In module 3, I was introduced to SQL (Structured Query Language), which powers databases that store user information from web forms and other information gathering tools. In this portion of the class, Dr.Crowley showed his students PHPMyAdmin, an utility on CPanel that lets the user manage, add, or delete databases and tables. From there, Codecademy served as the place to go to for SQL tutorials with W3Schools to provide more detail. Several chapters from Larry Ullmans book were also covered to learn more about SQL and its syntax. Video lessons are utlized again in module 3, but this time the instructor is Bucky Roberts from thenewboston Youtube channel. His SQL series taught everything people needed to know to use SQL.
Bucky Roberts Youtube videos and W3Schools really helped in module 3. The syntax was different from PHP and the format was nothing like HTML and CSS. Since SQL was entirely new to me, Bucky explained the concepts very well and made SQL very easy to understand. W3Schools added more clarification to everything that I did in Codecademy. The extra assignment that integrated PHP and SQL together really made them shine once both worked as one.
The weakest part of this module for me was the Codecademy tutorial. It may be straight forward syntax wise, but I found myself being lost until I looked at other resources to understand it. The pacing was odd and teaching the content was not very effective to me.
Click here for my webpage about PHP101. I chose this page to represent my third module because it showcases multiple instances that PHP and SQL work together to create forms and carry the form information to databases created with SQL. The page also has a program that reads an external file and displays the contents using PHP. Screenshots of the code are also available on the webpage.
