Understanding Server Side Web Development for Beginners
Understanding Server Side Web Development for Beginners
What is this Course About?
The course is designed for those new to HTML, CSS and Javascript but have some basic training and experience. You wish to learn about dynamic web sites using server side scripting and databases. This course will give you an overview of the server technologies available.
You will be exposed to setting up a web server on your computer that will enable you to learn without having a public web site. You will become exposed to popular server technologies including PHP, a server scripting language and MySQL, a web server database. During the course you learn by example. Examples are demonstrated such as dynamic sharing content such as navigation menus between web pages and using forms that gather data from the user and return dynamic results.
This was a free live broadcast Thursdays 7:00pm – 8:30pm EST November 7th – November 21st 2013.
What is Covered?
The following are the topics that are covered:
- Understanding what you can do with web server development.
- Show what you need to learn web server development.
- Get started in using web server scripting languages.
- Understand how data is sent between the web page and web server.
- Explore how a web server accesses a database.
More Info
Course materials: Course materials are posted on this page.
Prerequisites: Basic HTML and CSS recommended plus an interest in learning programming. Missed a session? Good news! Attending earlier sessions is not required.
You do not need to be an expert programmer for this course, but we are introducing PHP programming. The goal is to keep the programming simple so that beginners get a starting point for learning more about the key technologies.
To practice, access to a PHP enabled web server or are willing to install a free local web server on your computer is necessary. Details for free local web servers are covered in the first session.
If you have a substantial programming background keep in mind this is a beginners course and we will not use advanced programming concepts such as Object Oriented Programming or Design Patterns.
Session 1 (11/4/2013) Video and Downloads
Raw Unedited Video of First Session 11/4/2013
Demo Files and Presentation Slides: Download
Session 2 (11/14/2013) Video and Downloads
Covered basic PHP expressions variables and variable functions for strings, numbers, indexed arrays, associative arrays and super global variables.
Send and received form and url data using the $_GET, $_POST and $_REQUEST super global variables.
Introduced the $_SESSION variable.
Raw Unedited Video of Second Session 11/14/2013
Demo Files and Presentation Slides: Download
Session 3 (11/21/2013) Video and Downloads
Covered basic PHP flow control for if statements, for loops and for loops for arrays.
Basic user defined functions were demonstrated.
Finally the steps to set-up a MySQL data was discussed along with using PhpMyAdmin to create a local database with a table. The steps for doing the same on a shared hosting service was also covered. Then coding for the MySQLi library was studied for SELECT, UPDATE and INSERT processes using a simple guest email table.
Raw Unedited Video of Second Session 11/21/2013
Demo Files and Presentation Slides: Download