What course(s) to take to become efficient?

[mt1895]

Several years ago I've learned to write webpages via Frontpage for personal use. Then a few years ago I've decided to start coding with Dreamweaver which does a whole lot more than Frontpage.

When my boss discovered that I knew a little about creating webpages, he decided to have me create a site for our Intranet.

The Intranet became a huge success but now demands are place upon me to interact with databases such as reading, capturing and writing info to and from databases.

The problem is I haven't the foggiest idea how to or where to begin. My boss is willing to send me to the local community college for some weekend or weekday courses but I don't know what to take.

I have no OOP programing experience such as Javascript or Php or even SQL which I think is what I need to get started.

Will someone kindly give me a course outline to follow which will get me there.

For whatever it is worth, I have taken a three day course in Flash which has help me to create some dynamic looking webpages but I am still missing a big piece of this puzzle.

Thank you in advance

~mike~ :)

[jofalcon]

I think you would be really suprised to see all you can do with Ruby on Rails. Ruby is great and simple to learn. Before starting with Ruby on Rails, I had a semester course background on Java. I basically read tutorials online, bought a couple of books, and went from there. Check out the Ruby on Rails website (http://www.rubyonrails.org/) for more information. I suggest downloading or purchasing the books they suggest.

Also, it may help other people who can help you more, if you give a brief description of what all you are trying to achieve with your online application. I hope that give you a little help.

[mt1895]

Thanx joFalcon,

I have created an Intranet in which we share inter-office information such as current events, office phone number, database files of vendors and clients and such.

One of my immediate project is to place the employees name and phone extension in a database (maybe Access I'm not sure) and create a table where the only thing the viewer would have to do to retrieve the number is type in the name and perhaps I might like to reverse it and have them type in the extension to see who it is assigned to.

I know that there will be more of this type of interaction in the very near future.

I have overheard a group asking if there was a way to gather information from the Intranet to add to the "Sales database" such as "Salesman", "Region", "Type of sale", and "Amount" among others.

So you can see I will have my hands full.

I will give RubyonRails a looksee. Perhaps they have a trial version. I don't have an alot of time to self-learn which is why I would rather have an instructor where I can ask question.

Again I truly appreciate your suggestion and will indeed investigate it.

Thanx again

~mike~

[Nick Manley]

I would actually recommend learning PHP with MySQL instead of Ruby on Rails. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with Ruby, I would just recommend this for someone in your position for a couple of different reasons. First of all PHP+MySQL is far more widespread than RoR or any other database software such as Postgre or MS-SQL. There are a lot of premade scripts for PHP+MySQL because it has been around for a lot longer and the number of developers is higher than that of RoR. Also, if you decide (for whatever crazy reason) to leave Bluehost, your going to have a much easier time finding another server with PHP+MySQL support where as RoR is more of a hunt. My belief is that for professional use Ruby on Rails just isn't quite there yet. I feel as though it's more of a language that one would use in their spare time for personal projects. For a business or professional use, especially if you are just starting out, I would go with the mainstream for now. Maybe as you become more proficient you will feel better about moving on to something else. Maybe one of these days Ruby will catch up. If you are ok with the idea and you feel as though your company will be able to support Ruby on Rails, despite the lack of support from most hosting companies then go for it! Maybe try out both for a little while and see which you like better and which would suite your needs.

But yeah, a server-side scripting language like PHP or RoR is what you will need as well as a database such as MySQL. Learning Javascript or Ajax wouldn't be a bad choice either if you have the time for it. There are a lot of neat things that can be done with Ajax that users will love!

[jofalcon]

Adding to what Nick said...

If you are looking for an instructor or course for learning something...it would be easier to find something for PHP/MySql, since, as Nick said, it is mainstream. If I were in your shoes, I'd pick up a book on PHP/MySql and look for a course around town.

[mt1895]

Thank a mil guys,

I can take a deep breath now. As it were, I have a meeting with my boss tomorrow and I will give him a copy of this forum reply and go from there.

You can only imagine the tremendous help you have given me today. Perhaps I will be able to return the favor to you in the future.

Thanx again:) :) :)

~mike~