So you want to be a Web Developer? (Part 3/4)

So we've covered the front-end and back-end aspects of web development. And, as mentioned in the last segment, we're going to delve into databases.

Unless you're only planning to create static websites, which in this day and age isn't really feasible as a career choice, at some point or other you're going to have to deal with databases, or at least a data source. Some databases are more suitable than others - it all really depends on the scale of what you're trying to accomplish. An enterprise-level application might require SQLServer, whereas MS Access is probably better for a simple disposable solution.

Again, as with back-end scripting languages, learn one database platform, preferably two.

- MySQL (http://www.mysql.com/)
- SQLServer (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/sql-server/)
- MS Access (https://products.office.com/en-SG/access)
- DB2 (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/db2/)
- Oracle (http://www.oracle.com/index.html)

 

What you must know

- SQL (well, duh)
- Views
- Indexing
- Stored Procedures
- Database security
- Normalization

Good-to-haves

The following aren't absolutely necessary, but if databases are going to be your specialty, you could do worse!

Do have a look at CSV, JSON and XML as alternative modes of data storage and transfer.

MS Excel is a spreadsheet application, but through the years it's picked up a heft amount of added functionality. Worth a gander. (https://products.office.com/en-us/excel)

LinQ is an alternative to SQL. (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-sg/library/bb397926.aspx)

NoSQL databases such as MongoDB and Redis. They seem to be the in-thing now. For a more comprehensive listing of NoSQL databases, see this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoSQL).

What are my career options?

If you're going to do only databases, why go into web development at all? There's demand for database administrators all around.

Next

Coming up, the final ingredient needed to be a web developer. Stay tuned!