ISSD 19 Online Databases and Perl

After the design portion of the program is complete, there is a noticeable shift of pace and learning style in the online databases and Perl sections. Firstly, class time is now reduced to three hours. That's not to say you will be working any less, however. There are more take-home assignments which mostly involve some significant planning. There is a lot of thinking involved in your homework and you'll see very quickly that you won't be able to get away with missing the little details. I was glad for this because it forced me to continually ask the question, "what else am I missing?", or "what else could I add to make this design more robust?" This is a good habit to get into because this kind of thinking will either prevent you from making a mistake which may require you to undo and repeat a lot of work, or it will give an extra feature to your design which will make your system more versatile. To help facilitate this, class lectures are heavily focused on planning and practicing established methods which have been proven to work and save time.

Nothing is neglected with the coding aspect either. The smaller, "trivial", or "baby steps" of the script are brought to attention and tested on a regular basis. Quite often these are the steps which can make a script fail, and if they've been breezed over, it can take some time to debug simply because the coder is looking in the wrong place. This methodical approach to coding contributes to the larger lesson learnt in this section, which is debugging. You will be encouraged to learn what kind of errors you commonly make and then look for those types of errors first when your script is not working. Eventually you will make fewer errors, and when you do, you will debug them faster. Learning how to problem solve will be much more useful to you than just asking for someone for help.

It was the databases section of the ISSD program which really drew me to enroll in the program. I looked at other programs in Winnipeg, but none of them were as complete and well rounded as the ISSD. I had been familiar with XHTML and Javascript to a degree before enrolling, but my next area of interest was in databases and server-side scripting. Of all the other certificate or diploma programs I looked at, none seemed to incorporate these areas.

As it turned out, my desire to venture into these areas was a logical step. These are the tools which will really set you apart from the rest of the developers. There are actually quite a lot of people who can construct a basic or even moderate website which will ultimately work, but all their pages will be static and hard to maintain. Having said that, HTML is a very forgiving language and there are a lot of unqualified people who can fumble their way through the code and end up with a webpage. However, it won't be valid, it will probably be poorly designed, it will likely not be cross-browser compatible, and it will probably take ten or so seconds to load. Nevertheless, they have created a webpage. When it comes to programming, however, you cannot fumble your way through it. You have to know what you're doing and how to do it. The tools learnt in this section are very powerful tools, perhaps the most valuable of the program. You'll be capable of creating dynamic content including shopping carts, blogs, and guest books. You'll be able to process the forms you created in your XHMTL project. You'll be able to send emails and store user information. Just about anything you can think of that you've seen on a website, you'll be able to create by utilizing the tools learned in this section.

You'll once again have a final project. You'll be adding the dynamic content of your choice to your existing XHTML project, if you choose to use the same project. Most people implement a shopping cart, but there are also other options you can choose if you have the right kind of website and you're able to think outside the box.

It's rather exciting to see your project and your work evolve into something so complete and interactive. I really think that this is one of the most valuable sections of the program. The course material is one thing, but the methods of implementation are invaluable. Instilling proper planning and coding methods into your work will save you an immense amount of time and money in the future. Looking back on the year now, I think this section was my favorite part of the program. There is just so much to be learnt, and the results are so rewarding.

After online databases and Perl, you'll have three quick courses in Flash, Javascript, and XML Very cool stuff which I'll talk about next post.

Author: Steve Gomori