My Web Adventure
I wanted to be in web world for a long time. I remember I got a free web site that is saptech from freeservers.com almost 4 or 5 years ago. Although I didn’t know not too much about HTML and other stuff, I was very eager to publish something on internet about my job and my works. It worked for a while. But you know advertisements and other pop-ups were very boring.
And then I discovered blog world last year. I had been very busy to learn Java in those days. So I discovered jroller.com that is a web site where Java developers meet. I got a blog from jroller.com. It is Tuncay Karaca’s Blog. I liked to publish an online diary on internet. It is enjoying. Also I got an other blog Kültür Bahçesi from blogspot.com. I have been copying - pasting Turkish articles about culture, literature, etc… from Turkish Newspapers and Magazines. It is like an archive work for me.
I believe I learned too much about HTML, CSS, JavaScript to create static web pages. I created a web site FSA Tech Team and I have been updating this web site for almost 3 months. I used Macromedia Dreamweaver to create HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Even I tried to create AJAX technology for a web page. I have been looking several web sites about web technologies. One of my favorites is W3 Schools.
But it was not enough. Next step was to get my own domain, hosting, web site, blog, etc… I had some knowledge about web terms like domain, hosting, etc… But I had to learn more about them. Whenever I got a chance, I talked my friends about web technologies and I read magazines, articles about web world. There were lots of questions: What is a domain? How can be gotten a domain name? Is there difference a domain name and web address? Where I should buy a domain name? What are criterions to buy a domain name? What is the hosting? What are hosting criterions?
Getting a domain name is not a problem, but there are several options to get hosting. I was willing to develop dynamic web page and I learned I had to use Server-Side scripting language. So I had to choose hosting service related to scripting options. What are scripting options? ASP, JSP, PHP… ASP means Microsoft, JSP means Sun/Java. PHP means open source.
Since I am a SAP ABAP Developer, I had known that SAP is switching Java beside ABAP. So I believed JSP was going to be the best choice. I started to look JSP Hosting firms. After so long research and waiting, I realized that JSP – Java hosting is too expensive in comparison to ASP and PHP hosting. It was very frustrating.
What about ASP. I didn’t choose ASP hosting. I tried some ASP codes. If you want to write ASP code, you have to get Microsoft IIS. The problem is you cannot install IIS to Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition. You have to get Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition. What an interesting situation! One of the other reasons I didn’t choose ASP hosting is Microsoft. Firstly let me tell you that it is not an objective reason. The reason is I don’t have good feelings about Microsoft and its products. Why? I truly don’t know. It is just a feeling. But in addition to that, I can tell I like Microsoft Windows XP, Office programs and MS SQL Server. At last even though I have friends who are ASP developers, I did not choose ASP hosting.
My choice is PHP hosting. Why? There are several reasons. Firstly I found out that PHP is wide-used scripting language in web development. Secondly open source community is a big community. Therefore since there are many online helpers, I thought it is going to be easy to learn PHP. Thirdly I realized there are many great open source web products written in PHP; for instance WordPress, PHPNuke, etc… Also MySQL is a free option as a database. Let me come my special reason to choose PHP hosting. It is Andrew Kontor. He is an USA TODAY columnist. I like to read his simple but impressive technology articles. The special reason specifically is his article called “What’s in a name? Perhaps a good gift”.
The end of the adventure: I bought a domain name itcserver.com and PHP hosting from TotalChoice Hosting. I plan to develop a web page for my job. My job is Information Technology Consulting. It is a job serves. So web site name is IT Consulting Server Whenever someone do a new thing, people say in Turkish “Hayırlı Olsun İnşallah”. It means we wish it brings weal and happiness to you in God Permission.
Tags: Web
February 22nd, 2006 at 1:32 am
Thank you, for telling us the whole duration of deciding what environment to use and what languages, programs to learn on the way of being a qualified web developer. The experiences of an expert have been always very important and beneficial for novices. Like you, I don’t have sincere feelings for MS products. either. But, since we are surrounded with them, we must use and learn them. According to your article, I should review my decisions about web-development-self-training.
Thanx again,
I wish success in your endeavours…
February 22nd, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Ismail,
I totally aggree with you about MS products. Although there are alternative products for MS products, MS is one of the biggest players in IT world. MS cannot be ignored completely. Plase always share your decisions and experiences with me!
February 23rd, 2006 at 8:45 pm
Thanks for the kind things you said about my writing — I’m glad you like it (and I hope you get a lot of good use out of your Web site)!
February 24th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Hello, I want to ask about the language problems we might have when using PHP and mySQL. I heard that there may be some difficulties about displaying characters other than English. For example, if I intend to build a Turkish website, I should venture some misprocesses of Turkish letters via PHP and mySQL. Dotted I’s could be shown and stored as “Y” characters. Is there full compatibility for Turkish language or not? Does mySQL have the ability to store Turkish characters 100% properly? I’d like to hear your comments.
Thank ‘u…
February 26th, 2006 at 9:47 am
Andrew Kantor,
I am very excited that you commented my blog. Thank you for your interest.
I am wondering how you found my blog. I just checked Awstats statistics but I could not find any search engine reaches for a couple past days. I know that itcserver.com was not indexed yet by any search engine (google, yahoo, msn, etc..). I just put a link on my jroller blog and blogger.com shows some posts.
I looked all search engines information; indexing, keywords, ping services, etc… It’s my recent one of works to place my blog in seach engines. I will do it as soon as possible.
Thank you for a your kind comment.
March 1st, 2006 at 6:57 am
Ismail,
I have not very much experience with MySQL but I think it supports Turkish character set. Many Turkish news sites which I guess even you read them frequently was developed in PHP and I guess they use MySQL as a database. For example: internethaber, haber7, Aksiyon, etc…
MySQL Developer Zone says here:
Even you find more technical information here.
I am wondering if I write the Turkish letters here, how they will appear in my comment. Let me try:
Capital Turkish Letters: İ Ş Ç Ü Ğ Ö
Lowercase Turkish Letters: ı ş ç ü ğ ö
March 7th, 2006 at 8:42 am
[...] So I had to show all web world that there is a new born baby “itcserver.com” here, it is going to be grown up and become a professional website. Please take care of it, give a place for it in your servers. As far as I know only Blogger is familiar with blog.itcserver.com. I don’t know how became really fast familiar with it. But no any other big brothers (google, yahoo, msn, technorati) recognize it. Since there is no easy way to reach my blog, I am also still wondering how Andrew Kantor found my blog and left a comment. [...]