Coding Challenge 2.0 — Fall 2016

Use the latest HTML5 technology to build a small web application that solves the following concurrency problem.

• The Challenge
• Official Contest Rules and Detailed Specifications
• How do we solve this?
• Requirements
• NEW! Questions and Answers

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Winners!

The Fall 2016 RDE Coding Challenge is over. Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry. Congratulations to our winners!

• [0th place / Grand Prize] Lorenzo Campanella
• [1st place] Abheek Gulati
• [2nd place] Christian Basile

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The Challenge

Write a small web app that retrieves data from an SQL database and creates a graph from it. Use an HTML5 / JS chart library for client-side chart rendering. Judging will be based on code quality functionality, and design.

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Official Contest Rules and Detailed Specifications

Please read the Official Rules and Specifications document at http://rde.org/codingchallenge/2016fall/rules.pdf.

Before submitting your entry, make sure you follow all of the requirements in the Official Rules and Specifications, or your entry will be disqualified.

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How do we solve this?

This is a classic use case for the HTML5 <canvas> element. You'll use an open-source HTML5 / JS chart rendering library in order to drastically reduce the amount of code we have to write, instead of using the Canvas API directly. You'll use an AJAX request to retrieve data from a PHP, Node.js or Coldfusion server-side script, which in turn retrieves data from an SQL database and sends it to the browser in JSON format.

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Requirements

1. Permissible HTML5 / JS Chart Libraries. Submissions must use one of the following free and open-source client-side charting libraries in order to render graphs:
   • Chart.js (www.chartjs.org)
   • RGraph (www.rgraph.net)
   • Flotr2 (www.humblesoftware.com/flotr2)
2. Permissible Languages. Submissions must be coded using one of the following server-side languages:
   • PHP
   • Node.js
   • Coldfusion (CFML)
3. Permissible Relational Databases. Submissions must use one of the following Relational Databases to store client data:
   • MySQL
   • Microsoft SQL Server (Express Edition)
4. Use data from an Excel spreadsheet provided by RDE. We'll prepare an Excel spreadsheet for you to download, containing data to be graphed. You will need to find a way to insert this data into your SQL database. The spreadsheet will be available when we release the Detailed Specifications (see below).
5. Submissions may not utilize browser plugins. Submissions utilizing browser plugins will be disqualified. For more information, see the Detailed Specifications.
6. Submissions must be the work of a single individual. Submissions which represent the work of more than one individual, or which are submitted by a single individual on behalf of a team of two or more, will be disqualified.
7. Submissions must be received by the deadline, November 22, 2016, 23:59:59 EST. Submissions for which the upload is not complete by November 22, 2016, 23:59:59 EST (or in the case of submissions which are made via US postal mail, which have not been received by November 22, 2016, 23:59:59 EST), will be disqualified.

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Questions and Answers

When we receive questions about the contest, we'll answer them on the Questions and Answers page (click here).

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Completed Contests

• Fall 2017
• Spring 2017
• Fall 2016
• Spring 2016
• Fall 2018