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Web Site Design Using Open Scripting Languages - A 1 Day Introduction

Synopsis

This web design course is intended as brief introduction (taster/sampler) to the most common methods of adding useful dynamic and interactive elements to a web site.

After a brief overview of the available technologies, this training course focuses on practical (hands-on) exercises in web site design using:

  • The client-side JavaScript programming language to prompt and validate user input to online forms.
  • The server-side PHP and Perl programming languages to generate web site design and content dynamically.

All three of these programming languages have freely available cross-platform implementations, produced through open and vendor-neutral development processes.

Closed proprietary approaches to dynamic web site design and programming, e.g., Microsoft's ASP/VBscript and Sun Microsystems' Java are not covered.

Please note: this is merely a ‘taster’ course. If you are looking to design a complex, fully functional, online sales site in the near future, our web programming courses will be much more suitable:

Suitable for

  • Web site designers with little or no background in software programming, but wanting to gently dip a toe in the water.
  • Software developers and computer programmers with no experience in web site design, but a wish to sample the skills and knowledge required.

Delivery

This web site design course is largely delivered through hands-on exercises, backed up by expert advice in fundamental principles and best coding practice.

Schedule Location Dates and Price

This web design training course runs regularly in Leeds (Yorkshire, North of England) and Central London (South East England). Other locations are planned.

Details about forthcoming course dates can be found on our Schedule and Prices page.


Contents:

Overview of Dynamic Web Site Design Technologies

  • Different conceptions of dynamic web site design
  • Server based versus browser based?
  • Comparison of products and tools:
    • Editors and IDEs, e.g., Visual Studio, Dreamweaver, Emacs and Vim, etc.
    • Programming languages, e.g., ASP/VBscript, PHP, Perl, Java, JavaScript
    • Application servers, e.g., Foxserv, Cold Fusion, etc.
  • Why open standards work best
  • All sorts of ‘clever’ client-side tricks to avoid
  • Server-side techniques to avoid
  • Techniques that actually work

Handling HTML Forms with JavaScript

  • Theoretical benefits of client-side scripting
  • Practical obstacles: security vulnerabilities, browser incompatibility, broken usability, broken visibility
  • Alternatives for most uses: cascading stylesheets and server-side scripting
  • No alternative for pre-qualifying or validating user input before submission to the server
  • Processing forms as events
  • The JavaScript form object and its elements[]array property
  • HTML form elements, names and properties
  • JavaScript event handlers for HTML form elements:
    • Buttons, checkboxes and radio buttons
    • Text fields
    • Select and option elements
    • Hidden elements
    • Fieldset elements
  • Hands-on Exercises

Handling Forms and Web Databases with PHP

  • Basics: how the web server, database and programming language interpreters interact to service page requests
  • Embedding PHP in HTML
  • PHP start and end tags
  • PHP syntax
  • Understanding variables
  • Using data from a form
  • Passing information through a form and links
  • Session cookies
  • Creating and using arrays and functions
  • Checking user-entered data for required fields
  • Querying an SQL database from an HTML form
  • Updating an SQL database from an HTML form
  • Templates and modularisation
  • Hands-on Exercises

Handling Forms and Web Databases with Perl CGI Programming

  • Interacting with SQL databases from Perl
  • Using DBI
  • Connection/disconnection, log in/log out
  • Doing simple queries
  • Linking with HTML:Template
  • Printing a CGI header for a simple command-line program
  • Running the simple program as a CGI script
  • Form handling — CGI::Lite for parameter parsing
  • Form data from GET and POST requests
  • Debugging CGI programs
  • Running CGI programs at the command line
  • Hands-on exercises

Web Design training UK enquiries

UK Training enquiries and feedback form.

Web Design training UK prices

For publicly scheduled training (individual places), see our UK training schedule.

In-house training for company groups is charged at a daily rate per group — see our In-House UK Training Guidelines.

Publicly Scheduled Training Locations

We currently run public training courses in the following locations:

  • London, UK
  • Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
  • Birmingham, West Midlands, UK
  • Carshalton, Surrey, UK
  • Chester, North West, UK
  • Coventry, West Midlands, UK
  • Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
  • Glasgow, Scotland, UK
  • Harwell, Oxfordshire, UK
  • Manchester, North West, UK
  • Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK
  • Newark, Nottinghamshire, UK
  • Reading, Berkshire, UK
  • Slough, Berkshire, UK
  • Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK
  • Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK
  • Wokingham, Berkshire, UK

Most UK public training courses are available on a monthly basis.

Please see the individual course outlines or our public training schedule for details.

In-house (on-site) training locations

We deliver in-house courses at client premises and/or training facilities in any part of the world which is practically and commercially accessible.

Our In-house training guidelines outline our basic requirements and our UK pricing structure. To estimate costs for training in other countries, simply convert to your local currency and then make a rough calculation of our tutor's costs for travelling to and staying at your location.

Web Standards Compliance

A good way of assessing the quality of website design training, is to find out whether or not the training company's own web site complies with web standards. Ours does.

Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!

Every website which adheres to these W3C standards makes the web a little more useful and a little easier to use. Conversely, every site which breaks them not only irritates potential customers, but also undermines the interoperability upon which the basic functions of the web depend.

If you ever find a non-compliant page on our site, please let us know. It's most likely to be the result of a momentary lapse in concentration (e.g. markup typos) and will be fixed immediately.


West Yorkshire Office

GBdirect Ltd
Training Division
Bradford Design Exchange
34 Peckover Street
BRADFORD
BD1 5BD
West Yorkshire
United Kingdom

training@gbdirect.co.uk

Training: 0800 651 0338
General: +44 (0)870 200 7273
Finance: +44 (0)1353 615 174

Please call between 0900 and 1700 (UK time) on Monday to Friday


South East Regional Office

GBdirect Ltd
Training Division
18 Lynn Rd
ELY
CB6 1DA
Cambridgeshire
United Kingdom

training@gbdirect.co.uk

Training: 0800 651 0338
General: +44 (0)870 200 7273
Finance: +44 (0)1353 615 174

Please call between 0900 and 1700 (UK time) on Monday to Friday


Please note:
Non-training enquiries should be directed, initially, to our UK national office in Bradford (West Yorkshire), even if the enquiry concerns services delivered in London or South/East England. Clients in London and the South East will typically be handled by staff working in the London or Cambridge areas.