Database for a website 1

[wisch]

I am a college student doing an internship in computers. I have received an assignment and I don't know how to do it. I am supposed to create a newsletter website that allows users to subscribe to receive bi-weekly newsletters. All I know is that I must create a subscriber database and a database of articles for the newsletter. I must write a program that allows a user to sign up for the newsletter, and that allows someone to choose articles and send them out to the users. I don't know where to begin. Should I start with the databases? What language should I use to work with the databases and the web?
Thanks. I can use all the help that I can get.
Rachel

 

[DougP]

Boy Rachel you are in Deep.

This has to be done on a WEB site right???

I would see if your WEB site can use Front Page 2000 as a WEB designer. If so its basically just drag an drop
If not then you need can learn ASP and VBScript.
there are all 3 here on tek-tips to
Creating a site in ASP is not going to be easy, I hope you are a fast learner

forum333 ASP
forum256 Front Page forum
forum329 VBScript

Another WEB program that is not Micorsoft but is great
Cold Fusion
it's pretty expensive though

DougP, MCP

Visit my WEB site

http://www.barcodeone.com

to see how Bar-codes can help you be more productive

 

[wisch]

Thanks for the info. I've learned C++ and VB, but someone told me that learning ASP is hard, that I should try Perl. Can I do this in Perl too? Do you know if it's easier to learn? I thought that ASP was a scripting language, so then what is VBScript for?

 

[pflangan]

if you're really a student, you'll be able to find the solution on the web. try asp101.com aspalliance.com learnasp.com asptoday.com

download a free trial version of macromedia dreamweaver ultradev 4 (which has great drag and drop database support) and you're on your way.

it's really too easy.

 

[joelindquist]

I just Graduated, and was converted from a college co-op to a contract employee. I had a similar problem which I have recently solved. I had to build a knowledge base software to be used internally through an application front-end, and externally through a web front-end. I got pretty scared, too. I had another major limitation. I had a $0.00 budget. To make matters worse, my company does not use Microsoft server products. I had limited experience in PERL, and I started checking around. PERL has a DBI:ODBC module which will access an MS Access Database. I played with it for a few days, and got it to work on my local machine (Windows NT w/ Apache Web Server). I've spoken with our server group, and we have a webapp server with ODBC, so my life just got a lot easier. Anyhow, I'm rambling. For a vote of Confidence, I was scared to death, and ended up finishing ahead of schedule with rave reviews. I taught myself PERL by using:

stars.com
wdvl.com
Random Google.com Searches

You can also write CGI programs in C++ if you can find an ODBC add-in. PERL is closer to C++ than ASP, however would still require some learning.

As for now, I would work on the databases, and teaching yourself PERL, ASP, or finding ODBC for C++ depending on which route you choose.
Another word of advice: Plan it out before you start working on it. I have spent a lot of extra time redoing things after I "threw them together" in a hurry

 

[wisch]

I've been searching around and found some free code that I may be able to implement in my program. I started teaching myself Perl from wdvl.com. It's really good. Since I don't know how to program in Perl (yet), would it be crazy to program the basics in VB (which I've already learned) with which it is relatively easy to do work with a database, and then somehow change what I've done into Perl or ASP or something else? Or perhaps it is possible to convert actual VB code to work with the web? Can ASP do that? Does it pay to try to teach myself Perl (I know C++) or ASP (if either is necessary)?
Thanks for your help!