Course Description

We all know that having a web presence is essential in any type of business, whether you are selling home-made goods, commercial services or information. The most efficient way of storing your content on the web is on a database. You can easily have the most current information for your customers or visitors at any time. ASP uses a component called ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) to talk to almost any type of database source. With these objects you can programmatically connect, update, delete and edit among other things to your database. The great thing about ADO is that it is the foundation for more advanced components such as ADO.NET that is currently used on .NET web applications as well. The database we will be using is Microsoft Access. Microsoft Access is a great, basic database system to get you started in learning about databases, tables and queries. We will be gearing this course in creating a simple ecommerce website that includes products, categories, search and shopping cart. This is a 6 week, self-paced, online course. LVS is a Corel Training Partner. LVS students may purchase Corel products at a significant savings. Follow this link for details. LVS students are eligible to receive software and hardware at a discount. Follow this link for details. Students are also eligible take advantage of special offers made available specifically for LVS by famous software developers such as Andromeda, AV Bros, Extensis, Harry Heim, namesuppressed, Nik Multimedia, and Ulead. Details are provided in the classinfo link found in the confirmation of registration. Show off your LVS Online spirit with an item from the LVS Store If you would like to receive more information regarding this course, click on the "Contact Us" link in the Information section and we'll try to answer any of your questions within the day.

Course Requirements

No software is required for ASP but a simple text editor and I will be providing the database files every week. It is not required to purchase Microsoft Access, but if you already have a copy then you can use it to create your own database. A working knowledge of your computer is essential: Free Windows Class Here All lessons are available in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view/print the lessons. Plan to devote 4 - 5 hours per week on the lesson and assignment.

Course Prerequisites

You should have already taken the Basic Web Applications using ASP class or have a solid understanding of ASP and VBScript in developing web applications.

Course Syllabus

Lesson 1 Ecommerce Basics ADO Overview: Connection, Recordset and Command objects Connecting To Your Database Reviewing the Products Retrieving and displaying our Products Using Include files Lesson 2 Introduction To SQL SELECT statements: DISTINCT, ORDER BY, WHERE, LIKE, IN clauses Creating our Online Store: Default.asp, ProductList.asp, and CatList.asp Using querystring variables and hidden form fields Lesson 3 SQL: UPDATE and INSERT statements Admin Section Adding and editing products: ManageProducts.asp, AddProduct.asp, and UpdateProduct.asp Lesson 4 Recordset: Paging How to add a Search to our Online Store Lesson 5 Upating our database: Users and Cart table Storing common functions in separate files How to Register Users - Register.asp Starting our Shopping Cart - Cart.asp Lesson 6 Finishing our shopping cart - AddCart.asp Putting it all together

Course Excerpt

LESSON 1 Overview Knowing how to create truly interactive and dynamic web pages takes two parts: 1) Using a sever-side technology to be able to interact with the user by responding to requests on the web server. 2) Being able to display the ever changing content by storing your content in a database. This class will add to your existing basic skills of ASP and VBScript development by explaining how to interact with a database on the web using a new object model (ADO) and explain the basics of how e-commerce on the web works. What is E-Commerce? E-Commerce refers to the buying or selling a product or service over an electronic network. This "electronic network" is normally the internet and I am sure you have a basic understanding of this term since you probably have bought a few items online already. E-Commerce encompasses three types of business transactions. First, a transaction can occur between a business and consumer. When you think of e-commerce, this type of transaction is the first that springs to mind. A prime example of a business that engages in business-to-consumer e-commerce is Amazon. Amazon promotes itself as the "place to find and discover anything you want to buy online" by selling books, CDs, electronics and videos to consumers. Business-to-consumer e-commerce can also include services. A subscription web site that doesn't sell any tangible goods can also be engaged in e-commerce. For example, Match.com --- the online dating service --- sells subscriptions to their web site to enable customers to browser their listings for potential romantic partners. A second general form of e-commerce involves transactions between one business and another. A business that engages in this type of e-commerce is typically less visible to consumers and, therefore, to the general public. A good example of a company that engages in business-to-business e-commerce is Cisco Systems. Cisco Systems creates much of the physical infrastructure of the internet that allows businesses to communicate. Finally, a form of e-commerce that has become very popular involves consumer-to-consumer transactions. The best-known example of this type would be eBay. eBay enables its customers to auction items to other customers. Technologies for E-Commerce The lessons in this course focus on using Microsoft technologies to create simple e-commerce web pages. We will be using ASP as our server-side technology and Microsoft Access as our database. Microsoft Access is a personal database that is mainly used on the desktop, but can also be used with web applications in a limited manner. To create fully scalable web applications that would be used for real businesses, you would need an enterprise-type database like SQL Server or MySQL (open source) or ORACLE. What I mean by "scalable" is that it can support thousands or more concurrent visitors requesting information from your database. Microsoft Access is very limited in this respect and at most it could handle maybe 20 concurrent users. Though no matter what database you use, the majority of the code you will write will work with any database. Tools Required Our main focus for this course will be teaching you how to create ASP web pages that interact with a database. I will not be covering database basics in this course. Meaning, I will not be covering how to use Microsoft Access to setup or design a database. I do not want to take away any time from this class in going over database basics, normalization, database design, etc. I will be including the database (storeDB.mdb) file which will contains everything you need for that lesson. The database included will be in version 2000 of Microsoft Access so if you have it installed at home or work, you can modify the database or even create your own. You do not have to buy any software for this course. Note: Do not feel afraid to ask a question about Microsoft Access or databases in general. I just want to make sure you know exactly what I will be covering in the course. Continued... Please note: Lessons provide step-by-step instructions with detailed screen captures.

Course Goals

At the end of this course, you can easily have the most current information for your customers or visitors at any time.

Course Reviews

Cheryl: Instructor's great information and patience. More...