The Certificate is a sequence of connected courses which explore Internet software development, including Javascript, XML, Ajax, Java, Flash, Drupal, PHP, and MySQL. The certificate is open to graduates of a computing program or anyone with equivalent field experience.

These are three credit courses, meeting two hours in the classroom each week for 17 weeks, with associated lab periods for student convenience. All sections are in the late afternoon and evening. Class work stresses hands-on programming through projects, and students are welcome to work on assignments at home or at work if they can access our servers and/or have the tools -- Sun's Java Development Kit (JDK) or PHP, for example. Most of these tools are free for anyone to download and use.

Completing the Certificate takes two years by taking one course per semester, but the express track allows completion in one year by taking two courses per semester.

This Certificate is offered through the Arts and Sciences Division, which accepts applications for admittance into the Certificate. This is a simple process separate from applying to MATC and involves no application fee. The Arts and Sciences Division is located at Room 246 Truax, and applications are available there and can be filled out on the spot (A & S phone : 608-246-6246). Alternatively, download this application form in Microsoft Word format, fill out, and attach to Mike Bertrand. All applicants will be contacted by eMail shortly after submitting an application.

Although four courses must be taken to obtain the Certificate, qualified 'special students' are welcome to take individual classes, room permitting (a certain number of seats are reserved for Certificate students). Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis. Accepted Certificate students are guaranteed their classes.

Obtaining the Certificate requires taking four courses: one required and at least one a capstone. Intro to Internet Programming (152-188) is required and should be taken first, because it develops a number of techniques and themes common to the rest of the curriculum. The general electives are listed in the middle column of the diagram below, and most Certificate students will take two of them. The final, capstone Certificate courses are PHP and MySQL Programming (152-196) and Java EE with Spring & Hibernate (152-198), one of which should be taken last. Not every course is offered every semester.

Click here for a list of classes and the Spring 2009 schedule.

A survey of HTML programming, including client- and server-side scripting. HTML topics include basic web page layout and design, graphics, tables, forms, style sheets, and the Document Object Model / DHTML. JavaScript programming is covered intensively, including scripting basics, dynamic HTML production, arrays, and validating user input. After these foundations, we move to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), XML, Ajax, and ASP. This course is required for the Internet Developer Certificate and should be taken first.

This course takes up all aspects of Drupal Open Source development, starting with installation, configuration, and base features. Core functions and modules are addressed, including users, content types, themes, menus, and jQuery. Module development with PHP is the central topic of this class, including with the form API against MySQL. Students should be familiar with HTML and CSS and be ready to program in PHP. This course is a general elective for the Internet Developer Certificate.

This course is an introduction to the Java programming language from an object-oriented point of view. We start with Java basics: data types, class construction, control structures, method writing, and elementary event handling. Further topics include Java components and layout, mouse handling, graphics, string manipulation, remote data access, file I/O, network programming, and database work. Java 2 and Swing are covered extensively. We write device independent applications as well as Internet applets. This course is a general elective for the Internet Developer Certificate.

This course introduces XML from a programmer's standpoint, starting with basic XML structure and syntax, including well-formedness and validation. Ajax Javascript programming and the Document Object Model (DOM) are special themes, including against MySQL and server-side PHP scripts. Additional topics include Web Services, XSLT, RSS, and Google maps. This course is a general elective for the Internet Developer Certificate.

This course introduces ActionScript 3.0 programming in Adobe Flash. After a brief introduction to the drawing tools, we take up writing event handlers and drawing with ActionScript. All major programming constructs are considered, including variables, loops, functions, object-oriented concepts, and file I/O (including XML). Programmatic Flash animation is a continuing thread. Additional topics include Flash forms, games, and drag-and-drop techniques.

This course is an introduction to PHP and MySQL. PHP is an open source C-like language for server-side web page programming, and MySQL is a full-featured open source database. We develop the basics of PHP programming, including variables, control, functions, arrays, classes, and file I/O. Intermediate level SQL is taken up as well. Students develop a robust shopping cart application for an online bookstore, including initial database construction using web services, a web search engine, user authentication, payment handling through Paypal's sandbox, and transaction storage. This is a capstone course, one of two for the Internet Developer Certificate (the other is Java EE with Spring & Hibernate (152-198)).

This course takes up the Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) in a professional setting, the premiere environment for writing Java web applications. Each student will install a Java EE development environment with free (or cheap) industry-standard tools, including Tomcat, MyEclipse, and MySQL. Basic topics include Java Server Pages (JSP), servlets, and JSTL. We introduce database access through JDBC, but emphasize Hibernate as an object oriented approach to database access in Java and take up the Spring Framework as an effective approach to Java web programming. Students must be conversant with basic Java. This course is one of two satisfying the capstone requirement for the Internet Developer Certificate (the other is PHP and MySQL Programming (152-196)).