Web Based Software Development

[pbm]

I want to learn more about developing Web based applications. What software is the best for this and where can I find great tutorials on web based application development? Thanks.

 

[jonmullen]

Well you have several options. You have you server based languages, like PHP ASP and ASP.NET. PHP is a language that uses a syntax that some what resembles Perl. It tends to be easy to learn and pretty powerful but its not great for really big projects although I think it can pretty well. ASP is really a M$ only language that requires IIS to get its full features. It allows you to either user Javascript of VBscript. ASP is really more of an umbrailla. The same goes for ASP.NET it just allows for morelanguages to be used, such as C# Java VB Cobal really alot of languages but still limits you to IIS. You next option is CGI which lets you use almost any language for you server side stuff aslong as you output HTML. The more popular languages to use tend to be Perl and Python. To give you a better idea of what language would better fit you why dont you give us and idea of what kinda applications you plan on developing.

 

[pbm]

Thanks, the application would be a web based e-mail marketing/list management program.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

mod_python is actually a much better solution than Python through CGI, although Python through CGI is a bit easier to start using, and sufficient for stuff that isn't huge.

 

[pbm]

what exactly is mod_python? I don't think I've ever heard of it. Can you please give a little more info on it? Thanks for your help.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

mod_python is a module for Apache (a webserver, http://httpd.apache.org ) that loads up a Python interpreter to handle generating pages. The main difference between this and a CGI application, or something like PHP, is that the Python interpreter is alive for the entire life of the webserver, whereas a CGI app, or the PHP interpreter, are loaded from scratch for every request. This speeds things up, and also lets you keep persistent data in the running interpreter.

 

[jonmullen]

Thanks for clearing up the python stuff for me BingBongWongFooey, I remembered to put that in there just for you

 

[pbm]

Where might I find this module? I'm using Linux/Unix now. Is it already installed there? Sorry if these are dumb questions, I know a lot about html and similar languages, but not much about this. Thanks.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Kinda depends on what you are running. If you're running redhat or mandrake, find an rpm (rpmfind.net) and install it. If you're on debian, apt-get install libapache-mod-python2.3 (if available), or 2.2. I haven't set it up myself, except for a very short attempt a long time ago which I remember almost nothing about, so if you need help beyond this, I am the wrong person to ask.

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
mod_python is actually a much better solution than Python through CGI, although Python through CGI is a bit easier to start using, and sufficient for stuff that isn't huge.

That's also true of mod_perl, mod_php, and probably any other unix scripting language used on webservers, if there are any.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
mod_python is actually a much better solution than Python through CGI, although Python through CGI is a bit easier to start using, and sufficient for stuff that isn't huge.

That's also true of mod_perl, mod_php, and probably any other unix scripting language used on webservers, if there are any.

Not really, mod_php is no more difficult than PHP through CGI. Dunno about perl though. With mod_python, you have to set up a wrapper for all of your scripts and some other kinda weird stuff (since they don't run in a seperate interpreter, rather they are imported and certain methods are run from them, or something to that extent anyways). I'm pretty sure that this has been simplified since the last time I tried mod_python; I found it pretty confusing (but then again, I was much more of a python n00b then )

 

[Argo]

I do J2EE web development for IBM WebSphere. To learn that, you'll need to know java. Then pick up any decent enterprise java beans book (there are very few). Knowing SQL and database design foundamentals doesn't hurt.

 

[pbm]

Thanks for all of the feedback, I'll check into all of these options.

 

[pbm]

Also, I've been using Dreamweaver for html . What are my additional capabilities with it, as far as web based software development goes? Thanks

 

[pbm]

......sorry, my additional capabilities with Dreamweaver in terms of Web Based SoftwareText, wasn't very clear....

 

[yoda291]

Originally posted by: pbm
......sorry, my additional capabilities with Dreamweaver in terms of Web Based SoftwareText, wasn't very clear....

The newer dreamweaver (MX?) has a goodly amount of php-specific functions and whatnot for "rapid application development" that may or may not help you. To be honest, I never bothered to use them since I've never needed them, but they could help give you a jumpstart in that direction. Honestly, Dreamweaver is a very slick, expensive, full featured text editor when it comes to web application development, but it does save time when you wanna do something quick like drop a table in or make an image map and don't fee like typing.

As far as your web application, it sounds like you want to use a server side application like, as others have mentioned, php,perl,python etc. Most of these languages can be dropped in as modules for apache webserver which I'm gonna assume you're running since you're running a unix system. Also, you may want to start by using mod_perl as opposed to something like mod_php since most unix folk I know already have at least the basics of perl down. If you want to get into php tho, goto php.net and download the documentation for php in chm format. it really saves you time when you want to look up some errant function.