I am not a 'programmer' but want to develop a database application using Alpha Software Platinum v 9. The app would allow users to list classified ads via a web site and browse for items being sold etc. Does anyone have experience with Alpha software and is it really as easy they state on their site? Again, I am not a programmer but the info says you don't have to be to use their software. Thanks!
I have not used the software, but my advice would be:
Do not attempt what you say you are going to without significant programming experience.
Sooner or later you will need to troubleshoot your application (if you get that far), and you will need programming skills.
Related
totally newbie,
for long time I want to start learning but when I ask question I get question "for what purpose do u want to learn programming? u want make android apps? web development? etc etc".
I am totally new and dont have clue, I just want to start learning, and discover on the way what is more interesting for me. dont have clue whats the difference between android app developers or web developers.
now I have "goal" to create maps app, google maps always show wrong directions, and my country is not in their support list, they dont do changes when i report wrong streets etc. so I want to create map app or whatever its called. I want to take for example google maps source, and start recreating it, adding streets buildings, changing road directions, etc. but googling it does not help me at all, can anyone give me direction from where I should start? 3 years ago I gave up because when I followed articles i wasted months "studying" maybe absolutely not related stuff, I just need guidance. for first even it will be good to tell me where should I ask where should I search for answers, advices. which programming languages which books, or online courses, not going to pay for any courses till I have idea what I am doing. so am after free lessons. I am forced to write tag on post... dont have clue what to write. maybe maps? thats how clueless I am.
If you want to create mapping software to publish your own maps I think a good starting point can be ArcGIS Online from Esri. They offer a free resources for developers (create dev account here for free)
There is a lot of samples to learn from, and you can go through different technologies and programming languages, check resources page.
If you decide that you want to prepare some software components to easier collect GIS data (GIS stands for Geographic Information System) I would suggest to give a chance to QGIS application (QGIS website) which is mature mapping software with plugins system on board. It bases on plugins prepared with the python language to change UX of base QGIS application. There are also a lot of samples - you can even check how existing plugins are designed because most of them is open source.
I'm writting diploma work about JavaFX 2.0, and I need some information about further growth of this technology. I thought it will be super-multi-platform, but after googling I little disappointed: there are a lot of problems with iOS and android, also in the roadmap of JavaFX there are information only about desktop OSs... So, can developers expect some progress of technology in mobile direction? Will JavaFX be desktop-oriented or wide-universal technology? Or, maybe, it will be some special branch "Mobile JavaFX2"? If JavaFX don't support mobile phones development, Oracle will haven't modern and competitive technology for this huge area of developing?... I really need some answers! Thanks!)
If you asked the same question three years ago i would say that javafx has a bright future. Same thing for Silverlight and Adobe Air or flex.
Today i would say just a single word... HTML5
Java will always try to find a seat on the client side... Adobe sucks because they abandoned their flex developers few months ago and who says that it will not happen again with Air?... Microsoft still tries to convince us that silverlight is a good tech while on the other side they promote ASP.NET with ajax capabilities as their main weapon.
See how fast the browsers are struggling to comply with HTML5 (future!!!) standards and you will agree with me that the above technologies were born obsolete.
there are a lot of problems with iOS and android
There are no problems but one - iOS and Android are not supported in the current (JavaFX 2.1) version.
can developers expect some progress of technology in mobile direction?
Not until it is in the public roadmap (which it is not today).
Answering your other questions would just be speculation on the part of anybody who does not know Oracle's private plans. If you are interested in speculation, you can find some here.
This is probably not a direct answer to your question, but i hope it might point you in an alternative direction
Adobe air is architectually very simalar to java. It also runs on a vm on multiple platforms such as windows, osx, and ... Android and IOS. And it's gui's are sexy ... Real eye candy. For mobile there are some considerations, but currently it is the best cross platform language for gui building in my opinion. Not for server side though. But it integrates like a dream with a java server by means of blazeDS or LCDS.
I know that apple has restrictions as set out by their terms and conditions that you are not allowed to run your app in a virtual machine. So adobe had to compile the entire air app as a native application that basically includes the entire air framework. My guess is that oracle is facing similar issues, and that is probably why it is taking some time to roll out
Having fxml with the power of the java language, definately something worth while waiting for and looking forward to it.
HTML 5 has no future.. this tool has lot of problems of it's own..HTML 5 can't be used to develop enterprise applications, it is very difficult to code,debug and maintain which is very important for any long term projects on other hand JAVAFX 2 is on the rite track of creating GUI with use of object oriented concepts which makes java developers to easily code,debug and maintain without any hustle..
I am planning to build a website for courses online, teachers can create their courses and put their exams, students can enroll, view courses and apply for exams ..
I am a bit confused, to build it with DDN or Drupal ? which is easier and more powerful ?
I have no problem with .NET C# or PHP, although I see C# more easy to code with,
what I need to know, which CMS is better for my case ?
Which CMS is more robust & complete ?
Thanks in advance.
Of course, either platform has its pros and cons. What you're looking at building is essentially a Learning Management System, or LMS. There are a few existing LMS solutions built specifically for DotNetNuke. They include Engage: Campus, NetLearn, and Accord.
I would tell you to go with which ever platform offers you the most features for managing this kind of content for the best return on your investment, and offers you the best comfort level. If you're familiar with .Net and are comfortable in that arena, then stick with DotNetNuke. Otherwise go with another platform. However, having nearly 8 years of experience in developing solutions with DotNetNuke, and 13+ overall in developing software solutions (including PHP-based ones), if I have a choice, I always go with DotNetNuke. (And not just because I am an employee for a year now.)
I find that DotNetNuke has the most stable builds and releases overall. It's security team and features are second to none. It's community and ecosystem is unrivaled. If you're looking for a pre-built solution for any kind of business problem, chances are that the 10,000+ extensions in the Store or Forge will get you up and running with less development time and less expense. The forge has free (open source) extensions, and the median price of a store extension is $89 (LMS's are quite more expensive though).
The eco-system also boasts over 800 known ISV's out there. So chances are, if you're looking for support, not only is there an official company to provide it and back you up when something goes wrong, there are numerous other options out there in terms of companies that specialize in DotNetNuke.
One last thing on the releases... DotNetNuke has a known roadmap, a frequent release cycle, and an outstanding reputation for backwards compatibility. Your extensions will continue to work on the platform as you upgrade to take advantage of the latest and greatest features added to the platform, usability updates, bug fixes, and security updates.
As a Sales Engineer at DNN Corp, I hear all kinds of use cases, and I see DotNetNuke used a lot in educational institutions. They all use it to varying degrees as not only a CMS, but also a LMS, social platform (even in schools), and more. Most schools are also standardized in some way on the Microsoft stack too, so integration is much more straight-forward using DotNetNuke.
I could go on, but this is as much time as I have to give you an informed response.
Based on what you are trying to build DotNetNuke will only really give you authentication and basic page creation out of the box. All those other elements will have to be custom coded in .NET.
If you use Drupal 7 you can build majority of that using CCK, Views and workflow without really having to do a ton of programming if you don't want to.
I have been doing DotNetNuke since 2003 and have developed tons of modules for it, including some publicly available at www.dnnspot.com
If I was in your shoes I would do Drupal, but I know both pretty well.
ACTUALLY - If 'I' was in your shoes I would do Ruby on Rails now ;) but ... Drupal would work pretty well and you could get alot if not all of this done without slinging much code. Drupal is crazy.
DNN is now built on C# but has always been on .NET. I'm in a similar position as I code in PHP and .NET and have used Drupal and have been working on DNN for the last 4 years. I find that Module Development in DNN is wonderful.
i hope that helps.
Full featured Learning Management Systems (LMS) require substantial development (man decades), especially if you want to support SCORM eLearning content. Both DNN and Drupal will offer you most of the add on functionality that you will need in addition to the LMS features - the ability to build web pages, rich text editors, etc.
I would evaluate the different the LMS available for each platform and make your choice based on how robust the LMS are. In addition, evaluate how easily the LMS integrates with add on modules such as forums, wikis, etc. Most of our clients select our LMS without any knowledge of the portal framework beneath it.
Based on these evaluation metrics I am confident that you will find the Interzoic Accord LMS running on DNN to be a superior choice.
Chris
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I've been lurking around for several weeks and have been totally blown away by the amount of information and how the community quickly responds. I have noticed that questions like this typically receive sarcastic remarks and sometimes get down voted. Please bear with me as I attempt my first post :)
I little background..
I work at a tiny software company as the "QA department". Our application has a MS SQL back to store customer data and short term loan information for financial service companies. I started working here 6 years ago as a gernal technician to provide support for their call center, so I've been overly exposed to SQL and have become fairly familiar with working with it. You probably wouldn't pay me to develop a enterprise level database, but at this point I've become familiar enough to do most things in SQL.
Why I'm asking my question..
I want to develop an application to store and track our software issues and new dev. I've done research on this website along with asking around and I still feel sort of lost as to which direction I should take. I want the core of the application to be pretty basic at first, to provide various screens between my entities/modules and to create reports to show their various relationships. In the future I want it to be more complex, to provide a web portal of some sort and to start getting into various complex QA software concepts. I've read around and it sounds like I might want some variation of C/VB for the windows portion, but all of the topics have sort of overwhelmed me. Do I want to start with a more basic one that was created 20 or 30 years ago? (I think that's C and C++, right?) or a more recent one like C#? Will I be able to develop a web portal with both of these? (by web portal I'm thinking it would provide access to our database of defects and have username/password sign-in). I've seen that the various .NET languages lean more towards web development, should I start with one of these?
I am at the very beginning of this and I fully understand that I'm jumping into some deep waters here. I want to make sure I don't end up spinning my wheels and that I focus my energy on something that won't end up being a bad idea in 1 or 2 years after I start. So far I've found this website very helpful, if I can pick a direction I know I won't have any problems finding what the next step is. It might help to know that I have no formal or informal programming background (if it wasn't obvious). I'm a 27yo techie who is starting his first venture into programming, go easy on me! Thanks for taking the time to read this :)
I won't recommend that you go to C, C++, or VB. C and C++ are used mainly for developement of system software, compilers, etc. VB is deprecated by now; there is a .net version VB.NET, but my preference is C#.
Looks like you are a Microsoft shop. Steer youself towards using C#. Visual Studio provides great support for development of Web Applications with support for holding state in entities backed by MS SQL.
I would start with a simple example as given in MSDN http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd410597.aspx.
This example uses an Model View Controller based framework that is fairly easy to configure and use. They have great examples.
There is a free framework that also supports MS SQL Entity store http://www.coderun.com/ide/
Enjoy
Don't write a line of code. There are literally hundreds of open source and commercial software packages that already do what you want to do. You'd be better of spending time researching them and finding the package that most closely meets your requirements. A good solution will also be extensible enough that you'll be able to modify it to meet all of your requirements.
Since you work for a small company I can guarantee you that using your limited development hours "writing your own" will be counterproductive. You'd be better off adopting something off the shelf and becoming proficient at it. You'll learn more about developing systems like this once you've become intimately familiar with one of them.
Check out JIRA or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_issue_tracking_systems for some other ideas.
For the benefit of your company I would recommend to use an existing
solution. But if you want to learn and build something of your own, I
would suggest that you check out some popular web application
frameworks, like:
Django
Ruby On Rails
Zend
Good Luck with your project!
Given that your intent is to learn and create something yourself I think you should consider a LAMP stack and PHP with one of the PHP frameworks on top (Cake PHP, code-igniter or the like).
The C++ route is a long hard way (C++ is my language of choice) to learn; as a learning experience I think you will get quicker and more satisfying results with PHP.
I also think that this is a realistic project for someone of your skills over a period of a 6 to 12 months - start with a simple requirement and then build it up to have all the features you need.
If you just want a bug tracking system obviously there are many options that won't demand any development.
How much experience do you have with things like installing Linux, Apache, Mysql, etc? If you are completely new to this, then this will be a much tougher task, because there are many layers you'll have to learn before you can even get to the point of writing an end-to-end application.
I would avoid C/C++/C# because there are a lot of things you would need to learn about basic programming before you even got to the stage where you could make database calls.
On the assumption that you don't have experience with LAMP (Linux/Apache/Mysql/(Perl/Python/PHP)), my suggestion would be to start simply, by using a scripting language like Python or Perl. You can very easily get a database connection, and start writing queries, and extracting data from there. If you are used to Windows, I would install ActivePerl or ActivePython, and start from there. You can start building a command line program that does what you want, and then from there, you can move on to creating a web application that can do something similar.
Building a web application would likely be much easier than writing a Windows application, so after you have gotten comfortable with the scripting language, that's the direction I would go afterwards.
Good luck!
I am planning to develop one website which should have following features
Database integration
online payment system
forum
I need suggestion for my following questions before I will proceed to develop my site.
Is there any any single development tool which can provide me one webserver + mysql database + user login + java-script support + webpage design + online payment system and forum and easy site maintenance ?
What best practice to start development of this type of project?
How much effort it need to maintain this type of project?
"database integration" isn't really a feature - it's the tool you use to deliver your features. A feature might be a shopping cart, or a product catalogue, or a structured navigation system, etc.
In order to talk to a database, you almost certainly need some back-end code to be running, and you need to be able to program.
Yes, there are frameworks/tools that accelerate this, but you do need to invest at least in the basics of learning how to code.
Alternatively, if what you really want is to build an online shop, sign up for a "software as a service" offering where all you have to do is configure the product.
Sounds like you could use a framework to do your project with. Take a look at http://www.drupal.org.
If you're including an online payment system then you need to ensure that it's high quality, developed by people who know how to properly secure such a system. You should also be looking for a solution that handles pretty much everything you need it to do or that allows you to plug in modules for additional functionality rather than modifying solid code. There are so many ways for a developer to foul up even the best designed system that it's best to just leave it alone unless you're fully up-to-speed on secure coding guidelines.
IF what you really need is a way to sell things, and content to manage, then what you're looking for is a shopping cart with content management capabilities. There are plenty of good ones out there, and you should Google them. We went with the AspDotnetStorefront because it suited our needs, and was PACB certified, but there are plenty of others out there. Shop around if this is the type of thing you're looking for.
That said, you can get a good framework that has shopping cart options, and also the ability to add/modify modules to provide functionality with DotNetNuke. There are a wide variety of pre-existing modules to choose from as well. And you certainly can't beat the price on the free version. Developing for it takes some getting used to (there's a learning code even for experienced .NET developers) but it's pretty flexible.
Edit - I realize I'm only offering .NET suggestions, but you didn't mention what development tools/language you are comfortable with, so I'm mentioning the ones I've worked with. There are good (some arguably better, some arguably worse) Java and PHP equivalents to the suggestions I'm offering as well.