What tools should I use?

[Guest]

Hi,

I'm going to be developing a small web interface that will be extending a
Pervasive SQL application. Basically it will need to login with user's
credentials and then query the Pervasive database app, play with the queried
data, and then present the info on a web site for the user to see. I won't
be changing any information in the database just presenting it. I've been
doing VB programming with Visual Studio 6, but this is my first Web project
and I need to know what would be the best set of tools to use for a project
like this.

I was thinking about getting Visual Studio .Net as I can qualify for the
Acedemic version, but from what I've read the Pro/Acedemic version does not
support developing for any other databases except MS SQL. Is that really
true? The Enterprise version is really expensive. Should I even be using a
IDE like Visual Studio or would a project like this work fine in FrontPage or
DreamWeaver etc...

Thanks
Cameron

 

[Guest]

web matrix is free.

 

[Nick Malik]

Hello Cameron,

There are a number of open source IDEs for .NET that are available for free
if you want to save money.
Any of them will work for you.

As far as database access goes, you will need a driver (either OLEDB or
ODBC) to call your database from .net. If you have the driver, you should
not have any difficulty using the pro edition of visual studio. I do not
know, but I suspect, that you may be just fine with the academic edition as
well.

Personally, I use visual studio and I very much enjoy it. There are a
great many features that are useful. Visual studio has excellent support
for web applications. I would NOT recommend attempting to use a web
development tool like Dreamweaver or even Frontpage, to do web application
development. There are just a few too many useful shortcuts that are not
available unless you are using an IDE.

I would recommend Visual Studio Pro for your needs.

--- Nick