, pick your own favorite quotations, but your quotation "template" must be the same as shown in version 2 of the Amazing Stuff website. This "template" has three variable parts to be filled in: the single-word adjective describing the quote, the author of the quote (who may be "Unknown" or "Anonymous"), and, of course, the text of the quote itself. For this version of your website the quotes must be in a textfile in JSON format, and must be accessed randomly from that file with PHP.
• Your one static image from version 1 of your site must now be replaced by a continuously rotating "slideshow" (or "carousel") of images of products of your business or product-related images relevant to your business. These images must also be labeled (as seen in version 2 of the Amazing Stuff website) and there must be at least six such images (you will need more later). They need not all be the same size, but they must all fit within the allotted space on your home page. One possibility is to choose a single image size that works for your site, and then use a separate paint program to make all of your images that same size.

  You may have an alternate approach to handle the display of your images and their labels on your home page, but here is one suggestion: Place all the links to those images, and their labels, in a separate HTML file in your resources subdirectory, then include that file in the appropriate location in your my_business.php file, and use a JavaScript script in your my_business.php file to perform the rotation (the "carousel effect", if you like).

Required File(s)

In addition to all of the directories and files from version 1 of your website, this second version must also have the following additions/changes:

• Your banner.html file will have to be modified and be renamed to banner.php since it will be using some PHP code to get for display the updated time and date from the server via an AJAX communication with a server-side PHP script that computes the current date and time.
• Your document_head.html file will have to be modified to include your carousel.js JavaScript script for handling your rotating images on your home page.
• The required additional business-related product images must be placed in your images/products subdirectory.
• You must have a new subdirectory named scripts which will contain all PHP, JavaScript, and any other scripts required for this and all subsequent versions of your website (for example, a JavaScript script to be included for handling the image carousel, a short PHP script to respond to AJAX requests for the current time, and a PHP script to generate the daily random quotations). If your website performs these actions in a manner analogous to the way they are performed in version 2 of the Amazing Stuff website, then the corresponding script files must have the same names (carousel.js, get_quote.php, and time.php). If you pursue some alternative for one or more of these tasks, then that alternative must be described clearly and concisely in your readme.txt file and include the name(s) of any alternate file(s) that your site uses. Note that the sample website also has files quote_today.txt and images_and_labels.html in the resources subdirectory, which are critical to the way the quotes and the rotating images are handled.
• You must have a new subdirectory named resources which will contain the JSON file of quotations and (for this and all subsequent versions of your website) any other files whose content can reasonably be classified as a "resource" for your website. Images also fall into this category, of course, but they have their own special subdirectory. Think of the resources directory as the place to keep any file that serves as some kind of "resource" for your website, but does not have a "logical home" anywhere else on your site.
• As usual, another file called readme.txt in the root directory of your website. As before, this file is for the convenience of the marker, and must contain either a statement that your site is complete and functions according to the requirements, or a list of things that you have not managed to complete and/or get working. For this submission, this file must also contain a brief description of how you achieved the daily random quotation and the slide show. If you accomplished these tasks in the same way as the sample website, just say so. If you used some other approach, describe that approach briefly in such a way that the marker will be able to confirm your approach by looking at your website "behind the scenes".

File Placement for Submission

Submit the required directories and files by placing copies of them in the submission02 subdirectory of the submissions subdirectory in the public_html directory of your personal Linux account u##, where the xx are the last two digits in your Linux account username for this course.

Best Practice

Develop your required files in the directory submissions/02, and when you're finished, simply copy the file to submissions/submission02.

Submission 02 Checklist

1. Is there a readme.txt file in the document root directory of the website, and does this file contain all the required information?
2. Do the server time and date appear in the right place, and do the time (every minute) and date (every day) update properly?
3. Are the time and date display being handled by AJAX-PHP communication and not in some other way (by a whole-page refresh, for example)?
4. Is there a new quotation for each new day, and does the quotation follow the Amazing Stuff template, with the descriptive adjective, the author and the text of the quotation being replaced when a new quotation is chosen but with the rest of the "template" remaining the same?
5. Are the quotations being chosen randomly via PHP from a JSON file of quotations?
6. Are there at least "a couple dozen" quotations?
7. Are there at least half a dozen business-related images and their labels being properly rotated on the home page of the website? The rate of rotation is not specified but either "too fast" or "too slow" would be a fair comment.
8. Are there two new subdirectories (namely resources and scripts), in addition to the ones from the previous version of the website?
9. Does the resources subdirectory appear to contain appropriate content (which may vary from account to account, depending on what the readme.txt file said about how the daily quotation change was achieved, and how the slide show was achieved, but it should contain at least the file of at least the minimum number of quotations in JSON format?
10. Does the scripts subdirectory appear to contain appropriate content (which may also vary, but should probably already contain one or more JavaScript and PHP scripts, depending on how things are being done)?
11. Did the readme.txt file adequately describe the state of the website?
12. In addition to the above new features, are there any clearly outstanding issues from the previous version of the website that have not yet been resolved?