Phase test two run down

Since I’ve done absolutely no prep for this exam, I figured I’d do so in here. Here’s the mock. Usually I’d say break down what you’re being asked to do, but it seems like they’ve already done that for us.

Right clicking your project in the Solution Explorer to add a new item.

Create a website. First thing I’d do is insert the database class we need to be using. (Looks like an informal CC GNU GPL, so long as he keeps credit.) Do that by copying the text – all of it. Going back to Visual Studio, right clicking on your project, Add new item…, Class, Yes to the “Put it in the ‘App code’ folder”. Select everything, and paste the contents of that Word document for the table class (overwriting everything that was there). Rename that class to something more logical.

We also need to add the yabba database we’ve been given. Right click App_Data, Add existing item…, find and insert the database we’ve been given.

Add two fields, like it says, for the name and message. Validate inputs. I’ve no idea howwhy you’d use a function to validate two strings though, so I’m not going to.

Now, uhh… lets find how to use this database thing. I’m sure there was a class on it. Yep, here’s the presentation on it: Database and webservers. Written by Mathew Dean. Slide 13 gives you the code to connect to a database. And he talks about adding records here, on slide 2 and onwards.

Just to explain what this class actually does. When you create it, it nabs all the records and puts them into a hashed array (which has a key, and a value, rather than just an index number and a value). You add to that array like normal, using NewRecord, and then when you save it just updates the database according to that array of information.

Okay, I’m actually bored of this now.

Here’s the badly commented code for the first page.

    Protected Sub btnSubmit_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSubmit.Click
        ' As if we're in C, variables at the top, for no reason. Regaurdless of if we need them. Which we don't.
        Dim Name As String
        Dim Message As String
        ' Make sure neither textbox is empty
        If (txtName.Text <> "" And txtMessage.Text <> "") Then
            Name = txtName.Text
            Message = txtName.Text

            'Connect to the database
            Dim MessagesDatabase As New DatabaseTable("yabba.mdb", "tblMessages")
            MessagesDatabase.NewRecord.Item("PostedBy") = Name
            MessagesDatabase.NewRecord.Item("MessageText") = Message
            MessagesDatabase.AddNewRecord()
            MessagesDatabase.SaveChanges()

            Response.Redirect("second.aspx")
        Else
            lblStatus.Text = "Something was empty. Try again."
        End If
    End Sub

Second.aspx is supposed to output all the messages. Have fun with that.

You should hurry up and do this.

Driving test 3 is only worth a small handful of points now, so I figured it’s about time I did it.

Work hard, play hard.

Lets make a productivity list for tomorrow, because the last ones all worked so well…

• Go take photos for my website assignment! I’m gonna take my laptop too, due to the small card capacity. I decided this should be a group activity.
• Write a tutorial on how to add a button to TinyMCE in WordPress.
• Read another chapter of Twilight. Must read this, and the next book before the next film comes out. Granted, I probably have a year, but I’d rather get the entire saga out the way.
• Look through Monday’s class notes, and maybe write a few help sheets. I’ll be working as a classroom assistant, so I should probably be more prepared.
• Wash up. Really, Shane, you have no plates left.
• Get the systems analysis work from Blackboard. I really want to ace this presentation. This is looking to be the only module I might actually fail because of stupid things, like lack of motivation for it.

Busy day tomorrow. Carnage bar crawl is in the night too.

Class summary for today

In visual web dev. we just learnt about parameters for functions, and making subroutines and functions. Yeah, it was thrilling. I finished up the set work in the first hour (class is two hours along) and just spent the rest playing with Flash.

Database design concepts was okay. “Okay” is measured by “did I learn something?” and I sort of did. It was about how DBMSs should handle their integrity, using rollbacks and transactions. Also on user privileges.

When I can be more motivated (or if someone asks), I’ll come back and actually explain what they mean, because a few people missed that lecture. For now though, I’m going to work on my Leicester Guide Website for my computer technology assignment.

Driving test two: If statements

I’m fairly sure most people haven’t done this one yet, so I’m not going to give you my finished code for a little while. I’ll walk you through what you should have though, and explain the things you’ll need to know to complete it.

Fair use is totally an excuse to break the law

You may notice that I’m putting a load of course stuff online. This may take a while. I should have done this back within the first week and just kept up with it, but I guess I didn’t and now I’m paying for it.

On the other hand though, it kinda means that every scrap of information that has been taught to us within DMU will be put online… I feel like I’m divuldging trade secrets which may well be illegal… I mean, why go to DMU – or university at all – if you can just come here and look at the material, right? So I’m going to avoid posting actual links to presentations and stuff, and just summerise it in my own words, which I’m fairly sure doesn’t evoke any copyright stuff.

And if it does, I’ll plee educational use, which is covered under fair use. S’all good.

I didn’t know that my systems analysis stuff had to be submitted on- as well as offline. I’m hoping she’ll still accept and mark it without me getting in trouble with due dates and stuff. To be fair, I submitted it by hand weeks before it had to be, that must count for something. She’s knows I did the work on time.

I got 1% chance of plagorism though, which is awesome. Most people get around 30%, apparently. I’ve always prided myself on having my own writing style – even if it is too informal sometimes. When people assume that I’ll steal someone elses work I’m kinda offended because… well, I’m the only person that can ever write like me.

Anyway, computer technology lecture two.

Oh, almost forgot. These computers have CS Flash on them! I’m totally going to learn it some time.

You've all done driving test 1, right?

Since you’re right down to five marks for the first driving test now I’m expecting you’d all have done your first driving test by now. If not, then you probably need help.

Weeks one and two summary: Visual Web Development

Just finished the first two weeks of academic work here. I’m planning to do a post like this every week. I didn’t last week because it was all mostly just admin work. Classes are really starting to shape up now though.

In Visual Web Design, during the first week we were just being taught the basic principles of programming and stuff. Since I’ve been programming for years I already know all this stuff but I’d totally forgotten that some things may not be obvious to people that have never coded in their life before. Some things we had to take note of:

• Commands have to be typed exactly should be
• The order of the commands are important too. A lot of people seemed to slip up on this one. When we were practising with a program called GPE (I think the uni designed it as a learning device), which only has a few commands like “north”, “south”, “change colour”, and so on, a lot of the people expected the computer to know which order to do everything in.
• Variable names to first, and then the information that you want to put into them. A lot of people thought that “stringstring” = foo; was valid, when they meant foo = “stringstring”;
• Creating functions to do repeatable code for us

Then, we suddenly just jumped into using Visual Web Developer, where I found out we’d be using ASP .NET, which I’m a bit annoyed with for two reasons:

ASP is shit. No one uses it. Well, some people do, but a lot of people talk about “upgrading” to PHP, which I think is an apt way of saying it. I mean, you can’t really code in ASP without buying the £300 IDE. And even then it produces horrible code. I suppose some people do still use it, so learning it won’t be a total of a waste of time.

Second, I think we jumped into it a little bit too fast… People were clearly confused as soon as she started talking about objects. I mean, it took me a good while to understand objects, surely students can’t be expected to understand what an object is with just “an object is a thing”. To her credit, we did a light bulb example, going through what functions(/methods) a light bulb object would have, but that confused even me… I just wish there could have been a tutorial on this, not really for me but for the clearly confused people sitting around me. A big problem there though is that we don’t have any tutorials for that class, just computer labs. Maybe we’re just expected to pick up things quickly now we’re older.

Anyway, in our last lesson, we use Visual Web Developer to make a simple form, then we learned… naming conventions I guess. The form didn’t have to do anything, I guess we were just getting used to how to be comfortable with the application.

Our tutor is a good one, and seems to be able to clear up confusion when people look confused, which is good. But one thing that does bug me is that she just reads out the handouts she gave us word for word. Not only does that completely negate the point of giving us handouts to read, but it makes her sound dumb. I know she’s not! But when all you’re talking about is something that we know is written by another person, it looks like you’re just passing on the information rather than sharing knowledge. It also makes the class slightly boring, for me at least. I don’t want to be sitting there just listening to someone; that’s boring. Listening and reading the handouts would at least give me something more challenging to do, but since she’s just reading aloud there’s no point.

We’ve been put into groups to do our project work in. My group is actually fairly good. Some of them haven’t done programming before, but that’s fine. When we were working on an exercise together everyone was giving input, so I think they were understanding it. When they weren’t either someone else explained it, or if no one else could I’d step in. I think I’m a pretty good teacher.