Server side development tools

[barrow_matt]

I am new to server side development and my experience is limited to some fairly simple PHP to execute and display an SQL query. My experience is mostly Delphi and C#. Basically I am able to program the required functionality in Visual Studio C#, but need to build this as a server side web app.

Cross platform (linux) would be an advantage although all development work would be in Windows as i'm more comfortable with it.

I would like opinions and comments regarding development environments and tools for feature rich web pages with database access too. Also access to a native DLL may be required to write data from the page to a serial port device (Custom device).

Options seem to be:

PHP
ASP.Net / Silverlight (cross platform?)
Java / Javascript
Eclipse? (I downloaded this but don't really know what it does!)

Any comments or advice much appreciated.

Regards,

Matt

[PeejAvery]

PHP is a scripting language. Currently, there are no true really strong development environments for it. There are some really nice code completion and snippet IDEs. The beauty here is great documentation available all across the internet.

ASP.NET and Silverlight have Visual Studio to get you working. Don't worry about cross platform with ASP.NET because it is a server-side language. The client doesn't matter because the data is handled by the server first. This would be a good step for you since you already have C# at your disposal. With that as the case, converting to a web app should be easy since you have the whole .NET framework at your disposal.

Java and JavaScript are two completely separate languages. JavaScript is simply a client-side language originally created to make web pages a bit more interactive. Java would require you to load applets on the client machine.

Eclipse isn't a language at all. It started as an IDE for the Java language. But, later they added frameworks and some other tools for development.

[barrow_matt]

Thanks for the response, I have downloaded Visual Studio Web Developer Express and it does have a seemingly easy use. I was aware Eclipse was a Java IDE, and was expecting it to be like Visual Studio, when it wasn't I was stuck!

I will consider PHP also as I like the flexibility it offers.

What may be the deciding factor would be the ability to use a client side DLL to send data from the page, that sounds more achievable in ASP.NET?

Matt

[TheCPUWizard]

ASP.NET and Silverlight have Visual Studio to get you working. Don't worry about cross platform with ASP.NET because it is a server-side language. The client doesn't matter because the data is handled by the server first. This would be a good step for you since you already have C# at your disposal. With that as the case, converting to a web app should be easy since you have the whole .NET framework at your disposal..

There are some issues with some "off-brand" browsers, especially older ones, but in 6+ years of using ASP.NET (2+ SilverLight include pre-release), it has not been an problem.

[PeejAvery]

What may be the deciding factor would be the ability to use a client side DLL to send data from the page, that sounds more achievable in ASP.NET?

In PHP6, they are working on a way to make DLL reference calls. However, in the current PHP builds, this is not yet available.

[DrCoolSanta]

DLLs and you are thinking about cross platformness?
May I know what you exactly want to do with that.

For now, I prefer PHP above the rest because of the freeness and the documentation, and because it is very easy and similar to C / C++

However I can't exactly say much about your DLL needs, I don't know much about ASP but if that is possible with ASP then use.
ASP may not seem cross-platform but only the server needs to be windows with ASP and all, the clients can use any browser and any OS of their choice.

Note: If you are more confortable with C# and Delphi then you might prefer using programsa compiled with them with CGI. Not as advanced and as good as Server side languages but atleast it hides your code from any hackers and it gives you a little more freedom as you have access to much more part of the program. You may look into CGI, even though most results on google would be about perl.
Basically if your console application prints Hello World (lets call it hello.exe in C: drive) then a file hello.cgi with contents "#!C:\hello.exe" shows Hello World

[barrow_matt]

DLLs and you are thinking about cross platformness?
May I know what you exactly want to do with that.

Yes I realised that after i posted! Currently our hardware only operates on Windows and Windows CE anyway.

Cross-platform not really required when i think of the additional functionality.

I think i'll try a parallel development in ASP.NET and PHP see which one I pick-up best, the same way I am evaluating Oracle Express and Firebird in parallel. My system requirement is quite a simple demonstrator.

Matt

[PeejAvery]

Wait a second...You posted in the server-side forum. Why do you need to worry about cross-platform development if your implementation is on a server? If you are programming for a server, it doesn't matter what OS your clients you are using!

[paulmatt]

Oracle Express is limited to 1Gb memory usage, so won't scale up. This may not be a problem if you're never going to have many users on it.