Educational Curriculum

[PNF]

I’ve been using W3S for years whenever I needed to reference something regarding HTML or CSS. However, the time has come to expand my horizons. I’m currently learning PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, using an Apache server. Additionally, XML seems to have become a big deal and that’s where I don’t know what I need to know with regard to learning the products, in a logical sequence. I did the XML DOM and XSLT tuts and they appear to be must know products. I'm not so sure about the other "X" type products. That’s what prompted my question.My long term objective, 9 to 12 months, hacking away at it on a full time basis, is to become proficient in a high level language like Java. My interests are in the database arena with emphasis on developing highly customized financial applications that will run on interoffice networks.I’m to old/ornery (HA!) to go back to college, so I'm developing a self study plan. Any advice, including reading material, would be most appreciated.Regards,PNF

[boen_robot]

If you've reached the XSLT tutorial, I suppose you've also already did the XPath tutorial? If not, do it, as it's a must for XSLT's sake at least, though it's useful in many other areas as well.XML languages are in general "nice to have"s. PHP&MySQL can do everything alone. Whether it's easy, secure or practical to do it with them is another question with a varying answer, though people that know one (MySQL) or the other (XML) will tell you it's easy using *insert-known-language-here*. I know both moderately (and I don't consider myself an expert in any of them), so I can only go as far as to say "your mileage may vary".If you do take the XML road, you might want to learn of all the ways that XML can be parsed in PHP. In particular, the two most useful ones are DOM and XMLReader, though there's also SimpleXML (Hint: for more complicated XML documents, SimpleXML doesn't cut it; The other two are good). You might also want to know XML Schema to constrain your XMLs to what your app accepts.Finance is a complicated area though. It would probably be impossible to do any such application without a database. I'd say learn PHP and MySQL. Leave JavaScript for a later state. And as for XML languages... they could be useful in such an app, but again - they are not a must. Keep in mind that XML DOM knowledge is also going to help you with both JavaScript and PHP. Whether you learn PHP first, and DOM later, or vise-versa, JavaScript would be much easier when you know both. Same deal for JavaScript and DOM - PHP would be easier.

Edited August 9, 2009 by boen_robot

[PNF]

If you've reached the XSLT tutorial, I suppose you've also already did the XPath tutorial? If not, do it, as it's a must for XSLT's sake at least, though it's useful in many other areas as well.XML languages are in general "nice to have"s. PHP&MySQL can do everything alone. Whether it's easy, secure or practical to do it with them is another question with a varying answer, though people that know one (MySQL) or the other (XML) will tell you it's easy using *insert-known-language-here*. I know both moderately (and I don't consider myself an expert in any of them), so I can only go as far as to say "your mileage may vary".If you do take the XML road, you might want to learn of all the ways that XML can be parsed in PHP. In particular, the two most useful ones are DOM and XMLReader, though there's also SimpleXML (Hint: for more complicated XML documents, SimpleXML doesn't cut it; The other two are good). You might also want to know XML Schema to constrain your XMLs to what your app accepts.Finance is a complicated area though. It would probably be impossible to do any such application without a database. I'd say learn PHP and MySQL. Leave JavaScript for a later state. And as for XML languages... they could be useful in such an app, but again - they are not a must. Keep in mind that XML DOM knowledge is also going to help you with both JavaScript and PHP. Whether you learn PHP first, and DOM later, or vise-versa, JavaScript would be much easier when you know both. Same deal for JavaScript and DOM - PHP would be easier.

boen_robot,Thanks for the reply and information.I did glance at the Xpath tutorial when I saw it mentioned in the XSLT tutorial. That’s one of the things that are somewhat confusing. But, as I said, I only glanced at it.Thanks for the insight. I’ll take a closer look at the DOM. I’m wondering if I would be better off to focus on the DOM core or XML DOM first? Not knowing anything more than what I learned in the XML DOM tutorial combined with a little more research I did this AM, it seems that learning about the DOM core would lessen the learning curve of the XML model. I could be completely off base on that, so in short, it requires more research.I’m a happy camper around financial systems. That was my area of expertise in the mainframe world for over 25 years. The languages and file structures were different (mainly COBOL and VSAM/ISAM), but I worked with a few apps that used DB2 as their file structure.Thanks again for your input!Regards,PNF Edited August 9, 2009 by PNF

[webdesigner25]

I’ve been using W3S for years whenever I needed to reference something regarding HTML or CSS. However, the time has come to expand my horizons. I’m currently learning PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, using an Apache server. Additionally, XML seems to have become a big deal and that’s where I don’t know what I need to know with regard to learning the products, in a logical sequence. I did the XML DOM and XSLT tuts and they appear to be must know products. I'm not so sure about the other "X" type products. That’s what prompted my question.My long term objective, 9 to 12 months, hacking away at it on a full time basis, is to become proficient in a high level language like Java. My interests are in the database arena with emphasis on developing highly customized financial applications that will run on interoffice networks.I’m to old/ornery (HA!) to go back to college, so I'm developing a self study plan. Any advice, including reading material, would be most appreciated.Regards,PNF

i agree you don't have to go back to college for these things, just read tons of books Edited August 14, 2009 by webdesigner25