Please help a muppet!!! Just need a steer towards basic web app development

[Guest]

Hi I've got DW/CS5. I've used it to create a website for a mate, www.wyevalleyarchery.co.uk, but now I want to create a very basic app.

What I've got is a spreadsheet with numbers and calculations in it. Its a math model for a bow and arrow.

What I would like to do is make it available to my web site users so they can tune their bows and arrows.

What I think I need to do is create a form with some text fields with default but editable fields - that way they can use my numbers as an example and then enter thier own numbers according to thier equipment.

What I then think I need is a button that says "do the math" - when the user clicks it the app/spread sheet computes an output based on thier data.

I'm pretty damn sure that DW can do this, without resorting to learning to code, but I'm too thick to work out how to make it happen.

Can anyone provide either a steer on some reading or just an example that has 2 input boxs and an output box with a button that adds the 2 inputs. From that I can scale it up?

Many thanks and best regards,

Andy

[bregent]

DW is not going to really do much of this for you so you are going to need to learn some server side programming. What scripting language will you be using?

[Guest]

Really? But in DW you can create java, php, vb pages etc - surly Adobe would have built in some basic functions like "add" and "subtract" no???

Done some digging on the web - apparently you can build a calculator using flash but still need to know about scripting. Why can't you just add math buttons and associate them with fields??? Sorry for sounding like a Whinger but DW is so powerful in so many respects - why make a simple task difficult? IMHO a simple job like that should be click, drag and drop etc.

Thanks for your help Bregent.

In terms of scripting, "I know nothing"!!! - what ever is "free" and "easy to use" would be great.

Cheers,

Andy

[bregent]

>Really? But in DW you can create java, php, vb pages etc -

>surly Adobe  would have built in some basic functions like "add" and "subtract" no???

Right. "You" can create any type of dynamic page in DW. DW won't write that code for you.

DW does come with several server behaviors for things like inserting the contents of a form into a database. But there is not visual GUI to associate fields with math functions.

But in reality, it's not difficult to learn. Do you have experience with any type of programming language?

>In terms of scripting, "I know nothing"!!! - what ever is

>"free" and "easy to use" would be great.

It depends on how much interactivity you expect from your users. If the users will be adjusting values and tweaking things over and over, I would tend to use client side javascript because it is fast. If they are just going to enter values once and want to see results, then I would lean towards PHP.

[Guest]

Good morning Bregent,

I do have some coding experience,

2002: I learn't a bit about C in order to write an image processing app - but that took like 3 months full time!

1998: I did a VB course and never touched it since. That seemed pretty easy.

1992-1994: Pascal & COBAL at college (OMG - I'm an old git)

1983: Used to copy BASIC scripts out of mags to play games on my VIC20

hmmm - probably Java script. Its more of fettling program designed for grown men that waste significant portions of their lives playing like kids!

Thank you for your help,

Andy

PS.

a. Can you recommend any really good free learning resources - i.e. at idiot level?

b. Is there any difference between JavaScript and Server Side JavaScript?

[bregent]

You shouldn't have any problem quickly picking up the skills needed for this.

>a. Can you recommend any really good

>free learning resources - i.e. at idiot level?

http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp is a good place to start

>b. Is there any difference between

>JavaScript and Server Side JavaScript?

Typically when people talk about javascript in web app development, they are referring to client side javascript. In this case, the code is sent from the server and executed on the client.  Server side JS is supported on ASP, but is much less commonly used. Classic ASP is usually used with VBScript.

[Guest]

"Server side JS is supported on ASP, but is much less commonly used. Classic ASP is usually used with VBScript."

hmmm - confused.com!

Whats ASP?

Should I used VBScript then?

all I'm after is a simple form with some fields in. the user updates those fields and presses a button that computes an answer. from the example JS scripts i have seen on the web you should be able to do that I think.

Regards

Andy

[bregent · Accepted solution]

Sorry if my last post was confusing. You need to first decide if you want to do this with client side, or server side code. Since you do not have requirements for persisting the data, I would suggest client side since it would lead to a better user experience.

Javascript or Flash are probably your only two viable client side options.

ASP = Active Server Pages. This is Microsoft's server side scripting engine. It's not a language itself, but supports scripting languages like VBScript and Javascript. I only mentioned it because you asked if there was server side Javascript.  ASP, or "Classic ASP" as it is now referred to, has not been actively supported by Microsoft in over 10 years, so if you need to learn server side scripting I would not recommend it. It was replaced by ASP.net, but that's way overkill for your needs.

If you decide you do need functionality of server side scripting (storing data in a database for example), then I would suggest PHP.

[Guest]

Hi Bregent

Sorted! I found a simple free javascript that adds two input numbers and outputs to another box.

With a bit copy & paste, chopping & moding I reckon it will do just fine - When I've finished it I'll post a link to the page here so you can see it.

Many thanks

Andy

[Guest]

Et Voila! http://www.wyevalleyarchery.co.uk/Archery-Tuning-Widget.html

Thanks Bregent.

Best regards,

Andy

On Sat, 05 Feb 2011 21:31:54 -0700

[bregent]

Great job! You're probably thinking about this already, but I would try to style the page so that form fields are better aligned, and the visitor does not need to scroll to see the results. Maybe put the inputs in one column and the outputs in another. Shrink down the input field width as you don't need them that wide.

[Guest]

Bregent,

"You're probably thinking about this already, but..." - Nope I hadn't thought of

that but then my middle names are sloppy and lazy! I need to do some field

trials to validate the data, research aero drag and annotate page with info.

Once all that is done I'll revisit the layout and see if I can make it a bit

neater ;0)

Thanks for everything,

Andy

On Wed, 09 Feb 2011 10:21:02 -0700