Hey everyone. So I work as a data entry/office admin assistant grunt and my co-workers and bosses have been taking advantage of my technical knowledge more and more often recently. So today I got asked to design and create an interface for all this data that's on our servers. I'm more of a network guy and although I am very competent technically, I have never programmed before because it didn't seem fun. But anyways I have to start this project next week. Any tips? I love a challenge. Also I'm downloading Visual Studio 2010 as I type, and several intro/intermediate textbook on the subject. I like the challenge
My honest recommendation: unless the company is paying you extra for this work, or there is a lot of room for you to move up via promotion, I would try to talk them out of it. It's not a good business decision for them. What they are asking for isn't easy, could cause something to go wrong with the data, and (no offense) shouldn't be in the hands of a solo amateur programmer. Like me. It's definitely doable and sounds relatively simple based on what you described, but they could pay an experienced programmer for several hours of work and be done with it, or it can be a never-ending project of bug fixes, slow application performance, upgrades, etc. for you. Also this type of work general pays upwards of $50k per year. Are they paying you that much? Keep it in mind. Now, on to the fun side: the programming! What type of data are we talking here? Databases? Files/folders? Combination? I'm a big proponent of web-based programming because it makes it easy to provide everyone access to your application from anywhere in the world.
^ Web apps are the future! but yea, the complexity of this depends on what you gotta interface. depending on your database system (or is it flat file? hm) there will be some libraries to interface w/ it in .NET. as for what language you should start with (inside of visual studio), you'll want to try C# or vb.net. vb.net is gonna be easier to learn and apply immediately, but if you are gonna do much coding beyond this project, i'd advise learning C#. good luck dude!
Ugh VB... if you're working with a MySQL database you should check out PHP. It provides the most elegant integration of a db into a web interface. Java is pretty decent too, but I find it rather clunky... there's a lot of additional APIs/frameworks you have to add on to make it not such a pain in the ass. Good luck! This is a pretty intensive project for an amateur programmer. You might want to read up on AJAX too, as it can save you the headache of passing around form attributes and such.
Thanks for the tips Fëanor. C sounds like a great language but I thought I would get my feet wet with VB. Haha I make about 10$/hr lol so nope I wish I made 50k per year, that's great money! I am definitely an amateur when it comes to coding/programming but I love learning so I thought I might as well put myself to the test.
Makes perfect sense. Just don't let them take advantage of you. People have no idea how difficult, frustrating, and time consuming programming can sometimes be. It's all magic to them, so if you don't make them pay for it it's easy for them to forget just how much work you're doing I will echo what Misc420 said about PHP working well with MySQL, it is relatively easy for programming although nothing is as close to plain English as VB. Down with Java! Just my 2 cents.
If you have to interface with other office products then VB is your best choice (some companys still use access). Most major languages can interface with the main DB's so picking a language to use really comes down to what do you need to do up to actually inserting the data into the database. For example, if all you need to do is collect data and stick it in a database then I would recommend VB or PHP (kind of leaning towards PHP) for there ease of use when building GUI's. If you want us(well I can only speak for myself) to have a look at some code or even to check over finished code (this is assuming its not going to be to complex) then post it up and I will try and give some feedback.
As you wish , Vb.Net is very easy to study for a beginner like you . Lot of online help might help you to learn . check this one VB.NET Tutorial , VB.NET Help , VB.NET Source Code . It provides a step by step help for beginners. Once you learned vb.net dont stick on that , move on to C# or Java , becuse now a days these languages are very popular. anyway all the best. antonio.
It sucks that you have to start in VB, its a horrible language to start with too (if you want to move to C, or something not .net). Anyways I would try to get out of this one, $10/hr is tiny compared to what you should get paid for the work. I would ask for more money or take my time doing it (and by doing so milking the time-clock so you get more hours).