ISSD 19 Javascript, Flash, and XML

After the Online Databases section, you will be capable of creating some pretty fancy web projects. You may feel like you're ready to take on many of the challenges that could come your way, and in many ways you will be. But these next three courses will open up doors for you and give you tools to enhance your web work in ways you hadn't yet imagined. Although these courses are short, there is still a lot of material to cover, as well as a final project for each course.

Javascript

At this point in your course, Javascript is really the missing link in your capabilities. Javascript is everywhere on the web, and if it's used correctly, you'll hardly even notice it. It's a tool to provide more interaction with the user and create a more seamless web experience. It can either be very helpful to the user, or it can be an incredible nuisance.

If you hadn't already touched upon this during your databases course, this course may be your first exposure to different points of view about what technologies are most important on the web. People who work with back-end (or server-side) technologies tend to give more value to how things are programmatically set up, and don't concern themselves much with how things look to the user. People who work in the front-end (or client-side) technologies tend to place more importance on usability. Javascript is a client-side scripting language. For example, form validation is essential. User input must be checked to make sure it is suitable to your standards and also to ensure it won't be harmful to your server or database. The debate has sometimes been whether validation should take place on the server side, the client side, or both. Personally, I think validation should be on both sides, with the server side being essential, and the client side simply a courtesy to the user. This technique makes it easier for people to use your site, and it saves your server some work by preventing an extra page load. However, in the case where the user has Javascript disabled, server-side validation will still provide a safeguard to protect against bad data. Nevertheless, back-end and front-end people may still have their biases.

I have a lot of fun with Javascript. There are lots of things that you can do that are very problem-solving oriented. Javascript can be very subtle, but it can make your site so much more robust. I encourage you to dive into it with full force.

Flash

Flash is a fun course. You'll get a quick break from the hard-core programming for a while and jump back into an Adobe IDE. For some of you this may be a relief, while for others it may be a nightmare. The class often tends to be split between programmer-types and designer-types. Flash tends to be more on the creative side, although there is still the opportunity to include some Actionscript programming towards the end of the course. Personally, I'm not much of an IDE fan. I find them a bit overwhelming at first, and I feel like I'm never doing things the correct or best way. Even with Dreamweaver, I find it can be helpful in creating a basic template of my site, but beyond that, it is much easier for me to go back to my trusty ol' text editor. Anyway, that's a side note.

So perhaps the biggest challenge with Flash is learning the program. Otherwise, you will learn how to do some very cool things, and when you include Actionscript, Flash becomes an extremely powerful tool.

XML

In the XML course, you will learn a lot of the behind the scenes of what you have already been doing. XHTML is XML so you will learn the structure and principles of what XHTML is based on, except you will be able to start with a clean state. You say you don't like the <span> tag? Okay, then go ahead and create a new tag and call it whatever you want. I found this course to be very informative. You will also go into more detail about what a DTD is and how to write your own.

For your final project, you will create a webpage without using XHTML You will write the code in XML validate the code against your own DTD, and then add your own styles using XSLT. It's rather impressive what you can create out of pretty much nothing. And don't worry, you'll learn what all these acronyms stand for.

The use of XML is becoming more common in the web and it is important to have an understanding of what it is and where it's used. For example, RSS feeds are now an extremely popular use of XML XML is also becoming more and more the mainstream way to store data. As I discovered later, XML is often used very nicely with Flash. This course gives you a good, solid foundation of what XML is. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to go further with it and put it to practical use. I know that time will come for me soon.

Author: Steve Gomori