Advice needed

[OnLiner]

Greetings all

I am fairly familiar with Microsoft Access and have been using it for some time mostly due to the fact that it was the only database software available in previous circumstances.

I am now looking into more serious involvement with access regarding database driven websites. I'm not sure how it all fits in and all the options available.

My questions are...
1.) What is the difference between Visual Basic and VBA?
2.) Does ASP.NET use VB or VBA?
3.) How close is Visual Web Developer to Access? Are they similar and is the learning curve small?
4.) Does Visual Web Developer create database driven web pages?
5.)

 

[ca8msm]

1) There are lots of differences and the biggest is probably that .NET is object orientated. VBA is a scaled down version of Visual Basic (and the latest version of Visual Basic is called Visual Basic .NET and it uses version 2.0 of the framework).

2) ASP.NET doesn't use VBA (it can be written in multiple languages though such as VB.NET or C#).

3) Again, massive differences and any change to an object orientated language is going to have a fairly big learning curve.

4) You can create ASP.NET database driven web pages with any development tool.

5)


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[OnLiner]

Thanks
That is a huge help!

6.) So Access uses VBA correct?
7.) And Visual Web Developer uses Visual Basic and ASP.NET right?
8.) So knowing VB, ASP.NET, and HTML should be enough to set up a database driven website rite?

 

[chiph]

8. Yes, but what ca8msm is saying (and I agree) is don't expect it to be easy. There are significant differences between Access and ASP.NET. It'll be worth learning, don't get me wrong, but don't expect it to be the same.

You'll probably want to pick up a book or two on the subject, as well as do a lot of reading in the MSDN Magazine archives.

Chip H.


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[OnLiner]

This is great I really appreciate you taking the time to help me

From what I understand, ASP.NET is a scripting language similar to PHP, and ASP.NET is object oriented, whereas PHP is not; is this right?

Also, I believe that Visual Basic is an object oriented programming language; true?

 

[chiph]

This is a subject that usually starts a religious-war.

In my opinion, VB is object-like, not object-oriented. You're able to do many OOP things, but not all. VB.NET is much closer to OOP.

Chip H.


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[jesylv]

Hi Onliner,

You may want to read before tackling such a project. Jim Buyens's book "WEB DATABASE DEVELOPMENT" from microsoft's press is probably your best bet. It will introduce you to various technologies essential to web development.


Jean

http://www.sigp.ca

 

[OnLiner]

thats great thanks!

one last curiosity,

Basically, I need...
- development tools for vb/asp.net/html to create a site
- an ftp client to upload site files to a server
- a host/server that has iis and asp.net installed.

anything else?

 

[jesylv]

That is about it. You may want to consider using MySQL or MSSQL instead of Access for performance issues.



Jean

http://www.sigp.ca

 

[damber]

Onliner,

Free Development Tool/IDE:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/default.aspx

(which you seem to already be aware of)

Free FTP Client:

http://www.smartftp.com/

Not-so-free WebHosts with ASP.NET/MSSQL Server and much, much more:
IX WebHosting

(I use IXWebHosting, and they're one of the best shared hosting services available imho)

And Godaddy are also worth a look.

You will also need to purchase a domain name etc - which you can also do at GoDaddy, or you can get several free with IXWebhosting when you sign-up.


As jesylv mentions, you should try to aim for using MSSQL Server, MySQL, Oracle or PostgreSQL rather than Access. Access is a simple, single user focused application with a basic database engine, not designed to scale well for large numbers of users/connections (i.e. in a web environment). If you cannot get a host that supports MSSQL or MySQL etc, then you can always use the SQL Server Express Edition (

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/express/default.mspx).

Which means that migrating to the full package when you need to will be much much easier.

Some good reference sites for beginners:

http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/

http://www.w3schools.com/aspnet/default.asp

http://www.asp.net/quickstart/aspnet/

http://aspalliance.com/articles/LearnASPNET.aspx

http://www.123aspx.com/

http://www.gotdotnet.com/

They should keep you busy for a while... ;-)

Hope that helps, and Good Luck with your project.

A smile is worth a thousand kind words. So smile, it's easy!

 

[OnLiner]

sweeeeeet this will be extremely helpfull

Thanks a million