Where to start with the development of first database driven Web App (long question)?
- by Ryan
Hi all,
I've decided to develop a database driven web app, but I'm not sure where to start. The end goal of the project is three-fold: 1) to learn new technologies and practices, 2) deliver an unsolicited demo to management that would show how information that the company stores as office documents spread across a cumbersome network folder structure can be consolidated and made easier to access and maintain and 3) show my co-workers how Test Drive Development and prototyping via class diagrams can be very useful and reduces future maintenance headaches.
I think this ends up being a basic CMS to which I have generated a set of features, see below.
1) Create a database to store the site structure (organized as a tree with a 'project group'-project structure).
2) Pull the site structure from the database and display as a tree using basic front end technologies.
3) Add administrator privileges/tools for modifying the site structure.
4) Auto create required sub pages* when an admin adds a new project.
4.1) There will be several sub pages under each project and the content for each sub page is different.
5) add user privileges for assigning read and write privileges to sub pages.
What I would like to do is use Test Driven Development and class diagramming as part of my process for developing this project. My problem; I'm not sure where to start. I have read on Unit Testing and UML, but never used them in practice. Also, having never worked with databases before, how to I incorporate these items into the models and test units?
Thank you all in advance for your expertise.