View a "Getting Started with the XML submission Format" Here.

All laboratory reports for courses I teach must be submitted electronically using the following web submission page. The student is responsible for ensuring that each report is uploaded correctly by the specified due date. I will grade the reports and return them via email to the student. My comments will appear in red.

Reports should consist of one XML file and should include both the documented source code and the lab discussion. The entire report should consist of one file unless images or certain other files are included (more on this below). This document provides format guidelines for submissions.

Many of the methods described in this document (and some that are not) are demonstrated in the sample report. You may also wish to look at the graded sample report.

All reports should be formatted in XML using this style sheet. The style sheet defines a markup language that is similar to HTML. By placing the style sheet file and your report in the same directory, you should be able to view your report using a current version of Internet Explorer.

Here are a few basic things to keep in mind when composing your report:

• You must have the style sheet file in the same directory as your report file.
• All markup commands are lower case and found within angle brackets < >.
• Almost all formatting commands involve a start and an end tag.
  • The start tag begins with the markup command's name and may contain additional attributes. For example,

    <section name="Introduction">

    is the start tag for section with one attribute, name, assigned the value Introduction.
  • The end tag contains a slash and the command name. For example,

    </section>

• All markup commands that do not have both start and end tags should only have a one tag and that tag must end with a slash. For example,

  <image src="taylorSerious.png" />

• The following characters cannot be included in your report in the standard way. The alternative is given immediately after.
  • < should be written as &lt;
  • > should be written as &gt;
  • & should be written as &amp;
  • " may need to be written as &quot;
  • ' may need to be written as &apos;
• Markup commands must be closed in the opposite order in which they were opened. For example,

  Legal: <italic><bold>toilet</bold></italic>

  Illegal: <italic><bold>paper</italic></bold>

A template file is available that may be used as a starting point for your submission. The file looks something like this (without the line numbers).

FIX 10

15 FIX

20

25 30 35 40 45 50 55

Activity	Time (in minutes)
Designing	FIX
Coding	FIX
Debugging	FIX
Testing	FIX
Writing Report	FIX
Other	FIX
Total	FIX

60           ]]></code> 65

70          ]]></code>

            ]]></code>

80 ]]>

• Lines 1-2: Indicate that this is an XML document that is using the cctHW.xsl stylesheet.
• Lines 3-7: Indicate the name of the assignment, the date the report was submitted, the course associated with the assignment, and the professor to whom the assignment was submitted.
• Line 8: Gives the name and email address for the author of the report. If more than one author exists, a separate author element should be given for each author.
• Lines 12-18: Specify the first section. The section is given a name and is automatically numbered when displayed in the web browser.
• Lines 14-16: Specify a paragraph within the first section. Additional paragraphs may be added as needed.
• Line 20: Starts a section for the activity log.
• Line 21: Starts a figure with the caption of "Activity Log".
• Line 22: Starts a table with a small border around each cell. Note: any valid attributes for the HTML table tag will work here.
• Lines 23-26: Specify the first row of the table.
• Line 24: Specifies the first cell of the table. It indicates that "Activity" should be centered within the cell. Note: any valid attributes for the HTML td tag will work here.
• Lines 23-54: Specify the remaining rows of the table.
• Lines 55-57: End the table, figure, and section.
• Line 59: Begins a section for sample results from your program.
• Lines 60-62: Contain the sample results for one program run. The actual results (copy and paste from the DOS window) should replace the FIX on line 61.
• Lines 60 and 62: Start and end the sample output. They tell the browser to display the text exactly as it appears in the file.
• Line 65: Begins a section for all of the source code.
• Lines 67-71: Specify the first subsection containing one C++ source file. The name of the source file should replace the FIX on line 67, and the actual source code should replace FIX on line 69.
  Notice that subsections are defined by nesting section tags.
• Lines 73-77: Specify the second subsection containing one C++ source file.
• Lines 79-80: End the "Source Code" section and the assignment that started on line 3.

You may find it helpful to look at a complete sample laboratory report.

Typically, lab reports will consist of one XML file which contains a narrative, all of the source code for the assignment, and appropriate sample results. However, there are times when it is necessary to include additional files. When additional files are required, the following conventions must be observed:

• All filenames for the additional files should have the following format: 183taylorL3.png where 183 is the course number, taylor is your MSOE login, L3 is the assignment, and png is the extension for the file. If more than one file with the same extension is submitted, you may name the files as follows: 183taylorL3a.png, 183taylorL3b.png...
• All additional files should be zip'd into one archive.
  • I use PowerArchiver, a free (provided you get an old version of it) archiving utility that supports zip files.
  • You should submit the report and one zip'd file only.
  • Links should be made from within your XML report to each of the additional files.
    • The following line will create a link (called "CSP Spreadsheet") to the file 286taylorL2.xls:

      <a href="286taylorL2.xls">CSP Spreadsheet</a>

    • Images (.png, .jpg, .gif formats only) may be included within your report using the following command:

      <figure caption="Figure 1: Original Image">
        <image src="183taylorL2a.png" />
      </figure>

The following table provides examples of the various markup commands available to you. The left column demonstrates the results of the markup commands given in the right column.

This is how I get a new line in my text.	This is how I get a<br/> new line in my text.
Bold	<bold>Bold</bold>
Italics	<italic>Italics</italic>
Underline	<underline>Underline</underline>
Command	<command>Command</command>
C++ keywords like int	C++ keywords like <cppkey>int</cppkey>
C++ comments like // ignore this	C++ comments like<br/><cppcmt>// ignore this</cppcmt>
Item 1 Item 2	<ol>   <li>Item 1</li>   <li>Item 2</li> </ol>
Item 1 Item 2	<ul>   <li>Item 1</li>   <li>Item 2</li> </ul>
x3	x<sup>3</sup>
x3	x<sub>3</sub>
	<image width="40" height="40" src="../graphics/nlogo2.gif" /> Note: You can use any of the attributes for the HTML img command.
Cell 1,1 Cell 1,2 Cell 2,1 Cell 2,2	<table border="1">   <tr>     <td>Cell 1,1</td>     <td bgcolor="#888888">Cell 1,2</td>   </tr>   <tr>     <td>Cell 2,1</td>     <td>Cell 2,2</td>   </tr> </table> Note: You can use any of the attributes for the HTML table and td commands.