New to web programming. Need advice.

nadman10 · 2013-11-01 12:45:00

Hello,

I am currently in the process of developing a new application at work that requires a web interface. I not at all familiar with any type of web development short of creating a Geocities page. However, I am familiar with C++ and C #, so I have some type of limited programming background.

My question is, is there anything comparable to ASP.NET to develop basic web pages? From what I see, I like the built in features and WYSIWYG approach that you get when developing ASP.NET pages in Visual Studio, however, I want to lean towards a comparable open source alternative. What are your suggestions? I don't need to do anything too intense. Just a few simple pages to interface with a MySQL database and display some graphs and pictures.

Mr.Elendig · 2013-11-01 12:54:19

WYSIWYG is evil and leads to horribly crappy pages, you should rid yourself of that vice as fast as possible.

Anyway, my suggesting is learning html + python + pgsql. There are lots of good frameworks for python, like eg Pyramid, or if you want something more orm/entepricy: zope or django

nadman10 · 2013-11-01 12:58:21

Why don't you like WYSIWYG?

I will look into those. You have gained my trust simply with your avatar. Thank you.

spcode · 2013-11-01 13:27:11

IMO, LAMP is the way to go.

nadman10 · 2013-11-01 14:11:30

I like the LAMP idea, but I fear that my lack of artistic ability would come into play when designing the site itself.

Mr.Elendig · 2013-11-01 16:47:36

Please, the world does not need more horrible php powered sites.

Mr.Elendig · 2013-11-01 16:49:13

nadman10 wrote:

Why don't you like WYSIWYG?
I will look into those. You have gained my trust simply with your avatar. Thank you.

The WYSIWYG editors generally generates horrible html, often not complying to the standards either, and with no usability features at all (sane tagging of images, links etc)

spcode · 2013-11-01 17:04:43

Mr.Elendig wrote:

Please, the world does not need more horrible php powered sites.

PHP isn't as bad as some (including you) may suggest. Yes, it has it's flaws, but doesn't everything else have them?

Last edited by spcode (2013-11-01 17:05:27)

Mr.Elendig · 2013-11-01 17:08:44

PHP requires much more work than most other alternatives to not end up as a insecure hard to maintain mess.

ewaller · 2013-11-01 17:19:47

I really like django. You program in Python; it makes extensive use of separating the design from the content.

It runs well on LAMP. Also, if you don't have any compunction with Google, you can use their App engine to host your site for free (for a low traffic site) or for pennies if you need a bit more. Note, I've no association with Google, but I do use them to host a site. In my case, the site is used to allow guests at a gymnastics meet to see the scores on their portable devices as soon as the judges enter scores into the scoring computer. Data are pushed out, the site serves the webpage, generates a dynamic xml page, and the device runs javascript to keep the pages up to date. I developed this over a weekend. clubchampionscores.appspot.com

nadman10 · 2013-11-01 17:42:45

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'm going to look into django. I'll check out some youtube videos this weekend to try and get myself started unless anyone has a better suggestion.

ewaller, I looked into Google App Engine and it it seems to be a little too limited for my needs.

EDIT: With django, will I be able to create dynamically updating content? I will want certain values to constantly update without the user to have to refresh the page.

Last edited by nadman10 (2013-11-01 17:49:29)

ewaller · 2013-11-01 18:00:30

nadman10 wrote:

With django, will I be able to create dynamically updating content? I will want certain values to constantly update without the user to have to refresh the page.

Yes, using Ajax techniques on the client side. Take a look at the source for the page I linked. The Javascript does asynchronous queries back to the host for an xml page. That xml is generated dynamically in Python on the server side. If you were to watch the site I linked during a meet, the scores appear in the matrix as they are posted to the scoring system. Often the web clients update even before the scoreboards in the venue display the scores.

Edit: For reference, the xml page url is http://clubchampionscores.appspot.com/gymnasts.xml. The client reloads that periodically and looks for changes.

Edit2: For further reference, here is the server side:

import cgi
import os
from google.appengine.ext.webapp import template

from google.appengine.ext import db
from google.appengine.api import users
from google.appengine.ext import webapp
from scoreview import Gymnast
from scoreview import Active

def strToFloat (x):
    return str(x).replace('"','')
def strToScore (x,mask):
    if mask: return '---'
    return strToFloat(x)

c = Active.all()
current=c.get()
print("<?xml version='1.0' encoding='ISO-8859-1'?>")
print('<MEET>')
print('<MEETNAME>'+current.Meet+'</MEETNAME>'  )
print('<SESSION>'+current.Name+'</SESSION>')
q = Gymnast.all()
q.filter('SessionNumber =',current.Session)
q.filter('Meet =',current.Meet)
for record in q.fetch(1000):
    print('<GYMNAST>'  )
    print('<NAME>'+record.First.replace('"','')+" "+record.Last.replace('"','')+'</NAME>'  )
    print('<GYM>'+record.Gym.replace('"','')+'</GYM>'  )
    print('<NUMBER>'+record.Number.replace('"','')+'</NUMBER>'  )
    print('<VAULT>'+strToScore(record.Vault,int(record.Mask) & 1)+'</VAULT>'  )
    print('<BARS>'+strToScore(record.Bars,int(record.Mask) & 2)+'</BARS>'  )
    print('<BEAM>'+strToScore(record.Beam,int(record.Mask) & 4)+'</BEAM>'  )
    print('<FLOOR>'+strToScore(record.Floor,int(record.Mask) & 8)+'</FLOOR>'  )
    print('<AA>'+strToScore(record.AA,0)+'</AA>'  )
    print('</GYMNAST>'  )
print("</MEET>\n")

Last edited by ewaller (2013-11-01 18:18:14)

imetallica · 2013-11-01 18:30:07

You can always use Java for web programming. Java Enterprise Edition is your way to go.

nadman10 · 2013-11-01 18:41:39

ewaller: Fantastic. Thank you.

imetallica: I think I'm going to stick with django.

ANOKNUSA · 2013-11-01 21:38:46

I'm not too familiar with Django, but I'm a big fan of Jekyll, a Ruby-based framework. It generates static sites (I believe Django does as well), but allows you to use dynamic templates with programming logic to do so. In my very subjective personal opinion, if you're looking for "basic web pages," go static. It seems to me too many people these days develop dynamic sites just because everybody else is doing it, even if it's totally unnecessary.

orschiro · 2013-11-02 07:51:38

@ANOKNUSA

I agree with you. But Django does much much more than just serving static pages. In fact, if he wants dynamic content, then Jekyll is totally unsuited as it was primarily designed as a static Blogging engine.

Last edited by orschiro (2013-11-02 07:52:13)

ANOKNUSA · 2013-11-02 20:40:39

Right, it totally depends on what one wishes to do with a site. Jekyll isn't just a blog engine, but it's definitely best-suited for building a site dedicated just to delivering information. Django can go beyond those limitations; I just think it's important for folks to ask whether it's necessary to do so. It's far too common for folks to dive head-first into web design/development and end up following the general trend of making overly complicated web sites that function like integrated applications. It looks as though Django might actually be an effort to mitigate that though, so I might have found a new project.

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#1 2013-11-01 12:45:00

New to web programming. Need advice.

#2 2013-11-01 12:54:19

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#3 2013-11-01 12:58:21

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#4 2013-11-01 13:27:11

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#5 2013-11-01 14:11:30

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#6 2013-11-01 16:47:36

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#7 2013-11-01 16:49:13

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#8 2013-11-01 17:04:43

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#9 2013-11-01 17:08:44

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#10 2013-11-01 17:19:47

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#11 2013-11-01 17:42:45

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#12 2013-11-01 18:00:30

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#13 2013-11-01 18:30:07

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#14 2013-11-01 18:41:39

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#15 2013-11-01 21:38:46

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#16 2013-11-02 07:51:38

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

#17 2013-11-02 20:40:39

Re: New to web programming. Need advice.

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