Beginner Programmer Needs Advice please!

  • 13 years ago

    Hi Everyone

     

    I really hope someone can help! 

     

    I have only ever developed websites in Dreamweaver MX, they are all static and I have come across the need to start adding some dynamic functionality to my website.  I would really like to learn a language but Im not sure which one. I considered vb.net because one can develop in Visual Studio which sounds awesome as it has a WYSIWYG interface. But then I see so many websites developed in PHP -  Is difficult to learn? Does it have a WYSIWYG interface?  I also read about Visual Web developer for beginners as well as Visual Basic 2005 express. I have read through both and am really not sure what I should start with. I know exactly what I need to add to my websites – I am not sure of the technical names for these features but I will list them and if anyone could please let me know the technical jargon for these applications/features I would be so grateful. At least then when I search the internet for help in creating that particular feature, I can search for it under the appropriate name!  Question: Does one have to use VB.net within Visual Studio to develop applications? (Sorry if this is a basic question!)Please could someone enlighten me to the technical terms for the following features that I would like to incorporate to my website. 
    1. I would like to be able to login to a certain portion of a webpage or an entire page and make updates quickly and easily online wherever I am in the world.
    2. I would like web visitors to be able to add a recipe/s to my website by filling in certain fields ie. title, ingredients, method etc. I would also like people to be able to add a job offering or a short message to a noticeboard.  I gather that all of these features are a similar type of “auto-uploadt” action but what is this really called?
    3. Before these notices are added, I would like to verify/preview these requests to check that the content is acceptable for the website. I could be sent an email to request authorisation etc.
    4. I would like to list something in more than one category. What is this called? Currently (in my static websites) I have to manually add companies to various categories – nightmare!!
    5. Rotational features on the front page ie. u see a new advert for a company every time the page is re-loaded. What is this called?
    6. For newsletter subscriptions, I would like people to add their email and name to a portion of the website which then automatically sends this info to a database which I can then use to send newsletters.
    7. I would like to add quick survey and polls to portions of my website with the results written to a server. After someone has taken a poll I would like the results of the poll to be displayed to them.
    8. I would like to dynamically re-size images
    9. I would like an article manager where I can write articles within a certain category and then at the bottom of each article – there are links to other articles in that category
    10. I would like people to be able to login and update the text portion of their website listing using their own username and password which I would give them.
    11. I would like web visitors to be able to filter the info on my website or view all data in a certain selected category.
     I wanted to get a developer to add these various aspects to 4 of my websites but I was quoted almost R80 000 (South African Rand) and with that money I would rather learn the language myself by doing some courses, even if it takes me a while to learn. At least then I won’t be dependent on anyone else to make changes to my website. Well, that’s my logic anyway. More Questions!! (Sorry, I have sooo many)v      What is the level of difficulty of adding the above features? Basic, Medium or Advanced?v      How long do you think it should take me to learn Visual Studio and add the above features and create a website using VB.net? v      Can anyone recommend any online tutorials or courses in VB.Net and Visual Studio to get me going?v      Will Visual Web Developer be sufficient to develop a website with the above features or should I get Visual Studio Express or go straight into Visual Studiov      Or would you recommend me learning and using PHP?      I am so excited and keen to learn a programming language as I feel like I am currently doing everything the long way round when just using HTML.  Programming looks difficult but Im hoping that someone can tell me that its fun and easy once you learn the language!! Please!! I would appreciate any advice on where to start, what language to begin with, what programs to use etc. It would be great to hear from someone with experience in both PHP and ASP.Net. Thank-you so much and I look forward to responses!!!! 

     

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