What language can do this? [Programming]

[Jeroen1322]

Hi guys!

 

My school uses something called "Magister", you go to schoolwebsite.swp.nl and you then you go to a website that uses Microsoft Silverlight and you can see your grades, scedual, and you can e-mail. It is basicly a piece of software in your browser. (sorry for the bad explanation) (you can't see the source code when you right click or press F12 to inspect the element)

 

I want to make a piece of software that can just show your grades and scedual, not in a browser, a real program you can open up from your desktop. 

The school admin admin is a pretty cool guy and he can give me acces in to the source code so that won't be a problem.

 

It is just to say, "Yup i made this!" and get experience. 

 

i learned and can write these languages:

 

• HTML
• CSS
• PHP
• Javascript
• jQeury

It is all for 'the web' but i want to expend my knownledge because it think it is really interesting.

 

But what language can make a little piece of software that can get information from a database? I was thinking C# but maybe PHP?

 

 

What do you think?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

I'll edit the post later because i made spelling errors but to lazy to read it again and correct it.

 

 

[Paralectic]

Hi guys!

 

My school uses something called "Magister", you go to schoolwebsite.swp.nl and you then you go to a website that uses Microsoft Silverlight and you can see your grades, scedual, and you can e-mail. It is basicly a piece of software in your browser. (sorry for the bad explanation) (you can't see the source code when you right click or press F12 to inspect the element)

 

I want to make a piece of software that can just show your grades and scedual, not in a browser, a real program you can open up from your desktop. 

The school admin admin is a pretty cool guy and he can give me acces in to the source code so that won't be a problem.

 

It is just to say, "Yup i made this!" and get experience. 

 

i learned and can write these languages:

 

• HTML
• CSS
• PHP
• Javascript
• jQeury

It is all for 'the web' but i want to expend my knownledge because it think it is really interesting.

 

But what language can make a little piece of software that can get information from a database? I was thinking C# but maybe PHP?

 

 

What do you think?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

I'll edit the post later because i made spelling errors but to lazy to read it again and correct it.

You could work in ASP.net , combine it with jQuery/ and HTML+CSS ofcourse. you could come far with that.

[Snapy1]

Python works nice with Javascript, and I think using javascript with python would be your best shot. 

 

 

 

All you would have to do is grab the data from the Magister and then display the information in a different program

[Paralectic]

Magister vond ik trouwens altijd erg slecht en dramatisch werken :")

[madknight3]

If the school has a web service for it's database queries then any language that can do an HTTP request would work for you. If you need to remotely connect to the database directly then just make sure you can do that with the language you choose. Most should be able to do it just fine. C# or PHP would be a fine since those are what you said you'd like to do them in.

 

You'll also need MYSQL to store all the grades, scores, schedules, etc. 

Not if he's only wanting to view them.

[needmorewood]

C sharp, and python can do this

[lutzee]

Any language that has a network implementation can do it, BUT you will need to know how to interact with the server, request stuff etc.

Your current problem is Silverlight, not even Microsoft supports it now and any systems using it need to stop and convert to something else.

Next problem will be talking to the database, you will not have database access unless you have explicitly requested it. Cool? No, you need to make sure that you have ONLY read only access to the database, otherwise people will find the database logins and break stuff.

[Ciccioo]

you can do that with any programming language, so as for now your only option is to use php, but of course with it you can't do a "desktop application", unless you want to run a php interpreter on every machine that has to run the program

 

if i were you i'd just take a domain on some free hosting website (http://en.altervista.org/) and run there the php page wich will query the database, that way you can have all the fun you want with html, css, and js too building a kickass interface

it will be similar to the service that your school is already providing, but it will be without silverlight (thimbs up) and you could potentially do it better and faster and cooler and smarter and you can practise your skills with all those languages

 

 

 

[Ciccioo]

Your current problem is Silverlight, not even Microsoft supports it now and any systems using it need to stop and convert to something else.

Next problem will be talking to the database, you will not have database access unless you have explicitly requested it. Cool? No, you need to make sure that you have ONLY read only access to the database, otherwise people will find the database logins and break stuff.

silverlight is hopefully not something he will have to deal with, as it should just be an interface to the db

and setting up a user with limited provileges should be quite easy for the system administrator

 

the only thing he needs to know are the logins for that dedicated user and the structure of the db

 

edit: sorry for doubleposting, i wanted to edit the previous post, but i'm dumb

[lutzee]

silverlight is hopefully not something he will have to deal with, as it should just be an interface to the db

and setting up a user with limited provileges should be quite easy for the system administrator

 

the only thing he needs to know are the logins for that dedicated user and the structure of the db

 

edit: sorry for doubleposting, i wanted to edit the previous post, but i'm dumb

Well.. go to the sysadmin and ask, I bet they say no. Reason? Data protection. It would still be a major data leak, databases should only be spoken to locally on the server.

[Ciccioo]

Well.. go to the sysadmin and ask, I bet they say no. Reason? Data protection. It would still be a major data leak, databases should only be spoken to locally on the server.

it's not that unsafe, cracking mysql (hopefully they use that) is not something you do while you have breakfast

also, he could just enable external connections from the server on which the website is running

and the admin lets him see the the sources, i guess he's not too worried about security

[lutzee]

it's not that unsafe, cracking mysql (hopefully they use that) is not something you do while you have breakfast

also, he could just enable external connections from the server on which the website is running

and the admin lets him see the the sources, i guess he's not too worried about security

Okay, If you are running the database connections locally on a PC to the remote server, then the password has to be somewhere embedded in the binary. All one person has to do is read username/password out of the binary and/or memory. They then have read access to the database, and thus access tto all data. Bingo, massive security breach. This needs to be a system where the username/password for the database cannot be accessed.

[madknight3]

Keep in mind that this is just a personal project and not an application he is developing for the school and distributing. At least that is my understanding from the original post. He should consider security, yes, but it's not that big a deal if it isn't bulletproof. 

[Ciccioo]

Okay, If you are running the database connections locally on a PC to the remote server, then the password has to be somewhere embedded in the binary. All one person has to do is read username/password out of the binary and/or memory. They then have read access to the database, and thus access tto all data. Bingo, massive security breach. This needs to be a system where the username/password for the database cannot be accessed.

it's not locally on a pc, i suggested to place it on a free hosting service

and what do they do if they steal the login? as i said, the user would only be allowed to connect from the specific IP of the server, no bingo

[SirPaul]

Hm, you can go with java, and just get certain websites objects (div, image ..) and parse them to your program.,

As easiest idea.

[Ciccioo]

Hm, you can go with java, and just get certain websites objects (div, image ..) and parse them to your program.,

As easiest idea.

the problem would be that they're using silverlight, so there is no div to parse

[SirPaul]

the problem would be that they're using silverlight, so there is no div to parse

Aha, good to know thanks

[SirPaul]

the problem would be that they're using silverlight, so there is no div to parse

Aha, good to know thanks