Web Development
All of the following courses are taught at Truman College 1145 W. Wilson Ave. Chicago, IL 60640. They are offered through Continuing Education as part of the Web Development Program. Feel free to email me with any questions about this program: jwalker@ccc.edu. Truman College also offers a Web Design Program. Questions about Web Design may be directed to Alexis Steinkamp, asteinkamp@ccc.edu or Josh Samos, jsamos@ccc.edu.
Recommended books for all the courses and seminars are available in the Just Only Bookstore. Books are recommended but not required as there is so much material online.
Web Development Courses
TweetComputer laboratories only have PCs but you are free to bring your own lap top. Examples will be demonstrated on PCs. I do own a Mac notebook and I have determined that all code works equally well using the Mac OSX
Call (773) 907-4440 for more information and to register.
Introduction to Web Development more...
This course will introduce the field of web development and provide an overview of the technologies used for client-side scripting, server-side scripting and database development. Web development will be contrasted with web design and the types of careers available to web developers will be discussed. This is an excellent opportunity to meet the web development instructor and ask questions about course offering. No Prerequisites.
Fall One, Aug. 25th, One session, Wednesday evening, Room 3983, 6:30 to 9:30, $29
Fall Two, Oct. 27th, One session, Wednesday evening, Room 3983, 6:30 to 9:30, $29
Dynamic Websites with PHP and MySQL more...
Create a dynamic, data-driven website using PHP and MySQL. We will use the latest PHP programming techniques to produce projects that are progressively more complex throughout the course. Students enrolling in this class must have a background in HTML and CSS. No other programming experience is necessary.
Fall One, Sept. 1st to Oct. 13th, Seven Sessions, Wednesday evenings, Room 3178, 6:30 to 9:30, $349
Anyone who is not certain they have the prerequisites for this course should email me, jwalker@ccc.edu, to discuss your situation. Half price discount is available to anyone who has taken the course before.
Dynamic Websites with PHP and MySQL: Second Level
Open only to students with previous experience in both PHP and MySQL, this course will focus on more advanced topics in PHP such as object oriented programming techniques, associative arrays, swift email, integration of PHP with JavaScript and CSS. Students must have their own web hosting environment with PHP/MySQL support. Students should contact me, jwalker@ccc.edu, for an interview before signing up for the course to determine their readiness for this level.
Fall Two, Seven sessions, Wednesday evenings Nov. 3rd to December 15th, Room: 3983, 6:30 to 9:30, $349
Introduction to JavaScript more...
A comprehensive introduction to programming in JavaScript. This course provides a foundation for other web technologies such as AJAX and JQuery. JavaScript is widely used on websites to provide interactivity and rapid response to user actions. It is the most widely used client-side scripting language currently used in websites. You will also gain a thorough knowledge of the DOM, the document object model. Prerequisites: Students enrolling in this class must have a background in HTML and CSS. No other programming experience is necessary.
Spring Two, TBA Seven sessions, Wednesday evenings, Room 3178, 6:30 to 9:30, $349
Fall 2010 Workshops
Six Easy Pieces: Introduction to JQuery more...
Students will be introduced to the popular and powerful JQuery JavaScript framework through the hands-on practice of creating Slideshows, Expander, Tree Table and Treeview, Pull Quotes, Tablesorter, and Tabs. Students will be provided with files to complete working examples of each application. A one-hour break will be provided for lunch on your own. Prerequisites: Students enrolling in this class must have a background in HTML and CSS. No other programming experience is necessary.
Saturday September 25th, Room: 3178, 9:00 to 4:00, $175
New! Web Analytics more...
Based on books by Avinash Kaushik, this seminar will introduce Web Developers and Web Designers to the rapidly growing field of web analytics. We will discuss the pros and cons of data collection methodologies, various types of analysis and analytics tools. You will learn about pay-per-click marketing, search engine optimization, rich media marketing and internal site search. We will discuss the kinds of data that can and should be used to drive changes on a website. You will learn how to create a customer-centric website and how to produce reports for your clients about the analytical data you have gathered. And analytics are not just for business websites - any website that wants to improve the user experience and deliever an effective message to the public can benefit tremendously from an analytics approach.
Saturday, October 23rd, Room: 3178, 9:00 to 4:00, $175
WordPress Customization: Beyond the Blog
Learn to use the power of the WordPress platform and build WordPress sites that go beyond the basics. Participants in this workshop will learn to build themes, create custom login forms, integrate theme options, build plugins, create better navigation, and use conditional control elements. This workshop is based on the Book "Smashing WordPress Beyond the Blog" by Thord Daniel Hedengren.
Saturday, Nov. 20th, 9:00 to 4:00, $175
Useful Links
Information
Web Development: About the Profession
- Founded in Australia in 2004, Web Directions investigated the field of web develoment and produces a State of Web Development Report
- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. W3C is a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding.
Documentation
- The Official PHP web site is a good place to begin to learn about the history and the current status of this open source web programming language.
- The PHP Manual is online.
- What is AJAX?
Tutorials
- Object Oriented PHP for Beginners
- The PHP Resource Index will lead you to thousands of PHP resources on the web.
- EchoEcho.com has many excellent tutorials, references and articles for web developers.
- Webmonkey is a free, public resource for web developers. Builders, designers and programmers like you — the people who know best — write the articles, tutorials, code snippets and other contributions.
- A List Apart is a beautiful website full of information for people who make websites. They have a wonderful conference: An Event Apart.
- The Web Design Group was founded to promote the creation of non-browser specific, non-resolution specific, creative and informative sites that are accessible to all users worldwide. To this end, the WDG offers material on a wide range of HTML related topics. We hope that with this site as a reference, you will be able to create Web sites that can be used by every person on the Internet, regardless of browser, platform, or settings.
References
- Need to have a certain symbol on your website? Check out web entities.
- The Elements of User Experience Sample Chapter by Jesse James Garrett is an excellent book. His diagram is fascinating.
- Basic CSS Box Model Demo
Accessibility
- Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI): Strategies, guidelines, resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities.
Utilities and Applications
- W3C Validation Services provide a mechanism for checking your XHTML code for errors. You should also validate the CSS on your pages.
- Link Checker
- HTMLIPSUM is a wonderful generator for text fill in a variety of html formats.
- A typechart lets you flip through, preview and compare web typography while retrieving the CSS.
- This littel em calculator is useful when coding CSS.
- Set up Apache, PHP, MySQL on Windows using WampServer.
- Nattyware's Pixie is a utility made especially for webmasters and designers. It is a color picker that tells you the hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV values of that color.
- FileZilla is a free FTP program for windows.
- Formally called crimson editor, Emerald Editor is a free open-source multi-purpose text editor you can download from sourceforge.
- ConTEXT is also a free text editor for the PC.
- Xenu's Link Sleuth helps you find broken links on websites.
- 7-Zip for unpacking tar, tar.gz and tar.zip files
- Free CAPTCHA from reCAPTCHA This site includes instructions on how to install the reCAPTCHA PHP library and how to configure CAPTCHA for your forms.