Week 4

Session 1: Another aspect of using WordPress involves what are called Template Tags. We will discuss and demonstrate the use of template tags in class today. Also, planning a small scale dynamic web application can be tricky, but there are some ways to think ahead and make the process a little less daunting. Let’s use the example of a service list manager. A service list is a list of contacts for a business that require promotional material on a regular basis. Artists and record labels use service lists to inform the media about events, new releases, showings and other news. In order to create a dynamic web application to maintain a service list and record transactions a number of questions need to be answered.

  1. Do you write from the ground up or use a framework?
    1. If a framework, which one?
    2. If not, plan ahead for an extended timeline
    3. Consider security issues and cost of development cycle
  2. What features will be required? Details regarding each feature are very important in the planning stage.
  3. Is a database needed? Most often it will be needed, but in some cases it’s not necessary.
  4. Illustrate the forms and other web pages in the application. This will help you discover features and structure.
  5. Define the database schema. Think about how many tables will be needed and how the tables are joined.

Session 2: In class today we will be reviewing some SQL syntax, focusing on the DDL. I’ll be going over a few examples of CREATE TABLE statements and discussing the datatypes involved. In lab I’ll be looking at everyone’s progress so far. The Implementation Projects are due a week from today. At this stage you should be finished with steps 1 through 8 and working on steps 9 and 10. Manipulating the look/feel/design and adding/customizing features is the most time consuming aspect of this kind of development so make sure that you’re spending most of your time on these steps.

CREATE TABLE statement examples

Reading Assignments:
Explanation of Database Indexes
MySQL Documentation for the ENUM datatype
MySQL Documentation for Foreign Key Constraints

Template Tag Explanation Assignment:
In class on session 1 of week 5 please be prepared to describe the details about one of the template tags that you are using in your implementation project. Do research so that you can tell us what features the template tag has and what arguments are necessary to produce those behaviors.