SMLP - Evaluation

In A8 – iMe I feel I have not preformed to my full capability, even though I am happy with how the end product of the assignment turned out. This is mainly due to how I managed my time during the course of the Self Managed Learning Plan (SMLP). I am also not happy with how I recorded my progress of learning PHP and MySQL, as I did not show all the work I did whilst learning the languages. This is something I should automatically be doing anyway, as it is what I have done on all the previous course assignments.

With my time management I did not commit to my SMLP right from the first stage and after I completed learning outcome one, I concentrated on my other assignment and left a gap before starting learning outcome two. This was a stupid mistake and when I came to starting learning outcome two, I was already behind schedule. This then put the rest of the assignment behind schedule, and when I came to starting the third learning outcome; I was under a lot of stress. This was because I realised how little time I had left to complete the assignment and I didn’t feel ready to create the website for learning outcome three.

Time management is something I should have mastered by now and I feel really disappointed with myself for letting it slip on this assignment. I suppose this wasn’t just due to time management, but also my commitment to the SMLP and other assignments. I really need to work on dividing my time equally between assignments and not concentrating on the most appealing one or the one that needs submitting first.

On the SMLP I put that I would spend 10 hours on each of learning outcome one and two. This did not go to plan and I only spent five hours on learning outcome one, but I spent around fifteen hours on learning outcome four. This is due to bad planning of the SMLP as I did not take into account how long the the weekly journal entries for learning outcome four would take.

For the self managed learning plan I said I would spend more time creating skills using PHP and MySQL than creating the final product. This is something I am pleased with choosing, as I feel it was better to create the necessary skills required to create the website before hand, than trying to learn the skills whilst building the website.

When learning PHP and MySQL, I kept examples of the tutorials I had followed on my computer, but didn’t record them all in my illustrated learning diary. This was a foolish thing to do, as I knew I had done them but could not prove them to anyone else. This was mainly due to me enjoying creating the tutorials and forgetting to evidence them.

When designing the website, I went for a simple design as the client asked for. I feel I could have done more with the design as it just feels like there should be more too it. I changed the design slightly and instead of having a single page website; I’ve now added another page. There are now separate pages for landscape and portrait images, this allows the images to fit together more comfortably and give the website more alignment. This was fairly simple to do but requires two upload bars, for the separate pages.

I have really enjoyed learning PHP and MySQL and was happy with how the end product turned out. I still feel I need to learn more about both the languages before I would be confident using them properly and will hopefully get that chance during the rest of the course.

If I was to do the assignment again I would take more time in planning the SMLP, so I can be sure that following it will enable me to create the required product in adequate time. I would also make sure I documented all my work properly, so I can fully show the progress I’m making with the code.

There are many things about the way I work and manage myself that I can take from this assignment and use in the future. I know have a better idea how I manage my time when there is not timeline to stick to. I also have a better idea of the way I learn new things, such as programming languages and can use that in the future when I’m learning new things.

Work count: 755

Week 4

This week has been slightly more relaxed and more how I’d pictured the SMLP would have gone, if it went too plan. Most off the stress I was under last week has worn off and I’ve enjoyed the steady pace of work this week. This week has mainly been used to put the final style to the photo gallery and test all the features to make sure they are working properly.

There has been one change to my original design, instead of having a single page website; I’ve now added another page. There are now separate pages for landscape and portrait images, this allows the images to fit together more comfortably and give the website more alignment. For the two separate pages I had to create two upload functions so the landscape and portrait images could be uploaded to different folders.

The testing has gone well, I only had to change a few little bits and now feel the website works very well. I was having problems with one bit of code for the sessions on the login feature and after a while of trying to find the problem, I realised it was something simple and I’d just forgot to put PHP at the start of the code! I also tested the website in the popular browsers and after a bit of messing about with the CSS the website is viewable in IE6 as well.

I am happy with how the gallery has turned out; especially as two weeks ago I thought I had tried to do too much for the SMLP. The only thing I would change would be the layout as I feel I could have done more with it.

Word count: 282

Week 3

Up until today at college, this week has yet again been an unproductive week. I’ve found it really hard to get the PHP codes I’d practiced within the first couple of weeks, too work whilst on a server. That’s put me under a lot of stress, and I keep thinking I set myself too much to do at the start of the self managed learning plan. This was made worse when I realised I needed to add more work to the load, and include a login system to the photo gallery, so only authorised people can upload to the website. This was something I’d thought about but stupidly not researched into, so when I came to creating the login, I didn’t have a clue where to start.

The login system has taken up most of my time this week and put me behind schedule a fair way. It feels like I’ve had problems at every stage of creating the login, first I could not connect to the data base, and then I couldn’t start a session, after conformation of correct user and password from the database. After that I couldn’t hide the upload field from unauthorised people and so on. It felt like every time I finally got something to work, there was a problem with something else.

I finally got the login working in the morning at college after spending all the previous night correcting problems. It was a real burden of my shoulders, as at points the previous night I’d thought about scraping the login all together and just including a password field with the upload script. I’m really glad I didn’t give up with the login though as all the work has paid off and I feel quite proud with myself for getting it done.

My next task now, was to create the code to display the images from the folders onto the gallery page. Again this was something I’d not got to work previously and was one of the main bits of code the gallery needs to work. I spent most of today at college researching and trying different codes and after a few hours I finally got it to work. This was also causing me plenty of stress and I’m feeling a lot better now as all the PHP code is working.

For the final week all I need to do is finish styling the website and prepare everything for hand in next week.

Word count: 409

Week 2

This week has seemed to be far more unproductive than I’d have wished. I’ve spent all week trying to get to grips with using PHP and MySQL together that I feel like I’ve done little work all week and haven’t progressed much since last week. Some of the problems I was encountering with adding data to a MySQL database were due to the WAMP server I’ve installed on my laptop. So I decided to upload them on my webhost and try them there, but came across even more problems with the webhost. I now have to purchase a new webhosting package from a different company and waste time messing about setting the new account up.

Thursday at college also felt like I didn’t achieved much when I spent all day trying to figure out how to create the code to upload an image to the MySQL data base. This was the main reason for me to try my webhost when my WAMP server would not allow me to input data into a data base, so I’m still not sure whether the code I spent all day on will work.

This has really increased my stress levels, with time running out fast and the fact I’m finding it very hard to understand the PHP code used to upload to a database. That coupled with the problems encountered this week and the reality that I still don’t know how to display data from a database on a webpage, makes me think that I set myself too much of a task in my SMLP. I’m going to put a lot of time into this photo gallery and I really want to get it working the way I planned, but at this moment in time I feel I have too much to do and no were near enough time to do it in.

The only obvious progress I’ve made this week is with the design of the photo gallery as I now have a design for the webpage, I’ve kept the layout simple, but that’s how the client wants it. I hope the next week goes more to plan and enables me to progress to a stage were the photo gallery is coming together and I will know I can get it complete to the level I first planned.

Word Count: 385

Week 1

The first week has given me a good insight into the number of jobs available in the local area and also how many of them require some knowledge of PHP. This makes me feel learning PHP was the right choice as I will be more employable. I also found that may jobs look for the knowledge of MySQL as addition to PHP so this also increases my employability.

The first week has also given me a good introduction into PHP and MySQL, but I feel reading the code from the book is not enabling me to learn and remember the code fluently as I learn better from a trial and error method. I have only just got to the stage of copying code from the book and trying to understand what everything does and I feel next week will be a lot more beneficial to me as I’m going to start finding out what the code actually does. For this I’ll start by doing some tutorials and playing with the code to see what happens and what changes occur to the outcome.

Next week will see the start of the design process of the photo gallery website I have chosen to do for my SMLP. I have planned to create a photo gallery for a photography student to use as a portfolio. The website will include an upload feature so the student is able to upload their work without the need to edit the website. At this point I feel that I may have tried to do too much as I have little PHP knowledge and think the upload feature may be beyond what I can achieve in the time I have.

I have also come to realize how little time I have left to create the website as there are only three weeks left and I’m still not very confident with coding PHP and MySQL and to add to that I still need to design the website and record the process of it. This next week could make or break my SMLP as I need to really crack on with the design of the website and get a good knowledge of PHP and MySQL so I’m able to get to a position where I feel comfortable with creating the website.

Word Count: 383

Learning Outcome 1 – PHP in industry

PHP was originally created in 1994 and has become one of the most widely used languages, been used on over 20 million websites, with the vast majority of employers recognising this. There are now many jobs within the Interactive Media Industry that require the knowledge and skill to code PHP. Not too long ago PHP was usually a skill associated with programmers; but it has now come to be a commonly needed skill by developers as the uses of PHP in the industry are increasing.

Using itjobswatch.co.uk statistics I have seen that the jobs requiring PHP in West Yorkshire have increased 20% in the last 6 months, with a rise in the Wakefield area of 50%. This shows there is a real demand for people with PHP skills, there are also a large number of jobs currently going in the Wakefield districts and that figure expands vastly if I were to commute a short distance.

Using the same website I found the most needed relating skill to PHP is MySQL with 62% of jobs requiring PHP; look for people with the ability to code MySQL. This shows that learning both PHP and MySQL would increases job prospects by a fair amount.

The majority of jobs looked at required some experience with the use of PHP usually around one year’s worth. This shows that self taught skills are not enough; they need backing up with experience and a portfolio of some kind. This may be hard to come by and may require some freelance work to create a portfolio with.

Jobs in the Interactive Media Industry vary from the junior roles to the senior manager roles. Someone going into the Interactive Media Industry can expect a long career span starting in a junior role and been able to work their way through different levels of jobs depending on experience. There are also many opportunities available to develop into different job roles, from designer to developer or developer to programmer.

Summary
PHP is a widely used programming language and is highly recognised and required by companies in the Interactive Media Industry. I feel learning PHP with MySQL alongside it, will enable me to have greater job prospects within the industry. They are not the only skills I would require but they do make up a large part of the required job skills I would need to work within the industry and should increases my employability chance.

Word Count: 410

Self Managed Learning Plan

For the Self Managed Learning Plan (SMLP) I will be learning PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor). PHP will allow me to create more dynamic websites, since the language can be used for many things, from making the website more appealing with photo galleries and feedback forms, or creating more advanced features such as shopping baskets and forums.

After searching through a number of jobsites I found that the vast majority of available employers required you to know how to code PHP. Learning PHP now will give me a higher chance of gaining employment after this course.

After some research I have found that a large amount of people who learnt PHP said it was easy to pick up. So it makes me more confident that I too will be able to pick up PHP without too many problems.

It also has many similarities to other programming languages, such as C, Java and Perl. So after learning PHP I will have an opportunity to expand my knowledge into these other languages. This will increases my employment prospects if I venture into other languages.

There are many tutorial websites available online along with a number of dedicated books that I will be able to use to learn PHP.

I will also learn MySQL (Structured Query Language) alongside PHP as the two languages work together and will enable the use of databases alongside the website.

I feel learning PHP for my SMLP is the correct choice because:

• It will enable me to create more dynamic websites.
• There are many employment prospects for people with PHP skills.
• It is easy to learn.
• It has similarities with other programming languages.
• There are many tutorial resources available.

SMLP Resource List

Here is my list of resources I will use whilst learning PHP and MySQL:

1. PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide

Many reviews I read about this book said it was easily accessible by beginners and gave them a very good understanding of PHP and MySQL. This should be very useful to get me started with the languages.

2. PHP In Easy Steps

This book comes with many examples of PHP and shows the main features of the language. Many reviews say it was easy to follow and a definite for PHP beginners.

3. http://php.net/

This is the home of PHP and will come in useful with the PHP Manual section, which has a language reference and getting started section.

4. http://w3schools.com/

I have used this website before and found it very useful as it splits the tutorials down into easy to follow sections and has many examples of using the different syntax. This site also has plenty to help me along with MySQL.

5. http://tizag.com/

There seems to be plenty of information about PHP on this site, with sections that guide you gradually through learning the basics. There is also a more advanced PHP section and a tutorial on MySQL I will be able to use.

6. http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/php/php.html

This website looks very useful with many different sections on PHP and plenty of examples to try myself.

7. http://www.webmonkey.com

Another useful website which looks to gradually bring you into writing PHP from the basics with examples.

8. http://phpfreaks.com/

There are many tutorials on this website to have a go at once I get the basics of PHP out of the way. Using these should help improve and extend my PHP skills.