Tips needed for a skills-presentation website [closed] - asp.net

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Closed 11 years ago.
I want to create a dummy presentation website that would show my .NET webprogramming skills; I could put a link to this dummy website on my blog and show it at interviews.
If you would need to create a presentation website that shows your web programming skills, what functionality would that website contain? Or if you were a hiring person, what would you like to see in such a website?
I need a few examples of web applications that I could implement in there. Someone told me already I could make a digg it system so for now I'm looking into that.
Anything in frontend, backend, any tip could help me.

Andrei,
It's aweful hard to look at a .net site and see programming skill behind it. A beautiful looking site can have a real mess of spaghetti code driving it, and a brilliantly engineered site with bad graphic design can look like it was made in the 1990s.
That said, I think your best opportunity is do do something with the MVC framework. Clever use of routing is a benefit clear to all, and mastery of jQuery (not really .net, I know...) would impress a potential boss/customer.
Of course, proper unit testing and good architecture is, in the short term, invisible. It's like a good foundation on a house. Nobody notices a good foundation, but everybody knows when a bad foundation breaks and your house collapses!
John

Have a look at this question. Hopefully it will enlighten you.
What contents should a professional programmer’s website have?

Whatever you decide on Andrei, make sure it's not trivial and also let the interviewing folks know before you come into the interview. You don't want to be scrambling for an internet connection etc. In fact, if you bring in your own laptop with all the tiers running on it, all the better.

Know your basics... .NET programming is good and all, but make sure your skills at integrating XHTML, CSS, XML, and ECMA show through. A lot of builders hide a horrendous site with flash/silverlight... If I were to ever look at someone, they would have to be able to create functionality and re-usability throughout the site without accessing the server for everything (Aside from AJAX). Really, from those 4 items, you can make nearly any site. After you have those down, create a link to a page showing off the flashy skills. They aren't always as important.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to provide a little feedback. Your advices are extremely valuable for me.
I already have a blog (http://www.andreicristof.com/Blog/), so this presentation website is not a 2nd blog; I intend to show that I have .net skills through various .net applications, so its a website where people can login and see the backend and all that, but also I shall be focusing on making a nice clean frontend that validates, and is not flashy (I don't like flashy, I'm a fan of clean websites).
Again, thank you and if anyone has other tips as well, please let me know.
Regards,

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sharepoint vs wordpress? [closed]

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Closed 9 years ago.
I need to develop a small Real Estate Agent website for my friend where i can put across my content across tabs like
New poperty, Any Queries,Contact Us, About Us etc. AFAIK , i have two options to quickly develop it i.e wordpress or sharepoint.
i have gone thru some stuff over net to help me to decide among two. Now i am inclined towards wordpress. Reasons are:-
1)Share Point is good for application which are rich in business logic
like one with with named users, permissions, groups, file
structures, and document sharing.Good for applications which needs to
scalable.
Probably we can do every stuff on wordpress also, but we need to
depend on third party libraries apart from word press. But sharepoint
probably provides many utilities/features in single bundle.
2)I am java guy and laymen to dot net, so it would better to work on
wordpress(PHP based) than on sharePoint.
My assumption is that share point comes under freeware(share point fondation) and paid version also. But not what extra paid version
provides over freeware? I referred to link http://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-vs-sharepoint to come at my understanding
One of main differences about the sharepoint foundation and the paid version, is that the foundation don't include the publishing features on this link http://www.sharepointchick.com/archive/2011/06/23/sharepoint-publishing-features-functionality.aspx you can read more about them and then decide if they will be useful for you or not.
If you will create a site where you need to manage a lot of data and store tables and things like that I definitely recommend you the SharePoint.
If you will create a site just to show some information the wordpress is what you should choose.
Do you have considered Office 365, it includes all the features of the paid SharePoint server version, and also includes the public facing websites that are very easy and cheap to brand with tools like www.bindtuning.com
I'm a Sharepoint developer but i think using WordPress for this application can be the better solution.
There are lot of third party templates for Real Estates application based on WordPress.
With few dollars you can get a good starting point and thanks to your php knowledge you can customize it if necessary.
If you want to obtain the same result with Sharepoint, i think you have to write a lot of code.

Squiz Matrix vs Other CMS [closed]

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Closed 11 years ago.
According to:
http://intendance.com/2011/03/31/enterprise-content-management-open-source-squiz-matrix/
They have stated:
Most other open source content
management systems options such as,
Drupal, Typo3, Mambo, Joomla rely on
their developers community for
extensions/addons maintenance and
upgrades with no guarantee that they
would continue to do so. While having
large community is great, the
enterprise approach provides a
framework you can extend to your own
uses. Most users of Squiz Matrix want
this flexibility. They not only want
to roll out websites that feels like
they came pre-implemented in their
CMS, but also editing interfaces and
processes that match their internal
work processes. And all this needs to
be done without writing server-side
codes. This one area is where Squiz
Matrix Excels compared to other
traditional open source CMS.
What does this mean and is it true?
Here's essentially what I believe that paragraph means, if I translate (after reviewing their product)...
... starting with the last half of their paragraph first (because it'll make more sense that way)...
People who manage a CMS (web site) want to be able to drag and drop cool plugins and add-ons to their site without having to learn how to code. We can do that. But you want your plugins to "feel" like they're actually part of your site (and not a tacked on after-thought). Ours do.
We're better than the other guys (like Drupal, Typo3, Mambo, Joomla) because... Yes, they also have all those cool plugins and add-ons that'll work for you (without coding)... BUT... Because they're "open source" and not "enterprise" you can't rely on them! Who knows where those open source plugin developers will be in a year or two!
... this one sentence has no translation...
While having large community is great, the enterprise approach provides a framework you can extend to your own uses.
If I were to try, it would sound something like this...
A tip of the hat to open source for providing great support and development! But "enterprise" is better because you can do whatever you want with it to make it better (like you can with Microsoft Word and you can't with OpenOffice).
Since you asked "is it true" I think that's a matter of opinion. I would say, "no", if you choose a good open source CMS with a vibrant community. I would say "yes" if you choose a sub-par tool with absolutely no community following (like this one)...
I will note also that it's a little difficult to gauge exactly how robust their plugin collection might be when you're left with this kind of jargon to figure it out: https://www.squiz.net/resources/integration-datasheet
Again, masterful writing!

Anything else like Skybound Stylizer out there? [closed]

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Closed 11 years ago.
I hate to say it but I'm crack addicted to Skybound Stylizer 5.
It's a rare purchase for me because I normally only go with open-source or software that has 'per user' licensing. The license and DRM on this thing are horrid. It does a hardware check (including a check for the existence of a battery) and only lets you install on one laptop and one desktop. Of course, I've got a work desktop and laptop as well as a two home desktops and two home laptops. I'd love to use the thing at home but there's no way I'm going to pay for another separate license when I'm just one guy with multiple machines no one else uses but me.
Aside from my loathing of the license type and DRM, the $79 price seems reasonable (no problem there).
I've tried searching for hours and can't find another CSS editor that visually works on the rendered pages. I'm using Rails and the whole Stylizer concept of being a multi-engine web browser that lets you target elements on the rendered page is a life saver. Nothing else I've seen would really add any benefit above Rubymines CSS editing (which btw - thank you for the per-user license Jetbrains).
If someone else had something similar, I'd gladly pay twice the price for a per-user license. Funny - I'd be happy paying $150 for a per user license, but the thought of paying for two $79 license because (my gosh) I use two different laptops annoys the crap out of me.
Thanks!
Disclosure: I work for Skybound.
Firstly, I'll openly apologize for our potentially over-zealous piracy protection system. We were having serious licensing abuses with the previous version, and needed to do something about it.
Having said that, we tried to walk the line between being flexible and opening the door to licensing abuse. The activation system is based on your actual processor ID, so you could technically activate on an iMac, then activate on Windows through BootCamp, then inside a couple of VMs, and then do the same thing all over again on a laptop. We also de-activate licenses without too many questions asked if you need to move to another computer. I'm not aware of too many other activation systems that are this permissive.
Unfortunately, there isn't anything else like Stylizer on the market. It's an easy product to build poorly and an extremely difficult product to build well. CSSEdit (our competitor-ish) would probably be the closest, but Stylizer caters to a more serious user, hence the higher price tag.
To the commenters suggesting that the OP "go learn CSS", I suggest you experience the speed advantage of things like real-time preview, point & click editing, etc, (heck, even go try CSSEdit), before making this common and completely-off-the-mark judgement. These products are the tool of choice of some of the most qualified CSS experts in the industry.
Firefox + Firebug + CSSUpdater
http://www.cssupdater.com
I use CSSEdit that allows you to edit the code and have live previews as well as override style sheets - best thing I have EVER used for this job.
http://macrabbit.com/cssedit/
Did you try Browserlab?

How to get better at CSS, laying out designs and UI Programming? [closed]

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Closed 9 years ago.
I am pretty familiar with CSS and have used quite a bit of javascript and jquery also little experience of layout designing and working closely with Photoshop. But, somehow I don't feel as confident as when programming with database or C# side and face lot of problems when I am working with designing UI and laying out elements the way I want, For e.g. Like say a .psd file which the designers give to you...and you want to make your page look exactly like that..
So I know I just have to get into doing it more and learn along the way. But does anyone have any good suggestions or advice so that I get better at the UI programming...If there are some websites with videos and tutorial or any good books I should refer to improve..Thanks all for your help..
I installed firebug 2 years ago and immediately found myself spending more time reading other people's code - if I see a site I like or a technique I want to use, I just firebug it - it's a bit like a musician reading sheet-music and imagining how it sounds
I've found that answering questions on this site has helped me lots too - you get to know just exactly what it is that you do know and you become more aware of the areas in which you need to improve
I think that it's really important to know how the box-model works and how to make it work for you in all browsers - there are a few really simple fundamental rules, which when obeyed, help you to ensure that your x-broswer testing is pain-free - knowing how to add padding or margin to something without breaking your layout allows you to be exact with your designs - I used to leave 20 pixels extra horizontal space in my containers as a way of making my columns never dropped off the edge of a page, but now that I know how the box-model works, I can use the exact widths, heights, padding and margin that are detailed in the mock-ups that I'm given
I personally recommend using a semantic stylesheet framework - I suggest Blueprint semantic (although YUI and 960 are awesome too) - in-fact, switching to a CSS framework is perhaps one of the most important changes I made to my coding style last year and it helped me realise that almost all of the x-browser problems I was having were easy to fix without too much trouble
If you haven't done so already, add "CSS" and "HTML" to your "interesting tags" list in stackoverflow and read as much as you can. Answer questions, take the down-votes on the chin, savour the up-votes and keep trying to help others with their problems
One thing a lot of people forget is this: CSS is actually a really complex language. There's a hell of a lot more to it that meets the eye and it's very difficult to master - just.keep.fighting.the.good.fight
Practice, practice, practice.
I would surf the web for existing templates or sites and attempt to replicate them for practice.
Obviously, respect the author's rights and don't re-create someone's theme and then use it on one of your sites unless it's actually released out to the public.
I would look into "Semantic HTML" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_HTML
Also looking into Doctypes: http://htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/doctype.html
Those 2 things once mastered have helped me in writing proper x-browser css that can look exactly like comps when you need it.
I would say avoid templating unless your designers always make the same site layout for UI, you will want to be more agile than that.
A good thing that tends to help x-browser css as well for beginners is a good reset.css: http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/
I'd also explore the area of UI usability. useit.com is a good source.
You can learn by doing if at all times you ask yourself if you can do a specific thing in a better way and when in doubt look this thing up using Google.
However, you will find that books give you a more complete picture of the entire process and teach you a lot that individual blog posts can't teach you. The Internet is like a reference; you have to know what to look for, but the book will provide you with useful hints you might not have thought of.
I'd give a look at CSS Zen Garden.
I had this frustration for a while too (I think many do). One specific thing that alleviated some of that frustration was learning about the significance of classes and ids (i.e. ids make javascript easier, classes facilitate large-scale changes). This might sound really simple, but it was a big step for me. I guess what I'm saying is that you just need to spend time with it. Don't shy away because it's intimidating or frustrating. It just takes time.

Small projects ideas to teach beginners web development using ASP.Net [closed]

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Closed 9 years ago.
I asked from few weeks ago this question:
How can I teach a beginner to write ASP.NET web applications quickly?
And i got some good answers but i liked the answer which tell me to make some small projects with them (me with the beginners)
So i decided to collect some small websites ideas to do with them (i do a part then they complete or show them some hard parts and they follow)
But i faced 2 problems hope you help me solve.
1- Couldn't get enough good ideas for ASP.Net websites to make with them.
2- If i want to make them train on using HTML websites created by the web designer to make
it dynamic using ASP.Net, where to find just HTML websites, or there is a better idea to teach them this part?
You may ask, whats exactly the level i hope they reach?
I want them to be Very good in ASP.Net, HTML, and familiar with JavaScript and CSS.
And the most important thing i want them to be a good searchers, means they got a problem and they Google the right way, and solve. "i think this will gain by time", but this is an important part, because i don't want them to say "we can't do this :("
May be i am asking for too many things, but i just hope general help so i can go further with them.
Use your brothers interests. If one brother likes Football, have him put together a fan site for his favorite team. Another brother likes fishing, well, you get the point.
There are two main benefits with picking topics this way:
They are already subject matter experts and can concentrate on learning the technology instead of the subject and the technology.
Hopefully they pick something they are passionate about and this will add to their desire to learn the technologies.
A good way to learn how to work with ASP.NET is to take a web template and start making it into a functional website.
For example, if you download this template you can see that it's a pretty straight forward business style site. Home, Projects, Services, Downloads, About and Contact are the main sections. The template also has a some additional buttons and links. These are all pretty good places to start learning how to create a site.
First thing, create a masterpage from this template. This is where you'll learn how to tear apart someones HTML and where to start placing content Templates and to start thinking about what can be a user control or reused (main menus, footers, sidebars controls etc.)
Next steps would be do go ahead and flesh out the folder structure of the site and dive in making the those default pages for each section. A learner will quickly see how a site is created from a master page and learn the little quirks of images and stylesheets and how to get around those as you dive through folder structures.
Now it's your choice. Pick a section and start having them dive into it. Products would give you a way to use a database, querystrings, forms, etc. How to pull data, how to display it and how to save it. Downloads would be a place where you could learn how to manage content for a user. What little admin tools a site would need to manage it. Services and About can be CMS driven pages. Once again data driven, but still different from the Products section. The contact forms would give them the option of leaning about using Email from inside of a .net application.
Now once you get your learner working on this, they might actually end up with a pretty usable site/product that they could actually sell or reuse in a 'for real' project. Take your time teaching them, go slow on each section and I'm sure you'll get some good input back from your learner.
Hope this helps you.
E-Commerce is a great solution, as other people have suggested. Or a portfolio web site would be even easier. Also, a picture sharing web site might work out well for them (family members could log in and upload, too?)
I would also add you should use the visual (design) mode in visual studio for the best effect. And then show the HTML it generates after the page is run/compiled. That way you cover for the people who are more visual learners and get into the code later. But I'm sure you were already going to do that :)
How about a sample time entry app.
User logs in to key his time for the week.
Admin user can approve time.
Reports can be made for summaries, approval, etc.. to give programmer exposure to reports.
Login / Roles is always important to understand
Time Entry gives you database interaction.
A simple informational website for a business or store. This should include a contact us form. That should be good practice.
A simple e-commerce application is a good project, as it exposes the students to a number of issues:
Security
Database integration
Transactions
Session management
Design and usability
If your interests are in TV shows or movies or something similar that one can collect on DVDs, building a simple CRUD web app to update a database should be a fairly simple application that will cover some basics like DB design and manipulation, AJAX if you want to send the requests without a full postback, and is something rather common in enterprise applications so it may be very useful.
The year the DVD came out, who wrote and directed what is on the discs, genre of the material, length, stars, extras on the DVD and many other things could go into the DB if one wanted to set up a library like system for an add-on that could be interesting in some ways.

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