Beyond the tutorials & pulling data from webpages
Hey guys. So, I'm a noob. I just finished all of the tutorials, and I'm wanting to get started on my first non-tutorial program.
I work a job where I receive calls from customers. We have a program that pulls up account information on the customer in Internet Explorer based on their phone number. We are required to take notes on each call. Most of our notes are the same. I would like to write a program that, when I activate it, can check for the name of the customer in IE, add it to the notes, let me choose default notes from a dropdown (with a final option of "other" that let's me enter custom notes), then has a button that can check for, and add the ticket number in IE when I tell it to, and, finally, can structure the notes, and add it to my clipboard, a notepad, or both.
So far, I don't know anything about gui, dropdowns, or intractables. I only know a little about outputting to a file. Finally, I tried looking into parsing a webpage for specific data, but came across stuff that either, was meant for another operation, pointed me towards another language, or was just simply too advanced for me to understand.
Where should I start? I've gone through all the tutorials, but I still feel like I haven't broken past the entry barrier. Is this normal? Did I miss something?
I work a job where I receive calls from customers. We have a program that pulls up account information on the customer in Internet Explorer based on their phone number. We are required to take notes on each call. Most of our notes are the same. I would like to write a program that, when I activate it, can check for the name of the customer in IE, add it to the notes, let me choose default notes from a dropdown (with a final option of "other" that let's me enter custom notes), then has a button that can check for, and add the ticket number in IE when I tell it to, and, finally, can structure the notes, and add it to my clipboard, a notepad, or both.
So far, I don't know anything about gui, dropdowns, or intractables. I only know a little about outputting to a file. Finally, I tried looking into parsing a webpage for specific data, but came across stuff that either, was meant for another operation, pointed me towards another language, or was just simply too advanced for me to understand.
Where should I start? I've gone through all the tutorials, but I still feel like I haven't broken past the entry barrier. Is this normal? Did I miss something?
The short answer to your question is that you now need to learn how to find and use libraries.
The longer answer is that running a program on an Operating System generally requires you to use that OS libraries and API to get it to do things for you. Connecting to networks and creating windows on the screen and all sorts of things.
Doing all that yourself is difficult. Takes a lot of knowledge. A lot of time. A lot of experience.
Other people have written libraries, providing classes and functions for you to use, that will do a lot of that heavy lifting for you.
Libraries that come to mind for what you have talked about are https://curl.haxx.se/ for fetching webpages, and https://www.qt.io/ for making GUIs.
You've learned the syntax of the C++ language. To use a painful analogy, you've learned how to use a saw and a hammer and a tape-measure, and now you've realised that while you have the tools to turn a pile of building materials into a house, you've no idea how to actually do so. I'm afraid that learning the syntax of a programming language is just the beginning; it's just enough that now you can start learning how to program.
The longer answer is that running a program on an Operating System generally requires you to use that OS libraries and API to get it to do things for you. Connecting to networks and creating windows on the screen and all sorts of things.
Doing all that yourself is difficult. Takes a lot of knowledge. A lot of time. A lot of experience.
Other people have written libraries, providing classes and functions for you to use, that will do a lot of that heavy lifting for you.
Libraries that come to mind for what you have talked about are https://curl.haxx.se/ for fetching webpages, and https://www.qt.io/ for making GUIs.
You've learned the syntax of the C++ language. To use a painful analogy, you've learned how to use a saw and a hammer and a tape-measure, and now you've realised that while you have the tools to turn a pile of building materials into a house, you've no idea how to actually do so. I'm afraid that learning the syntax of a programming language is just the beginning; it's just enough that now you can start learning how to program.
Thank you! That answer clarified a lot for me. It's admittedly, a little bit of a depressing realization, but, at least I know how to face it now.
I would like to focus on the operation aspect before moving on to the gui portion. Therefore, I would be starting to look into CURL first. That said, I have already heard about CURL, and all the "beginner" articles that I'm finding seem to be by people with a lot of experience for people with a lot of experience. I'm perfectly ok, with jumping in the deep end and having to google most of what I read as I read it, BUT I also don't want to jump in the "ocean" (for lack of a better analogy).
To avoid this, I was wondering if you knew of a good spot for me to start learning it? A lot of tutorials and lessons that I'm finding on it seem to be geared for other platforms and languages. I'm starting to get the sense that I should also learn the syntax of the other languages BEFORE I move on to any further steps. Is this the wrong idea to take?
I would like to focus on the operation aspect before moving on to the gui portion. Therefore, I would be starting to look into CURL first. That said, I have already heard about CURL, and all the "beginner" articles that I'm finding seem to be by people with a lot of experience for people with a lot of experience. I'm perfectly ok, with jumping in the deep end and having to google most of what I read as I read it, BUT I also don't want to jump in the "ocean" (for lack of a better analogy).
To avoid this, I was wondering if you knew of a good spot for me to start learning it? A lot of tutorials and lessons that I'm finding on it seem to be geared for other platforms and languages. I'm starting to get the sense that I should also learn the syntax of the other languages BEFORE I move on to any further steps. Is this the wrong idea to take?
libcurl is easily used with C++.
Here's a very simple example of fetching a web page:
https://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/c/simple.html
If you can get that working, you're half way done.
Here's a very simple example of fetching a web page:
https://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/c/simple.html
If you can get that working, you're half way done.
Do download a file you can use URLDownloadToFile - no need for any library
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms775123(v=vs.85).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms775123(v=vs.85).aspx
Topic archived. No new replies allowed.