Learning ASP.Net from scratch

[Stellar]

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Morning all,

I am considering teaching myself ASP.Net and was just after some opinion on how difficult a task that might be. I recently taught myself html, xhtml and css and, while not an expert in any way, I have figured out enough to put a couple of sites together.

Now I need to into the database side of things before my webpages get out of control. Is learning ASP.net a lot more difficult than xhtml/css?

I was considering an adult community college course, but that is not until September. Am I crazy in thinking I can just buy a book like "ASP.Net for Dummies" and teach myself?

Also, is it better to learn ASP.net or PHP? I understand PHP is opensource and therefore free. What kind of software do I need for ASP.Net and how much does it cost?

Ah, so many questions for a Thursday morning!

[drivetowin]

What does your webserver run - if it's not a Windows server then as far as I'm aware you can't run asp.net so will need to be php.

My personal preference is php but thats principally because I've been using it for years.

[uklejon]

PHP is easyish, ASP.NET is not. But then if you know neither then your starting from scratch.

Hosting, books, software etc is not cheap for .NET for PHP you can find it all for free.

I've just started converting one of my sites from classic ASP to ASP.NET and its a big learning curve but the power of .NET is superb.

Here's an example. A simple form to email process. In PHP or ASP the most common way is to have a page with a form on it, when the form is clicked you goto a script page (asp or php) which send the email and then directs to another page to say thankyou.

As asp.net is totally event driven (things happen on page when clicked) you can have just one page to do all 3 pages. The code is totally separate from the html which makes life easier. Also with .net you can make sections of pages visible or not depending on whats been clicked on so with the form page once the send button is clicked you can make the form section invisible and the thankyou text visible. 3 pages all done in 1.

I've used php, asp and now .net and i think that the best out the lot is .net.....lots and lots of control over what you want to do and how you want to do it but again, .net stuff you have to pay for, php is pretty much free.

Oh, and hosting is more expensive with .net......a lot more.

For software grab a download of Visual Web Developer Express Edition from MS.....its free and comes with a development server and SZQL 2005 Express database.

Jon pretending to be Carol

[OLBG]

Ive learnt asp and php mainly just by using a few sites online, trial & error & I think one book for php with some examples to work through.

I learnt asp first but didnt find it that good - Im happier now with php as its more stable, has more commands that I need and makes it easier to connect to databases (for me anyway). Whatever you decide Id think hard about it as if you chnage your mind later its not much fun moving your sites to a different server and rewriting all your sites in a new language!

[Stellar]

Thanks for your posts, very helpful.

I am with Clook at the moment and it doesn't look like they support asp.net, so I may have to go with php.

I'm more concerned with ease of use and cost than the power of the language, so it looks like php may be the thing for me.

Do you know where the best place is to get php software?

[Ste]

Hotcripts.com should be in your favourites for scripts and software if you use PHP and also www.php.net for the functions list. I also started with the one book – SAMS teach yourself PHP in 24hrs (More like 24 weeks!) but its a good read, but there are probably better books available now.

[Shane]

We did a fair bit of research before deciding to go for PHP and employ a full time php developer, it does seem a wiser choice for what kind of applications we / most affiliates would require although I do know some guys use ASP quite happily.

[Paul Wright]

Your host should already have the latest versions of php and mysql so no need to download and install them.

I think most people involved with servers will agree that configuring and setting up apache, php and mysql would be a nightmare for a beginner. Best to leave it up to your host and specify any special settings such as mod rewrite that they may not have present by default.

If you’re after local version to run on your computer to test things I can certianly recommend easyPHP which is a small program that installs them all and gets you up and running in minutes. Only good for local testing though.

Cheers
Paul.

[Donk]

If your host has php and mysql installed it probably has a collection of scripts called "fantastico" ready to install from your cpanel.

These include bulletin boards, blogs, content managent etc.

For more specialised scripts the best place is sourceforge.net/ and for the php user manual go to php.net

If you get stuck you can allways post a question here. Most get answered within a few hours.

If you are serious about writing your own scripts it is better to install PHP on your own computer. Either as Paul says use easyPHP or do a full install of Apachee (or IIS) with PHP and MySql.



Bob

[Jeffco]

http://www.vtc.com offer online training courses for asp and lots of other programmes. $30 a month gives you unlimited online access to all of the courses available in their 'online university'

you could go straight to vtc... or I could shamelessly supply you with this affiliate link


http://TutorRoom.co.uk/tutorial.php?...ting&sku=33598

[pricethat]

php is much more supported than asp by an open community, also you can run php on either linux or windows servers so you have that benefit too.

[Tom]

yeah php is probably a better bet to learn in my opinion and more resources online I should think.

[monkeyboy]

PHP is certainly better supported than ASP.NET so you have more sources to go to if you get stuck. But there are plenty places to get help with ASP.NET

Incidentally ASP.NET can be run under Linux using Mono - http://www.mono-project.com/, though I think that this currently at .NET version 1.1 not the current 2.0. I've tried it out in the past and it worked well.

[accelerator]

I would advise php too. It's easier to learn, cheaper, and you can find more help with scripts, find more free scripts etc.

I am a vb.net coder, but I am now doing stuff in php as well, simply because if I want to do something in vb.net I normally have to code it from scratch, whereas with php I can normally find a script and hack it, which is faster. I have also been a bit frustrated with the early "teething" stages of asp.net, and I have had issues when trying to use it in conjuction with MySql databases. Whilst asp.net is undoubtedly pretty cool, and very powerful, it's just too complicated for the average affiliate marketer who just wants to get their site up and running. ASP.net is best left to the dedicated contract developers, or perhaps further down the line for you if you ever find something which php can't do, which I doubt will happen. I'm still interested in vb.net though, and I'm sure it will become increasingly popular.

If you don't already, listen to:

http://www.dotnetrocks.com

to pick up background info about asp.net.

All the best

Accelerator

[Stellar]

Thanks for all your help, very useful

My host (Clook) does have fantastico (thanks for mkaing me aware of that Donk) - so I am playing around with that at the moment. I've installed Joomla, just trying to get my head around it!