.NET Training order / prerequisites

[Bari Allen]

DSI DI3631
Broadxent

Hi, my boss paid a company for me to take the following courses (which I
have not yet scheduled):

2559 -Intro to VB.NET Programming
2310 -Developing ASP.NET web applications using VS.NET
2373 -Programming with VB.NET
2389 -Programming with ADO.NET

I have VERY limited (pure) vb skills. I've developed programs using
Microsoft Access 97 and 2000 (using the built-in VBA), and done a few
limited web pages using ASP, and ADO to connect to a database for reading
and inserting records. I noticed on the 2373 course that the prerequisites
seem to require VB6 courses or experience using VB4 or later. When I
originally signed up, I had asked for 1013, instead of 2559, but one of the
institutions we were bidding to said to take 2559, rather than 1013. The
budget office listened to those suggestions, but went with a different
vendor. Unfortunately, my boss can't sign me up for additional classes due
to budgetary concerns. Has anyone taken these classes (above)? What order
would you recommend me taking them in? Will I need additional education
before attempting to take 2373, or will the other courses above bring me in
with enough knowledge to get through it? Thank you in advance for any
advice.

I already meet the prereq. requirements for 2559
I meet most of the prereq. requirements for 2389, as well, EXCEPT that I've
never had Exposure to XML
2559 (above) & 2373 are listed as prereqs for 2310
Herein, lies the problem, the prerequisites for 2373 are as follows:
Experience developing applications with Visual Basic 4.0 or later
Successful completion of Course 1013, Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic 6
Development, or equivalent knowledge

OR

Successful completion of Course 1016, Mastering Enterprise Development
Using Microsoft Visual Basic 6, or equivalent knowledge
Familiarity with basic concepts of object-oriented programming
Familiarity with Extensible Markup Language (XML) concepts
Familiarity with Microsoft's .NET strategy as described on Microsoft's
..NET Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/net/
Familiarity with the .NET Framework as described on the following Web
sites:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/0900/Framework/Framework.asp
and
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/1000/Framework2/Framework2.asp

 

[GVaught]

The order in which you listed would be the appropriate order. Although their
is a learning curve moving from VB to VB.NET and ASP to ASP.Net, it is not
so steep that you would not understand what is happening. The fact that you
have had even minor familiarity with VBA, ASP, and other programs; you do
have one leg up to someone who has never experienced any of those
applications and languages.

XML basics are not hard to learn. The beauty of XML is that you can define
your own tags. So if you were returning book information to the web from a
database, text file or other means, you create the tag names to match the
data returned. This can even be written in .ASP to return the data to an
XML format.
Example:
<Books> ' Root Namespace/Element
<BookTitle>Learning XML</BookTitle>
<Author>Somebody's Name</Author>
<ISBN>ISBN Number</ISBN>
</Books>

The difficulty comes when you have to attach and write XSLT files or write
DOM against the data.

Example of ASP file returning data into XML Format: Although this isn't
ASP.NET the switchover would not be that difficult.

<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<%
Response.ContentType ="text/xml"
Dim dbConn
Set dbConn= createObject("ADODB.Connection")
dbConn.Open "DSN=XMLPRO;"

Dim rs
Set rs = Server.CreateObject ("ADODB.Recordset")
rs.Open "Select * from Authors", dbConn, 0, 3
%>

<?xml version ="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Authors>
<%
Do While Not rs.EOF
%>
<Author authorCiteID="<%=rs("au_id")%>">
<FirstName><%=rs("au_fname")%></FirstName>
<LastName><%=rs("au_lname")%></LastName>
<Phone>Phone: <%=rs("phone")%></Phone>
</Author>

<br />
<%
rs.MoveNext
Loop
%>
</Authors>
<%
rs.Close
dbConn.Close
%>