useless misc

The instructor of my PHP class threw us an “extra-credit” bone asking us to describe the differences between GET and POST.  I will spare you the full submission, but here are some pretty good links that helped me to form my response.  In no particular order:

• The Definitive Guide to GET vs POST | Carsonified

• Methods GET and POST in HTML forms – what’s the difference?

• Get vs Post – Difference and Comparison | Diffen

  (oh yeah, those puns were most definitely intended btw)

Ch. 3 Types, Objects and Namespaces

Two ways in which .NET class members can be used.

Shared Members

Referenced by the class name and do not require an actual instance of an object in order to use.

Example:

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Dim myDate as DateTime = DateTime.Now

 

Instance Members

Can only be accessed through an instance of a live object.

Example:

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Dim myDate as DateTime = DateTime.Now
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myDate = DateTime.AddDays(1)

The SQL aggregate Count() function can take two forms:

Count(*)

-or-

Count (Expression)

Count(*) will return a count of all rows in the specified table including NULLs:

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SELECT Count(*) 
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FROM Customers

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91

(1 row(s) affected

Count(Fax) will return a count of all rows with non-NULL values for the given expression, in this case the column Fax

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SELECT Count(Fax) 
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FROM Customers

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69

Warning: Null value is eliminated by an aggregate or other SET operation.

(1 row(s) affected)

Aggregate functions in SQL include SUM(), AVG(), MIN(), MAX() and COUNT(exp|*)
http://www.w3schools.com/SQl/sql_functions.asp.

Aggregate function in the SELECT list by itself without a GROUP BY clause will simply tally from all data in the table:

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SELECT SUM(Quantity)
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FROM [Order Details]
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WHERE OrderID BETWEEN 11000 AND 11002

will result in

-----------
336

(1 row(s) affected)

Using an aggregate in the SELECT list without a GROUP BY clause will cause an error

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SELECT OrderID, SUM(Quantity)
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FROM [Order Details]
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WHERE OrderID BETWEEN 11000 AND 11002

Msg 8120, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Column 'Order Details.OrderID' is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause.

Using a GROUP BY clause will limit the tally to just the named fields in the SELECT list:

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SELECT OrderID, SUM(Quantity)
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FROM [Order Details]
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WHERE OrderID BETWEEN 11000 AND 11002
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GROUP BY OrderID

results in

OrderID     
----------- -----------
11000       85
11001       116
11002       135

(3 row(s) affected)

The following  INFORMATION_SCHEMA select statements provide views of database meta data:

SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES;

SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA;

SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.VIEWS;

Our textbook for MS SQL SERVER DATBASE DESIGN (ECA139-001-22765)

I am really loving the way this book is written.  I like the voice that the author uses which makes you feel like he is sitting right beside you.

Deprecated HTML tags drive the doctypes:

• Transitional allows use of deprecated XHTML 1.0 tags.
• Frameset identical to transitional and includes frameset tags.
• Strict does not allow use of deprecated tags.

A list of tags including the deprecated tags can be referenced at:
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/default.asp

For my Web Development w/ Javascript and AJAX class, our instructor gave us the option of creating a basic form for collecting information from prospective students either using a table for layout or a more challenging CSS based version.  In an earlier class, I had already done a similar type form in table layout fashion , so I decided to go for the table-less CSS form route on this exercise.

I followed, learned and borrowed heavily from the CSS styling used in this tutorial on Sitepoint.com:

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/fancy-form-design-css/

which is actually available as a sample chapter of the PDF book The Art and Science of CSS also available from Sitepoint.com.

I learned quite a bit from the exercise, but I would have to say that the biggest lesson had to deal with the formatting of checkbox and radio button controls.

The form has minimal styling in terms of color and is laid out in vertical fashion with labels left aligned.  This follows the advice of Luke W. @ http://www.lukew.com/resources/articles/web_forms.html in terms of overall  readability and scannability.  Ultimately, it would be part of a 2-3 col layout.

It took a little work to validate the handful of errors I received from the validator, but in the end it passed and I enjoyed making it work.

Following an excellent chapter from http://ping.fm/tS4je on table-less forms as part of my first Javascript Dev class assignment. Actually, all CSS at this moment – no JS, but very educational all the same.

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/fancy-form-design-css/

Awesome set of videos for learning all kinds of math related topics. http://ping.fm/EWXVa