CSC8104 : Enterprise Middleware
- Offered for Year: 2024/25
- Module Leader(s): Dr Ellis Solaiman
- Owning School: Computing
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 1 Credit Value: | 10 |
| ECTS Credits: | 5.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
The module introduces students to modern enterprise middleware technologies and their application to building multi-tier distributed applications on cloud and other platforms. Developers of distributed applications require convenient abstractions to help manage the complexity of development and deployment. To be useful, such abstractions must be appropriate to the target execution environment (e.g. within the enterprise, between enterprises and at large scale). There is therefore a need to trade-off system properties in order to provide suitable abstractions (e.g. relaxing consistency guarantees to increase service availability in the cloud). The module uses technologies such as Java Enterprise Edition, messaging middleware and Amazon cloud infrastructure services to explore such design choices. There is a focus on systems and services to provide reliability and consistency guarantees at appropriate levels of abstraction.
Outline Of Syllabus
- Introduction to concepts of distributed computing
- Distribution transparency, local procedure calls, remote procedure calls
- Object-oriented middleware, synchronous and asynchronous invocation
- Messaging middleware, loosely-coupled interaction, interoperability, delivery guarantees in different
execution contexts
- Component middleware and separation of concerns
- Consistency guarantees, ACID transactions, extended transactions, eventual consistency
- Introduction to Web services and the REST architectural style
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structured Guided Learning | Lecture materials | 10 | 1:00 | 10:00 | Recorded videos of learning materials. |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 3 | 2:00 | 6:00 | Lectures (3x2 hour Lectures (PiP)) |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Practical | 8 | 2:00 | 16:00 | Practicals (8x2hour practical sessions in the lab (PiP)) |
| Guided Independent Study | Skills practice | 1 | 2:00 | 2:00 | Formative Assessment [Quiz] |
| Guided Independent Study | Project work | 40 | 1:00 | 40:00 | Coursework |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 20 | 1:00 | 20:00 | Background reading |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Scheduled on-line contact time | 3 | 2:00 | 6:00 | Online synchronous discussions |
| Total | 100:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
Lectures, recorded videos and online synchronous sessions will be used to introduce the learning material and for demonstrating the key concepts by example. Students are expected to follow-up within a few days by re-reading and annotating lecture notes to aid deep learning.
This is a very practical subject, and it is important that the learning materials are supported by hands-on opportunities provided by practical classes. Students are expected to spend time on coursework outside timetabled practical classes.
Students aiming for 1st class marks are expected to widen their knowledge beyond the content of lecture notes through background reading.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practical/lab report | 1 | M | 100 | Programming exercise (40 hours) |
Formative Assessments
Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.
| Description | Semester | When Set | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer assessment | 1 | M | Formative assessment |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
Nature of coursework: programming project for building an online web service using enterprise middleware.
The formative assessment is a none marked quiz to go over important theoretical concepts.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- CSC8104's Timetable