Web Application

[kseanng]

hello all,

This is my first web application and I am not a programmer. I am just a computer tech that is trying to automate a process for my department. I have several questions hopefully you guys or gals can point me in the right direction. I am creating a web application using IIS 7.0 as the webserver with access database soon to be converted to SQL as the database. The interface consists of asp.net and html code which i basically researched and did a cut and paste. Of course I customized it to my department needs.

1) How do i secure my pages so my techs won't bypass the login page and go straight to the link? I know I need some sort of redirect code that points them back to the login.asp page. When I get the code should I put it on every page?

2) I need to create a form or manpiulate my current form page to print avery labels. Example my techs currently enter their data into an excel spreadsheet and they have a mail merge that puts all that data into a label form. All they have to do is print the labels and stick it on the boxes. How can I put that on my web application? I want

 

[kseanng]

Ok, I got the first question answered.

thanks,

http://www.kamath.com/tutorials/tut003_auth.asp

 

[N3XuS]

To have different visible layout from the one that you print you can use print stylesheet like so :
<link rel="stylesheet" href="print.css" type="text/css" media="print" />

This will most likely not suffice, since you cannot control the margins etc ... the only way to control these margins is by using JAVA applet, ActiveX-control, Embedded objects in other words that can access the user's system directly.

The only other way of really controling the layout of the endresult is by instead of outputting HTML which is printed, you can create one big image in the backend which is the printed. The user would still have to have his printer settings correct though.

 

[jmeckley]

kseanng
1. the link you provided is asp code, not asp.net code.
2. asp.net has a module for authentication built in. research asp.net authentication for more details.

as for your project:
if you are migrating databases soon, then you will need to abstract the database from the application. this can be done utilizing the ado.net interfaces rather than concrete classes. it also means you should not use the GUI datasource controls to get data from the database.

i'll assume you are the the default html engine provided my microsoft, which is webforms. webforms is unlike any other html rendering engine. some love it, some hate it. what you need to understand is how webforms is different than all other html rendering engines. here are just a few examples.
viewstate (illusion of statefulness)
page life cycle
page events
1 form per page
these are concepts/limitations of webforms, not web programming.

I use pdf's for reports with web applications. this way i'm not trying to format html for hard copy reports.

I won't say that you cannot write the application you describe. I do think it's foolish though, for you're company to assume you can do this without any programming experience.
you will need to design the database. transferring excel to a database "will" work, but there isn't much gain as the database is still using "flat files" to store the data. web development: as you stated you have never done this and you're not a programmer so this will take some time to get up to speed.

just to get an idea of what .net code would look like in asp.net read my faq on database connection management found in my signature below. chances are most of it will go right over your head, but if it some of it makes sense then you can get a feel for one approach to managing database connectivity in a web environment.

Jason Meckley
Programmer
Specialty Bakers, Inc.

faq855-7190
faq732-7259

 

[kseanng]

hey jason,

I am not a programmer and my department is not asking me to get this project completed. It's just my department is putting this data in an excel spreadsheet and i know there has to be a better way. I worked for a small company before and they had a web based application that we managed. They used IIS 7.0 with Asp.net and html coding so I figured we could use the type of system at my current company. The small company used access database and figured we could use sql database.

 

[jmeckley]

what you want can definitely be managed by a web application. after all the web is just a user interface. I don't know if it's the best choice since you do not have a member of your team who understands asp.net, programming or the web environment.

if the company is currently using MS Access then why not build the application using Access? since the company is small and the application is simple Access sounds like a better choice.

Jason Meckley
Programmer
Specialty Bakers, Inc.

faq855-7190
faq732-7259