Author Topic: RAWK Web Development Circle  (Read 118980 times)

Offline SP

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #320 on: June 24, 2011, 01:57:33 pm »
Yeah, thanks for that.

The theory of that makes sense to me, it's looking at the link that baffles me though - seeing how it's implemented without actually implementing it myself.

Furthermore, the database for my system is going to be moved from Access to Oracle in the near future - what effect will that have on any stored procedure/parameterized query method of securing the system?

If you use a stored procedure you will need to rewrite the stored procedure when you move to Oracle. You will have to use PL/SQL on Oracle. And that is a whole other fun ball game.

A Stored Procedure is like a function that sits on the database and takes parameters and then changes your Data. A Stored Procedure would be useful when updating multiple tables, or setting derived values.

A Trigger can be viewed as a stored procedure that runs when you insert / update / delete (dependent on how you set it up) a row in a table. It takes the old values and new values of the row are available to it - so you can set derived values / write an audit trail / update related tables.

Offline Slick_Beef

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #321 on: June 24, 2011, 02:18:24 pm »
Southern Pansy, based on that helpful post above, I have a question... I've been applying for jobs recently but seem to suffer a bit when it comes to RDBMS, I've used MySQL a lot, and MSSQL a fair bit (albeit not the most recent versions), but never even laid eyes upon oracle, which is what a lot of employers seem to be asking for experience in.  I've decided to take time out from applying for jobs to do my masters degree instead, but was wondering what your thoughts are on oracle, do you think it's fairly easy to pick up for someone who is familiar with MySQL? It seems to be a lot more extensive..

Offline Chakan

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #322 on: June 24, 2011, 02:20:45 pm »
Southern Pansy, based on that helpful post above, I have a question... I've been applying for jobs recently but seem to suffer a bit when it comes to RDBMS, I've used MySQL a lot, and MSSQL a fair bit (albeit not the most recent versions), but never even laid eyes upon oracle, which is what a lot of employers seem to be asking for experience in.  I've decided to take time out from applying for jobs to do my masters degree instead, but was wondering what your thoughts are on oracle, do you think it's fairly easy to pick up for someone who is familiar with MySQL? It seems to be a lot more extensive..

It's more robust than MySQL. It depends what you are going to be doing with it from you side? Are you just going to be creating databases and writing SQL statements? Or are you going to be optimizing the database, running execution plans and indexing and whatnot?

Offline Slick_Beef

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #323 on: June 24, 2011, 02:26:20 pm »
It's more robust than MySQL. It depends what you are going to be doing with it from you side? Are you just going to be creating databases and writing SQL statements? Or are you going to be optimizing the database, running execution plans and indexing and whatnot?

Well, I was applying for jobs as a software developer here in Portugal, where the businesses are generally small to medium in size, which means you have to be prepared to do everything!

Offline WorldChampions

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #324 on: June 24, 2011, 02:28:45 pm »
I thought Oracle's PL/SQL and triggers were at times easier to get my head around that MySQL, although I did start with Oracle first.

Offline SP

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #325 on: June 24, 2011, 02:29:43 pm »
I presume you are interested in RDBMS as a programmer rather than as a DBA - once you get into the admin side it all changes horribly.

Most Databases are sort of bilingual - they speak their native SQL and they cope with a variant of ANSI standard SQL. Learning ANSI SQL is a useful for being able to bluff a different RDBMS.

The areas where you run into differences is things like outer joins, case sensitivity of object names - or indeed string matching. What a Database / Schema is - and how many you can have. Triggers / Stored Procedures / Functions. Autonumbers become sequences and you have to write your own trigger (at least you did - I still have a client on Oracle 8i...)

They all broadly do the same thing. But the syntax varies just enough to make you dependent on the manual.

Oracle XE is free and well worth installing and playing with. You can bluff Oracle exposure is you have played with XE for a couple of days. 

Offline Chakan

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #326 on: June 24, 2011, 02:35:05 pm »
Well, I was applying for jobs as a software developer here in Portugal, where the businesses are generally small to medium in size, which means you have to be prepared to do everything!

It couldn't hurt to do an Oracle course.
Basically SQL statements are the same whether you are using PL/SQL or T-SQL or whatever. Some have a few functions the other don't but generally they both work off the same premise. It's just a bit of syntax tweak here and there.

The actual programs have some different functionality and uses but overall it's the same design, keeping the database in good relational form, making sure you have a primary key set and and foreign keys are mapped.

If you've never created a database before I would take a SQL course. It will teach you the basics such as how to put data in a db, how to get it out, and how to create stored procedures. This will help you a lot in the long run.
« Last Edit: June 24, 2011, 05:30:33 pm by Chakan »

Offline Slick_Beef

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #327 on: June 24, 2011, 05:29:11 pm »
Cheers for the replies lads, I really appreciate that and will have to pop into here more. Just to give some background - I have a degree in Software Development, but have spent the last four years neglecting my career to do other things.. now I'm settled down and have been seeing whether to get a programming job, or whether to go back to Uni to do my masters to build my skills up. I'm leaning towards the latter at the moment, it's a good moment in my life to do it and would make it easier to get a job in the future.

I'm pretty good with databases generally, I know my 1NF from my BCNF, and am confident with SQL too (bog standard sql, none of the extras that fancy rdbms bolt on), but most of my experience is for small scale projects I've done myself using mysql, rather than in an "enterprise environment".. I'm finding that a lot of companies aren't willing to take a gamble on me for that reason (Same with Java - I'm all about J2SE rather than J2EE, so am trying to improve my skills in that area, but that's not really for the web development thread)


Oracle XE is free and well worth installing and playing with. You can bluff Oracle exposure is you have played with XE for a couple of days. 

Superb, I had no idea they offered a free version, that is extremely useful to know, thank you mate. I'm thinking of starting some kind of project which uses J2EE and Oracle, will have to put some ideas together..
« Last Edit: June 24, 2011, 05:32:58 pm by Slick_Beef »

Offline SP

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #328 on: June 24, 2011, 05:36:08 pm »
Pull the old "x years of RDBMS experience principally MSSQL, MySQL and Oracle" trick on the CV. Then make sure you have a specific project for each that you can talk about.  Make a big pluspoint of your cross platform expertise.

Offline ♠Dirty Harry♠

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #329 on: August 1, 2011, 09:21:22 pm »
Adobe Edge  :lickin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FnNtX73v8k&feature=player_embedded

This is looking rather nice, sounds like the death knell for Flash

Offline ♠Dirty Harry♠

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #330 on: August 15, 2011, 10:14:24 am »
Adobe Muse

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/muse-code-name-feature-tour/introducing-muse-code-name/

It appears Adobe have been very busy of late, this looks like it could be a dream for print designers and non-coders to easily develop highly functional and professional websites.

Might not sit too well with the neo-luddites out there
« Last Edit: August 15, 2011, 10:16:23 am by ♠Dirty Harry♠ »

Offline damian

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #331 on: August 29, 2011, 03:57:24 pm »
God I hate browsers!

Trying to finish off a website that I've been working on in my spare time for ages now, set myself a timescale to do it in, gave myself what I thought would be plenty of contingency time, but as always happens in your "spare time" other things kept coming up and I just haven't had much time to work on this site. The customer is rightly chasing it as its now several weeks late.

One thing that has really been bugging me, and should be a simple task, is a drop-down menu. Its a content managed site written by myself, the customer can add their own pages and manage the menu's etc, therefore the menu has to be dynamic, and multi-level. I got this kind of working, however there were some formatting issues, plus one big issue with the menu's flickering. This was down to mouseover/mouseout issues, where moving from a parent menu item would call the onmouse out, the moving of the mouse into the child item would trigger onmouseover, they would get into a bit of an argument with each other and things would just go a bit crazy (not good for anyone suffering from epilepsy). In the end due to numerous other issues I decided to re-write the whole thing myself (I had cheated and got a supposed cross-browser drop-down menu control off the net).

So, got to work on it this morning, by early afternoon it was looking quite good, with nice transparent backgrounds, fading effects, etc (nicer than the original :) ). However, one thing that was still an issue was the flicker. Then I found a neat event called "onmouseleave" (after 11 years of web development I don't think I've ever seen this, maybe because I've never needed it), which is slightly different to onmouseout in that it doesn't fire if hovering over a child element - worked great for my menu's. Sat back, called myself a genius, had a pint of Coke to celebrate my amazingness, then got back to it and realised I hadn't get tested it in Chrome and Firefox - as soon as I did this the flicker returned, but even worse than before. Did some more research and found loads saying that onmouseleave isn't supported by chrome and firefox - DAMN! So, got to re-writing again, trying to do my own functions to see if the mouse was over a child before hiding, etc. etc. Messed it up completely so reverted to the previous version.

Then the problem hit me. The problem all afternoon with the mouseleave. It appears it is supported in Chrome and Firefox. The problem was me. All these problems caused by something very, very simple, very very stupid, yet very very easy to miss. A rogue apostrophe. In my JQuery I'd put $("'MainMenu_Level1").mouseover - notice the ' before MainMenu. Nicely hidden away with the ". Removed it, now works beautiful in all browsers.

I'm now not sure whether I hate IE more for making out that my code was fine but that it wasn't supported by Chrome etc, or Chrome etc. for being so bleeding pedantic! Or maybe myself for being a tit.

Right, back to work.
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Offline Slick_Beef

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #332 on: August 29, 2011, 05:07:38 pm »

Then the problem hit me. The problem all afternoon with the mouseleave. It appears it is supported in Chrome and Firefox. The problem was me. All these problems caused by something very, very simple, very very stupid, yet very very easy to miss. A rogue apostrophe. In my JQuery I'd put $("'MainMenu_Level1").mouseover - notice the ' before MainMenu. Nicely hidden away with the ". Removed it, now works beautiful in all browsers.


Very frustrating when that happens! Well done for finding it in the end!

Offline damian

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #333 on: August 29, 2011, 06:19:28 pm »
Very frustrating when that happens! Well done for finding it in the end!

Thanks. I actually stood up and headbutted the nearest door twice when I found it and realised it was the issue.

I still haven't got the whole menu done though, now got to incorporate the catalogue categories into the menu, so when the main catalogue menu is hovered over instead of sub-menu's being displayed as the drop-downs its got to be multiple levels of categories. Just to make things a bit more interesting.

I had planned on getting everything finished this weekend with it being bank holiday - as it is I've spent the whole time working on the menu's.
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Offline wacko

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #334 on: August 29, 2011, 10:12:00 pm »
Thanks. I actually stood up and headbutted the nearest door twice when I found it and realised it was the issue.

I still haven't got the whole menu done though, now got to incorporate the catalogue categories into the menu, so when the main catalogue menu is hovered over instead of sub-menu's being displayed as the drop-downs its got to be multiple levels of categories. Just to make things a bit more interesting.

I had planned on getting everything finished this weekend with it being bank holiday - as it is I've spent the whole time working on the menu's.

I hate shit like that. JS is bad for it, and IE is a nightmare. I wish stuff would just blow up when you do something wrong. And tell you exactly where you went wrong.

It's one thing when you mess up yourself with the logic or similar, but I despise languages and platforms (PHP, JS and IE, I'm looking at you) that happily swallow bad input like non-existent variables or way-off markup and continue on their merry way with nary a warning  :no

You must have the eyes of an eagle to have spotted that typo.
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Offline damian

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #335 on: August 30, 2011, 12:59:57 am »
I hate shit like that. JS is bad for it, and IE is a nightmare. I wish stuff would just blow up when you do something wrong. And tell you exactly where you went wrong.

It's one thing when you mess up yourself with the logic or similar, but I despise languages and platforms (PHP, JS and IE, I'm looking at you) that happily swallow bad input like non-existent variables or way-off markup and continue on their merry way with nary a warning  :no

You must have the eyes of an eagle to have spotted that typo.

I'm still not sure how I did spot it, but I'm glad I did when I did because i'm still working on the damn thing now and my eyes are completely glazed over. Its all displaying ok now, and its setting the menu's up correctly, including the catalogue menu which instead of showing sub-menu options shows categories from the catalogue. However, now its decided to be stupid and display the same third-level menu no matter which sub-menu I hover over. I've just about given up now (after 14 hours of non-stop working on it), I don't think I'm doing any good now and am just going over the same things over and over again. I have work at 9am, so should think about going to bed really :)

Just sending an email to the customer to give them an update and I think thats me done for the night.

I just cannot believe that something as simple as a drop-down menu can take so long. There will probably only be about 20 lines of code when I've finished, but they'll have been written in about 3m different ways :)
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Offline SP

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #336 on: August 30, 2011, 09:47:14 am »
I hate shit like that. JS is bad for it, and IE is a nightmare. I wish stuff would just blow up when you do something wrong. And tell you exactly where you went wrong.

It's one thing when you mess up yourself with the logic or similar, but I despise languages and platforms (PHP, JS and IE, I'm looking at you) that happily swallow bad input like non-existent variables or way-off markup and continue on their merry way with nary a warning  :no

You must have the eyes of an eagle to have spotted that typo.

Unfair on PHP. You can make PHP strict. If you choice to configure it to allow non-existent variables, you have applied the shotgun to your own foot. You can set up PHP like a proper language and write good code. Unfortunately PHP suffers from VBitis. Too many people who think they can code just because they have written an Excel macro end up writing PHP. But then is it the job of a language to protect a numpty from himself?

Offline wacko

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #337 on: August 31, 2011, 05:59:14 pm »
Unfair on PHP. You can make PHP strict. If you choice to configure it to allow non-existent variables, you have applied the shotgun to your own foot. You can set up PHP like a proper language and write good code.

I know you can now set it up to throw and error if you use a non-existant variable, but it is still full of really bad code and design decisions. JS to some extent, too. You have to know the language *really* well to not get bitten by some of the stranger features. Ultimately, it's all a matter of where you personally draw the line, but I deeply dislike the type coercion that both languages do if you, say, compare a string and an integer. That's something I feel the dev should do explicitly.

Unfortunately PHP suffers from VBitis. Too many people who think they can code just because they have written an Excel macro end up writing PHP.

Definitely true. It is *very* easy to get started with. For all its warts, it'd be a great app scripting language or templating language (which is what Facebook use it for), but it's an appalling language for web apps because it completely ignores the enormous security issues associated with building apps that anyone with an Internet connection can poke with their e-stick. mysql_query is a profoundly dumb function to be giving noobs. And the docs make no mention whatsoever of SQL injection. WTF??? It should take a list of parameters and run mysql_real_escape_string over them, like any decent framework does. Likewise, filesystem access functions should take a root directory and a relative path, ensuring that it is under the root directory to avoid another raft of hard-to-solve security problems.

It's a really bad language for beginners to write web apps in. Which is its raison d'être. Writing secure web apps is very, very hard, but PHP wants to pretend that it's easy, more or less by ignoring the issue. It's essentially a large collection of foot-seeking missiles.

But then is it the job of a language to protect a numpty from himself?

No it isn't. But a good language should go some way towards helping you avoid certain errors. As I said above, type coercion is really a step too far for me. I like my strong typing and duck typing.

Right or wrong, it's my personal opinion that, apart from having some very bad design choices and a crappy, slow implementation, PHP is very unsuitable for its intended purpose (i.e. web apps). The one thing it has going for it is its wonderful deployment model (no need for cgi-bin like other languages or its own server like Rails, Django etc.).
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Offline AJ

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #338 on: November 1, 2011, 05:14:19 pm »
Right.

I'm going to start applying for graduate jobs in the coming months and I'd really like to get some form of junior developer role. My issue is that, whilst it's something I enjoy, it's not really something I'd say I'm good at. So I need to get good.

I'm going through some of the specs now and they're all asking for the same; one or more of Java, C++, C# or .NET.

On placement, as part of my course, I developed a system in Classic ASP (learning the language as I went along) and, whilst it provided good experience and performed the tasks it was supposed to, it wasn't 'professional' or the kind of thing that an employer would be impressed with. That's to be expected, I guess, given it was my first attempt and I taught myself, but now I'd like to build on this.

One of the web development team gave me some advice; if I wanted to get myself a job, to start learning ASP.NET in C#. What do people think of this advice? ASP Classic is obviously no longer supported, and he said any companies that would be looking for ASP programmers would be looking for those who are very specialist and could provide something very niche. Obviously not for me then.

I've had a little bash at PHP but find it hard to get my teeth stuck in to and none of the person specs seem to mention it so I'm not sure whether it's worth pursuing or not.

Based on what I've seen in the few adverts I've looked at, his recommendation looks spot on, but I'd like to know what others think. What are the pros cons of learning VBScript/C#?

I've got the following tutorial bookmarked for when I get home: http://asp.net-tutorials.com/basics/introduction/

I've got no idea how good it is, but I'll go through a few before I get carried away. I found that a lot of the feedback I got from the web team regarding my system on placement surrounded things like not using functions, not having a class library... these are things that I didn't even come across in tutorials. So could anyone suggest any particular things I should look in to? Any particular tutorials you've found useful?

Development is the only thing I really have a passion for - I just haven't really had the exposure to it to have been able to build up my skills. I'd like to get in to it if I could, but know I've got work to do before I'll be able to start applying for even junior developer roles.

There's a lot of questions there, I know. I'm not even sure if that's all coherent, but any advice or pointers - even boots up the backside in the general direction - would be very useful.

Cheers.

Offline Chakan

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #339 on: November 1, 2011, 05:20:34 pm »
As an ASP.NET/C# developer myself , you'll never be short of a job. I would say take a course or get a decent book to learn from.

Classic ASP you will never use unless you are updating an old program. Also if you are going into development, take a SQL course as well. They go hand in hand.

PHP is nice to have as well.

Just remember programming is all the same , the only thing that changes is the syntax. Except Cobol which is crap.

Offline AJ

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #340 on: November 1, 2011, 05:30:06 pm »
Is setting up .NET the same as Classic? Not that I did that myself anyway. To develop locally, do I just need to install IIS? I've got Apache running now, for PHP purposes, will that need to be turned off (no idea if that's the right terminology) or uninstalled?

I found a lot of the PHP tutorials started with how to set it up - downloading PHP, Apache and MySQL - but the ASP.NET ones I've seen so far don't have any of this information.

Will probably start looking into it further when I get in tonight.

Offline Chakan

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #341 on: November 1, 2011, 05:33:04 pm »
ASP.NET requires IIS and the .Net Frameworks installed which can be downloaded from Microsoft. That's pretty much it.

Have a look at http://www.w3schools.com/aspnet/default.asp

I use Visual Studio 2005/2008 for development.

Currently using Framework 2.0/3.0/3.5

Haven't started on 4.0 yet.

Offline AJ

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #342 on: November 1, 2011, 05:39:47 pm »
Where would you suggest I start, in terms of the Framework?

I'm eyeing up this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beginning-ASP-NET-2010-Experts-Voice/dp/1430226080/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320168644&sr=8-1#_

But that's for 4.0. Is it better to start at earlier versions and work forward or just start with the most recent?

In terms of an IDE, I'll probably start with Visual Web Developer, because it's free, and see how I go. I've used Visual Studio briefly in uni but it seems a bit excessive (maybe I'm wrong) for a bit of web development?

Offline Chakan

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #343 on: November 1, 2011, 05:44:06 pm »
Where to start ? Good question, I don't really know to be honest. I started all the way at the back and worked from there. I suppose 2.0 might be a good starting point and then incorporate 3.0, 3.5 and then 4.0. Maybe have a look at the differences between the versions and try incorporate the changes. Basically once you get the idea of objects and how to reuse them and how they relate to each other and then connect to the database , adding and retrieving data the rest is just gravy :)

It's much of a muchness really.

I would say most companies who do web/program design if they are using ASP.NET/C# use Microsoft Visual Studio, so I would get comfortable with it right from the start. But Visual Web Developer will give you a good base.

Offline wz4jc3

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #344 on: November 2, 2011, 09:05:50 pm »
Can anybody  recommend a CMS? I have been looking into it, and have had a few names recommended such as Wordpress, Drupal, etc.

I'm not too keen on learning any coding, so usability is important. I would like to be able to build forums and the ability for users to leave comments on pages.

Thanks in advance.

Offline wacko

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #345 on: November 2, 2011, 10:46:42 pm »
It depends on what you want. They all have strengths and weaknesses. You should come up with a clear idea of which features you need/want and go from there: you don't want to find yourself making a multimedia-focussed sharing site on the CMS with the worst sharing and multimedia plugins because you went for the one with the best template engine/simplest installer...
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Offline WorldChampions

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #346 on: November 2, 2011, 11:18:21 pm »
Where would you suggest I start, in terms of the Framework?

I'm eyeing up this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beginning-ASP-NET-2010-Experts-Voice/dp/1430226080/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320168644&sr=8-1#_

But that's for 4.0. Is it better to start at earlier versions and work forward or just start with the most recent?

In terms of an IDE, I'll probably start with Visual Web Developer, because it's free, and see how I go. I've used Visual Studio briefly in uni but it seems a bit excessive (maybe I'm wrong) for a bit of web development?

Well if you develop in visual studio, the latest versions come with a local server so no need to get involved with IIS. You will however need the .net framework installed but that comes with Windows 7 (I presume that is your OS).

Aslong as you have the framework installed you can compile and debug your asp.net code, which is all you need for learning the basics really. I wouldn't worry about deploying it to an actual server until you have something worth the effort. You will almost certainly need a database, take your pick. I have worked with mysql, sql, sqllite but they are all very similar.



I started at 4.0, I think if your learning something from the beginning anyway then why not go for the latest and most feature rich.


Feel free to PM me if you struggle with anything. I'm sure you will be fine, I found it much easier than php.
« Last Edit: November 2, 2011, 11:27:14 pm by WorldChampions »

Offline AJ

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #347 on: November 3, 2011, 04:28:44 pm »
Thanks for that WC, very helpful.

Turns out I can download Visual Studio 2010 through a Microsoft Academic Alliance with my uni, so what version am I best getting?

I can get Premium, Ultimate and Professional, none of which mean anything to me!

Offline jason42

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #348 on: November 4, 2011, 12:01:01 pm »
A website provider I use is looking for a developer - http://www.pitchero.com/jobs/
Quote from: macca888 link=topic=276522
Came to this thread a bit late, but from what I've read, the real relationship trouble is not between you and your girl, but between you and a small box of Tampax. You obviously need something more substantial in your life like a huge Costco sized box of jam rags, seeing as you're such a massive fucking quim

Offline ♠Dirty Harry♠

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #349 on: November 4, 2011, 12:25:57 pm »
I hope I'm not out of bounds here but we are currently looking for a Drupal Developer if anyone is interested in a job. We are based in Northern Ireland, no telecommuting I'm afraid.

http://groups.drupal.org/node/187794

Offline sattapaartridge

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #350 on: November 4, 2011, 03:12:00 pm »
Sharepoint (2007) is bollocks.

I've been trying to get a jquery fixed table header working on a sharepoint list via a custom dataview webpart. suffice to say. it broke sharepoint designer. the beauty of getting so near, yet so far.
did you know that 10 x 2 and 11 x 2 have the same answer?

Offline ♠Dirty Harry♠

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #351 on: November 5, 2011, 12:40:34 pm »
Nice plug-in for Firefox that allows you to edit css files in Firebug and sync the changes it to your actual css files. Only problems I've found is you can't seem to add new properties and because Firebug sometimes adds unnecessary code it can fuck up nice css styling.

http://www.cssupdater.com/
« Last Edit: November 5, 2011, 12:42:18 pm by ♠Dirty Harry♠ »

Offline AJ

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #352 on: November 10, 2011, 12:47:16 am »
Not a web development issue, but a C# one, so hopefully someone qualified to solve it will stumble up on it in here.

I was going through a few tutorials on the MSDN website to give me an insight in to using C#, but have come across a use for it in university that has grabbed my attention. We're just writing a small program, mainly for show (it doesn't have to actually do what it's supposed to), but trying to make some of the features work.

What I've got is this...

Code: [Select]
namespace Embezzletron3000
{
    public partial class Form2 : Form
    {
        public Form2()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        public void Form2_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        { 

            // Create a random number generator to provide the quantity of account numbers to be shown.
            Random acctCounter = new Random();

            // Create an integer to store the number of accounts to be shown.
            int numberOfAccounts;

            // Use the random number generator to define how many account numbers will be shown,
            // from 1-100.
            numberOfAccounts = acctCounter.Next(1, 100);

            // Use the information stored about the number of accounts shown to display a message
            // to the user.
            label2.Text = "Below are " + numberOfAccounts +  " suitable account numbers for embezzlement";

            // Create a counter to show the correct quantity of account numbers.
            int Counter;

            // Set the counter at 0 to start.
            Counter = 0;

            // Create a random number generator to provide account numbers.
            Random acctGenerator = new Random();

            // Do the following code...
            do
            { 
                // Create an integer to store the individual account number.
                int acctNo;

                // Set the value of the account number to a random number between
                // 10000000 and 99999999.
                acctNo = acctGenerator.Next(10000000, 99999999);

                // Convert the account number to a string.
                string numstring = acctNo.ToString();

                // Add the account number to the list box.
                accountNumbers.Items.Add(numstring);

                // Add 1 to the counter to confirm that the account number has been added.
                Counter = Counter + 1;

            // ...while the counter is less than the number of accounts to be shown plus 1.
            // I.e. Stop passing account numbers to the list box after the designated number
            // of accounts has been reached.
            } while (Counter < (numberOfAccounts + 1));
        }

        public void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {   

            // Create an integer to store the number of accounts dispalyed.
            int Accounts;

            // Recover the number of accounts displayed from the Form2_Load method
            Accounts = 100;

            // Create an integer to store the value of each embezzlement.
            int Value;

            // As the value has been enetered in a text box, convert it to an integer.
            Value = Convert.ToInt32(embezzleAmount.Text);
            Value = int.Parse(embezzleAmount.Text);

            // Restrict the user to entering values no higher than 50.
            if (Value > 50)
            {
                // If the value is greater than 50, show an error message.
                MessageBox.Show("To avoid detection, do not embezzle more than 50p per account.", "Error");
            }
            else
            {
                // If the value is acceptable, create an integer to calculate the amount
                // embezzled.
                int Total;

                // Perform the necessary calculation.
                Total = Accounts * Value;

                // Create a string to display the amount embezzled.
                string Display;

                // Convert the integer back to a string to be displayed in the total amount text box.
                Display = Total.ToString();

                // Set the text of the total amount text box to the amount embezzled.
                totalAmount.Text = Display;
            }
        }
    }
}

Hopefully the comments make the purpose of the application clear, though that isn't really important.

What I need to know is how to get the value of numberOfAccounts from the Form2_Load method in to the button1_Click method, so it can be used to populate the Accounts variable (which is currently just set to 100).

I've been reading stuff for ages trying to work it out for myself but I just can't.

Ta.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2011, 12:50:44 am by AJ »

Offline AJ

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #353 on: November 10, 2011, 02:05:35 am »
Nevermind! I worked out I didn't need to pass the value from the first method to the second, I could just use the Count method to count the number of items in the list box!

Offline damian

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #354 on: November 10, 2011, 02:31:57 pm »
If anyone fancies a laugh, check out the following code snippet I just found whilst debugging an application:

Quote
SqlDateTime OMFDate = SqlDateTime.Null;
try
{
      OMFDate = SqlDateTime.Null;
}
catch
{
      OMFDate = SqlDateTime.Null;
}


I know they say third time lucky but the above is just silly. Hell, why not just throw it in a finally block as well.

The app I'm debugging is full of stuff like this. Quite a few places say "if (1==1)" etc. Its not fun.
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Offline Slick_Beef

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #355 on: November 10, 2011, 02:35:35 pm »
If anyone fancies a laugh, check out the following code snippet I just found whilst debugging an application:


I know they say third time lucky but the above is just silly. Hell, why not just throw it in a finally block as well.

The app I'm debugging is full of stuff like this. Quite a few places say "if (1==1)" etc. Its not fun.

:lmao amazing. They should stick a for loop around it with a million iterations just to see if that helps...

Offline Chakan

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #356 on: November 10, 2011, 02:35:50 pm »
If anyone fancies a laugh, check out the following code snippet I just found whilst debugging an application:


I know they say third time lucky but the above is just silly. Hell, why not just throw it in a finally block as well.

The app I'm debugging is full of stuff like this. Quite a few places say "if (1==1)" etc. Its not fun.

That's horrific.

If 1=1 :lmao

Offline damian

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #357 on: November 10, 2011, 02:59:27 pm »
The power of source control allowed me to find who did it too (SVN actually has a function called "Blame" :)).

It was the person I replaced in February.

I've lost count of the number of places where I've deleted entire "else" blocks because they are doing exactly the same thing whether the condition is true or not. I also replaced about 400 lines of code with 3 lines of code just by creating a database table to replace a massive list of if elses, where each block was setting the same properties to slightly different values.

If only I had the time to re-write the whole app....
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Offline SP

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #358 on: November 10, 2011, 05:22:11 pm »
That's horrific.

If 1=1 :lmao

I have used (1=1) on a production system - but it was building SQL filters on the fly - it meant AND was always valid to append to the relevant query. And negated the need to parse the base query which on this system was messy and would have been time consuming and unreliable. 

Offline SP

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Re: RAWK Web Development Circle
« Reply #359 on: November 10, 2011, 05:23:20 pm »
The power of source control allowed me to find who did it too (SVN actually has a function called "Blame" :)).

It was the person I replaced in February.

I've lost count of the number of places where I've deleted entire "else" blocks because they are doing exactly the same thing whether the condition is true or not. I also replaced about 400 lines of code with 3 lines of code just by creating a database table to replace a massive list of if elses, where each block was setting the same properties to slightly different values.

If only I had the time to re-write the whole app....

The curse of cut and paste coding. Some developers need to have their cut and paste keys disabled. It would probably increase productivity and code clarity.