WebDev Masters

Application architecture is an essential skill for ASP.NET developers. It is always tempting to jump in and start coding, but planning your architecture early in the project will leave you with a solid application that scales well, is easy to modify and extend, and saves you time and effort later on. As businesses struggle to control their costs, writing solid code that can be extended easily is becoming even more important.

This book takes a pragmatic approach to Application Architecture in ASP.NET 3.5. It presents a series of common architectural models, and shows how to select the best ones for your project and apply them.It begins by showing you how to use the main architectural models in your applications. You will see how to implement n-tier architectures, MVC, design patterns, and more. But this is no software engineering theory book – it is a practical, hands-on guide that shows you how to use these techniques in your software straight away. We then go on to build SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) applications with the Windows Communication Framework (WCF). Finally the book contains some essential guidance on effective database design, and a chapter on localizing your applications.

This is a practical hands-on book with clear instructions and lot of code examples. It takes a simple approach, guiding you through different architectural topics using realistic sample projects.A single project is implemented using different architectural styles to make the reader understand the details of each style. There are also many small independent code samples to explain design patterns, WCF, and localization.It is for people familiar with the ASP.NET framework using either C# or VB.NET. You don’t need to be an ASP.NET guru – the book is ideal for novice and intermediate developers.

If reading about application architecture usually confuses you or sends you to sleep, then this book will be perfect for you! In short, any ASP.NET programmer who is confused or disoriented reading different books or materials on architectures wondering how and what to implement in their application, will definitely benefit from this book!This book is a great way to learn ASP.NET Architecture in a practical, hands-on way. It will also serve as a quick reference for improving your application design.

To read more, visit: http://www.packtpub.com/application-architecture-and-design-for-asp-.net-3.5/book

PHP today is the most widely used back-end programming language used on the Web. PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP is an open source language, which effectively means it is free to use, it’s very well supported with tons of books and online resources and it is the choice language of literally tens of thousands of Web developers around the World.

When would a Web Developer use PHP?

Initially websites were developed solely in HTML. HTML is the acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. Having all the content written in HTML meant that all the content for the website resides on the actual HTML pages. So for example if your company had a 1000 products you would create a separate HTML Web page for each product. This sort of website is sometimes also referred to as a static website.

The major problem with this scenario is that the design and the content reside in the same place so, for example, if you wanted to update all the product prices you would need to edit and update all 1000 Web pages. Not only was this very time consuming but allowing non-Web designers access to the HTML could potentially have very serious consequences if the HTML code was compromised in any way.

The solution was to create a database driven website where all the content resides in an external database. You would then only need to create one product page and depending which parameters were passed from the database, the website would display only the relevant product/s. Obviously this creates a much more controlled environment and a simple task like changing product prices could be achieved in seconds.

As HTML is a static language, it can not communicate directly with a database and therefore Web developers use a programming language such as PHP to feed information to and from the Database. Other benefits of using database driven websites include accumulating information from your users via HTML form submission (new client enquires, mailing lists etc), login authentication (for security purposes), e-commerce (buying and selling goods and services), and managing large volumes of data and more.

MySQL is the World’s most popular database, which over a 100 million copies of it downloaded and distributed. MySQL with its superior speed, reliability, and ease of use is the preferred database used by PHP developers.

PHP and MySQL are a powerful team of tools for any Web Developer.

PHP is the most widely used web scripting language. This great software enables even relatively inexperienced programmers to develop dynamic web sites for virtually any web application. In a nutshell that’s why you should learn it. Don’t let anyone tell you that learning PHP is a piece of cake. Like any other programming language, mastering PHP is not a simple task. In spite of any promises, you won’t become a master in 48 hours. So let’s take a closer look at why you should make the commitment to learn this language. But first a word of encouragement, you won’t have to master this extensive language to see the benefits.

Let’s look briefly at what you need to develop and test PHP programs. After all, you can’t learn to program without running and debugging (finding the errors in) real programs. The good news is that it is free. You can download it along with other useful applications for free. We recommend that you start with Version 4 unless you are an experienced programmer. Later on you can move up to Version 5. The rest of this article talks mostly about Version 4. A companion article will discuss Version 5.

PHP can run on old computers. For example, I downloaded it, copied it to a USB pen drive, and then copied these files onto a Pentium computer that had been purchased new in August, 1999. I couldn’t access this program under Windows 98 because it didn’t recognize my USB pen drive. But I ran it under Windows 2000 on this computer, which had an Internet browser but no live Internet connection. The entire system required less than 60 Megabytes. Moral of the story: You can run PHP even on outdated computers.

So you can do PHP. Why should you? First of all, it is open source. Free. Why pay big bucks for Microsoft or other competitive products? PHP and its friends are the most popular kids on the block. And it’s popular with a wide range of users from strict beginners to hard-nosed professionals whose careers depend on performance.

PHP integrates well with HTML. You can do most of your web pages in HTML if that’s what you are familiar with. If you prefer the newer XML you should move up to Version 5. It supports object-oriented programming. This article is not the place to explain object-oriented programming, the preferred methodology for developing sophisticated projects. Version 4 is a fine tool for learning the basics of object-oriented programming.

You won’t have to reinvent the wheel. PHP provides more than 100 libraries of programming functions and over a dozen database access functions. Because it is open source scads of programmers are constantly pushing the envelop.

PHP is fast and flexible. Many claim that for technical reasons it runs faster than its competitors including the Microsoft offerings. PHP programs can be moved from the Windows environment to the Linux environment and still run. Word to the wise: If you are ever thinking of going Linux make sure to pay strict attention to capitalization. Linux treats File1 and file1 as two different files while Windows treats them as the same file. If you are totally strict in the use of lower-case and capital letters, it’s very easy to move your web pages from Windows to Linux servers.

How to Learn HTML

Steps

1. HTML reads left to right. First, you have to understand tags. Tags are placed at the beginning of whatever you want to change. If you wanted to make a word bold, you’d put a tag at the beginning of the word, and at the end.

2. Tags begin with a less-than sign: . What goes inside the is the tag. Learning HTML is learning the tag to perform whatever you want to do. Usually, the tag at the end has a / before the greater sign. For example: Hello

- Every tag should begin with an opening and closing tag. If a tag only does not specifically use a closing tag [such as or , which will you see below], then the tag should end with a slash inside of the tag. Thus, the previous tags would be written as and , respectively.

- The tag for a paragraph is .

- The tag for bold is or .

- The tag for italics is or .

- In HTML, the tag must be placed around the code.

- The tag for a break (skip in the line, hitting to hitting “enter” on the keyboard) is .

- The tag is always around the text.

3. By now, you can write HTML using tags. But what if you want more? Here’s some more codes:

To insert images:

To resize images: (size is adjustable)

Linking images:

4. There are many websites that explain HTML more in-depth. Some good sites are Funky-Chickens.com and

HtmlCodeTutorial.com.

5.Every HTML page start with and end with . It will tell the server that it is a html page. Within the tag, the page consist of head and body section. The head section allows us to specify the title. The body section is the content of the html page.

6. Now that we have tags down, let’s see what we can make with the knowledge:

My Title Goes Here

I like to write a lot of HTML!

Tags are so much fun. You can do it, too!

Tips

If you’re getting serious with HTML, buy Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage. It teaches you codes and all. Both of them are WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor. Their functions is very similar to word processor. It will be easy to get started with the 2 softwares. If you don’t wish to spend money on the html software, there are some free html editors for you to test out. One of them is Nvu, WYSIWYG editor, this software is very similar to Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage.

Things You’ll Need

A word processor, such as Microsoft Word, Notepad or BBEdit.

Cherie Ang

www.ezmoneysg.com/emp/lct.html

In today’s world, governed by the Internet, everybody wants to build a website, and the major question comes in: How? The research begins, most of the times on the same media you’re trying to break in, and you end up with more questions than answers. How should you handle this amount of information? The opinions of those that are already in are always different and you end up lost like in the beginning.

This might happen because the answer to the questions “should I learn HTML code or just use a WYSIWYG editor? What’s better for me?” depends most on your expectations, needs and intentions and not only on the characteristics of the tools available. While some people prefer to measure things using a square rule because they have more uses, others prefer the standard rule because it’s more portable. Each object has its advantages and disadvantages and you can’t say exactly which one of them is better. So, to clear the things out, let’s look at the differences between HTML and WYSIWYG editors.

Time to learn

This is the biggest advantage of WYSIWYG editors because building a website with them is easier and more intuitive. Who ever wrote a letter in a text editor or drawn an image in a picture editor knows what this means. For those who have never used them, it’s like opening a website in your navigator and be able to click the text and start editing it, changing the size, the color, moving images, changing them, etc., all through clicks, tool bars and menus.

In the other hand, writing HTML tends to be more complicated, even when it’s an easy language. HTML is a markup language, and the reason why it’s easier than other languages is that the resulting web page is interpreted by a code (it has no cycles, no functions, no changing variables). Anyway, learning HTML may give you long term advantages once you’ve passed through the learning experience.

Time to build

This is a diffuse point, given that many people think that the method they use is better and faster. The truth is that this time depends a lot on the expertise level of the designer but, even when the difference could be depreciable, it’s more probable that a web page could be finished faster with a WYSIWYG editor.

Knowledge

Even when knowledge can be acquired anywhere (if you know how), in this case HTML offers more chances of expanding your mind and rise up your intellectual coefficient. It’s a good point if you’re trying to learn beyond of it. HTML coding will give you practice while, as it’s an easy language, will introduce you to the programming world (also a part of the web design and development).

Portability

While HTML code can be written in any text editor, even the most basic one, you cannot build a website in a WYSIWYG editor if you don’t have the editor. This may become a portability problem for those who don’t know HTML because they will need to have the editor installed in the computer they want to use to build, modify or update a web page (no matter how big or little the update is).

Code properness

When using a WYSIWYG editor, the web page is constructed by the user in a visual way that’s translated to HTML code by the editor engine. This means that the direct responsible of writing the HTML code is the editor, even when the directives are imparted by the designer. This many times makes that the web pages have incorrect, malformed or non-standard code, and very often additional (not wished) meta tag code.

When using HTML, the only person that decides which code goes and which code doesn’t, is the designer. You have the liberty and authority of choosing how the code will be written in your HTML document, if it will respect the standards, if it will be accessible, and many more.

Reach

How far can you go building websites through WYSIWYG editors? Well, as far as the program lets you. Today’s WYSIWYG editors bring easy and advanced solutions to designers incorporating markup languages, server-side languages, client-side languages, plug-ins and more. This will help designers to build up web pages and fill them with effects, functionalities and interactivity. This is good, and is very good if you’re not intended to go to a higher level, given that the functions provided by the editor (or by other sources) will work great with your expectations.

In the other hand, HTML is just HTML, but if you’re visionary, you’ll see that HTML is the doorway to further learning which will have, as we mentioned before, a long term benefit. The best thing of knowing HTML, as any other language, is that you’re not limited to the number of functions that the editor has to offer. You can always create your own customizable functions and code, which will look and feel exactly as you wish them to do.

Credibility

If you’re working for, or trying to catch a client, it’s not that same to say that you know and handle HTML that say that you only can use a WYSIWYG editor. Knowing HTML gives you an extra point: credibility.

A third option comes in if you decide to learn both of them. Most WYSIWYG editors have the option of parallel edition of the HTML code which opens a new possibility. Anyway, you can always modify the HTML files generated by the editor. This way you can get the benefits of both.

In conclusion, the best way to follow depends on your intentions. HTML, harder to learn but more customizable and independent, or WYSIWYG editors, easier but more editor-dependent. If your intention is to “just design a website” then you may find a WYSIWYG editor good enough, but if you’re looking serious to the web design then HTML is a must.

If you learn HTML you can not only design an entire website, but also pimp up your blog and MySpace to be the hottest pages on the net. For a quick answer, let’s have a quick peek into the world of advertising. Advertisers can use press adverts and radio adverts, and many of them use both of these. Each is effective in its own way, one being visual and the other using the voice to get the message across. If such low-cost methods of advertising are effective, then why do many of the advertisers that use them also pay for expensive television slots? Simple! TV adverts involve both sight and hearing, and these two senses together combine to form an extremely powerful means of advertising and teaching: more poweful than either apart – online HTML courses use only one of these. The same is true of teaching. Whether you teach HTML or children to write, you will find that your pupils will learn much faster and retain what they learn much longer, if you show them and speak to them, than if you simply handed out a book telling them how to read or how to use HTML (did you spot the incongruity there?). Basically, you will learn HTML a lot faster using a video course than a written one. Although HTML for MySpace might seem a fairly limited application, it nevertheless requires knowledge of formatting text, tables, graphics, hyperlinks and so on; eve of many effects such as text scrolling, or marqueeing. No less knowledge of HTML is required than that needed to design a website. You might wonder why learning HTML is necessary, given that you could use a WYSIWYG HTML editor, but these are limited in use and no good for some of the more advanced effects and formatting. It won’t format any of the hidden HTML outside the ‘Body’ text, such as the SEO activity carried out in the ‘HEAD’ section that is seen, not by humans, but only by search engine spiders. SEO applies just as much to your MySpace page as it does a regular website, and the same is also true of your blog. If you want to format the coding behind your blog, it is possible to do so, but you must first learn HTML and use what yiu have learned in the HTML of your blog. Each component of oiur blog: the sidebars, graphiucs and so on, can be chabged to suit your wishes, and your blog will become unique to you. You will have the access to your blogs HTML that you need if your blog is being run from your own website or web space. An HTML video course will enable you to start using basic HTML very quickly, and you will then go on to study CSS formatting and other techniques, including some amazing special effects that can help you produce amazing pages. If you want to use HTML on your website or MySpace page, it is evident that a video HTML course is the way to go, being much quicker and easier than a written course. Science has proved the fact.

Everybody should learn HTML. It is a very useful skill to have, and whether you are using it to pimp up your MySpace page or design a website, you will be glad that you took a HTML course. So, what is the best way to learn HTML. There is a variety of free sites online that teach you HTML, but is that the best way?

For a quick answer, let’s have a quick peek into the world of advertising. Advertisers have newspapers, magazines and radio at their disposal and many use both. Each is effective in its own way, one being visual and the other using the voice to get the message across. However, if these relatively inexpensive advertising techniques are so effective, why do those that can afford it go to the sometimes incredible expense of TV advertising? Simple!

TV advertising makes use of both your eyes and your ears, and it has been proved countless times that a combination of aural and visual advertising is considerably more effective than either alone. The same is true of teaching. Whether you teach HTML or children to write, you will find that your pupils will learn much faster and retain what they learn much longer, if you show them and speak to them, than if you simply handed out a book telling them how to read or how to use HTML (did you spot the incongruity there?).

In a nutshell, you will learn HTML quicker if you do so by video than from a book or a web page course of HTML lessons. Although HTML for MySpace might seem a fairly limited application, it nevertheless requires knowledge of formatting text, tables, graphics, hyperlinks and so on; even of special effects such as HTML scrolling, or the ‘marquee’ tag. No less than is needed in learning HTML for a website.

Many wonder why they should learn HTML in the current era of wysiwyg HTML editors, but there is only so much you can do with wysiwyg. It doesn’t properly format your web page for search engines, for example, where most of the important SEO is carried out using html in the ‘HEAD’ section of the page, before the ‘BODY’ that is visible to the eye.

SEO applies just as much to your MySpace page as it does a regular website, and the same is also true of your blog. In order to format your blog behind the scenes, as it were, you have learn HTML and apply that knowledge to the various elements of your blog. The heading, sidebars and other areas can be individually designed and formatted by means of HTML, assuming that it can be formatted in this way. If you are running WordPress from your own server or web space, for example, you will have access to the HTML that makes your blog what bit is.

A video HTML course will teach you the basics very rapidly, before on to the more detailed frames and CSS formatting, not to mention the special effects that will make your page stand out amongst all the others.

It is pretty obvious, then, that if you want to learn HTML and apply your imagination to your website, blog or MySpace page, you will do so much quicker and easier with a video HTML course than just a written one. Science has proved the fact.