Hi guys, the last time I made a website was over a decade ago using dreamweaver 2 so its probably an understatement to say that fairly I'm out of the loop as far as current technology goes...
I can write code... sort of/badly... my day job doesn't involve writing code though is in software and does involve sometimes reading other people's code, writing specs, testing/approving fixes or enhancements. I'm not a complete tech n00b or anything though I have very little to do with teh interwebs...
I've got a few ideas for personal projects one involves a site mostly hosting an application and the other a more general information type site (maybe even including a small forum).
I was just wondering what I should start with as far as creating websites is concerned these days - there is no deadline here and I'm in no rush to whack together a professional looking site or anything, am quite happy to put together a semi-reasonable looking thing in my own time - just looking for recommendations on technologies to start with/tutorials to work through etc... it doesn't need all bangs and whistles (at least not yet anyway) though these would be site I'd like to keep adding to/enhancing. Apologies if this is a bit vague/generic...
A host with Wordpress and then install said Wordpress, Themes/Skins are readily available for free or paid for, there is a wide choice, whatever you decide to settle with can be modded later to your requirements.
What Bacon said basically. A CMS is the best tool these days, for a novice or a pro. Wordpress is extremely easy to install and use (some hosts offer one-click install type services on things like Wordpress) and as Bacon pointed out there are many quality user-submitted free skins/themes and plugins available direct from the Wordpress site to enable you to accomplish virtually anything you need on the site.
What about silverlight?
Ive recently started using it at work and it seems extremely powerful for creating a web based application. Essentially you can host any windows like application on the web, brilliantly useful although maybe more so for business applications.
Also, XAML (the GUI scripting language for Silverlight and WPF is the suprs3x)
Quote from: sexytw on September 04, 2011, 02:18:34 AM
What about silverlight?
Ive recently started using it at work and it seems extremely powerful for creating a web based application. Essentially you can host any windows like application on the web, brilliantly useful although maybe more so for business applications.
Also, XAML (the GUI scripting language for Silverlight and WPF is the suprs3x)
Considering Microsoft are already ditching it in their applications... No :)
HTML5 all the way for online applications. Why would you use it anyway for a website? It would be the same as saying make a site in flash. Only good flash site is marketing / advert based sites for things like nike etc not actual websites.
I would agree with Nexus, Silverlight is a dead-end, proprietary dodo, it doesn't even work well where it's used on Xbox.com. :lol:
HTML 5 is the future.
Also, give these guys a try: http://www.squarespace.com/ - it's all WYSIWYG, easy if you're used to tools like Dreamweaver. :)
I also believe that Silverlight, like flash is not supported on iPad/Phone, HTML5 is..
Quote from: XEntity on September 05, 2011, 10:15:07 AM
I also believe that Silverlight, like flash is not supported on iPad/Phone, HTML5 is..
This is true :)
The Wordpress advice is good but I'll repeat the warning I was given.
Once you're beyond the basics, you can spend as long modifying the template as you would coding it up yourself.
Quote from: Nimrod on September 05, 2011, 15:38:46 PM
The Wordpress advice is good but I'll repeat the warning I was given.
Once you're beyond the basics, you can spend as long modifying the template as you would coding it up yourself.
And I will say what I always say -
If you want to develop site and want anything more the basics then you need to know to web design and develop - or go to a professional.
Just the same with plumbing etc. You do some things on your car, you can get better but when you need something done proerly you go to a mechanic.
The advatage of Wordpress even with the possibilities of spending as much time tinkering as you would designing yourself, is that you always have that framework CMS in place. You can invest as much time and effort into any site, whatever the platform, but if you don't have that platform there its a whole lot more difficult.
Quote from: neXus on September 05, 2011, 20:33:09 PM
Quote from: Nimrod on September 05, 2011, 15:38:46 PM
The Wordpress advice is good but I'll repeat the warning I was given.
Once you're beyond the basics, you can spend as long modifying the template as you would coding it up yourself.
And I will say what I always say -
If you want to develop site and want anything more the basics then you need to know to web design and develop - or go to a professional.
Just the same with plumbing etc. You do some things on your car, you can get better but when you need something done proerly you go to a mechanic.
Well those professionals all had to start somewhere - its not like there is some institute with a royal charter and professional exams involved here.... I'm interested in learning a bit about webdesign in the process and the fact is that I will likely want to tinker with stuff. Then again I guess I should learn to use some sort of CMS.
I am quite interested in what you guys tend to use - especially people like Nige/Nexus - do you guys use wordpress etc.. ?
Most of my work is done on the commercial software Sam originally wrote, which is a kind of CMS as well. But For smaller projects I've done outside of that I've used both Joomla and Wordpress, these days I would only use Wordpress though simply because the ease of modification, support and plugins/themes available for it are so much better than any other free CMS from my experience. the fact that it is the most popular right now seems to confirm that. I'm currently working on sites for a major record label and the associated artists using Wordpress.
Cheers - I'm going to taking a look at both wordpress and joomla (though I'm guessing I'll end up going with wordpress from what you've said)
Quote from: skidzilla on September 05, 2011, 00:57:33 AM
Also, give these guys a try: http://www.squarespace.com/ - it's all WYSIWYG, easy if you're used to tools like Dreamweaver. :)
thanks, I'll take a look
I downloaded Nvu actually as I wanted to have a free WYSIWYG type tool to play around with - but I guess I'll likely be tinkering around with code anyway tbh...
Joomla is powerful, but has less frequent updates and is far more complicated to work with, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that doesn't have previous experience with the web or CMS systems. The only time I would recommend it is for a large shopfront or directory, because of the popular K2 and VirtueMart extensions (I've developed sites with both).
A couple of examples: I've done http://www.ramrecords.com/ (http://www.ramrecords.com/) on Joomla. We've credited it under the guise of my mate's site that I've helped him build (he had a pro graphic designer friend do most of the imagery) - http://underground-music.co.uk/ (http://underground-music.co.uk/) - that runs on Wordpress. As you can see both are highly capable CMS systems given some investment of time.
The Wordpress site my friend manages himself and he's by no means a web guru. The Joomla site they also manage themselves, they are not web savvy at all and have only needed basic training in adding articles and using the content editor to get by).
Quote from: Dave on September 06, 2011, 00:21:32 AM
Quote from: neXus on September 05, 2011, 20:33:09 PM
Quote from: Nimrod on September 05, 2011, 15:38:46 PM
The Wordpress advice is good but I'll repeat the warning I was given.
Once you're beyond the basics, you can spend as long modifying the template as you would coding it up yourself.
And I will say what I always say -
If you want to develop site and want anything more the basics then you need to know to web design and develop - or go to a professional.
Just the same with plumbing etc. You do some things on your car, you can get better but when you need something done proerly you go to a mechanic.
Do not get me wrong, we all start somewhere but there are people who do not expect or want to get their hands dirty as it were. If your willing then there is no problem :)
We have to compete with people using things like Adobe MUSE. Because people do not know the web and they get sold by marketing bullcrap they get ripped off and get sh*te websites by these cowboys. There are way to many of them.
Well those professionals all had to start somewhere - its not like there is some institute with a royal charter and professional exams involved here.... I'm interested in learning a bit about webdesign in the process and the fact is that I will likely want to tinker with stuff. Then again I guess I should learn to use some sort of CMS.
I am quite interested in what you guys tend to use - especially people like Nige/Nexus - do you guys use wordpress etc.. ?
I would not recommend Joomla, to much bloat etc these days.
Wordpress to start with and when you know more php etc magento and drupal on the PHP side.
Cheers for the replies - not sure I'd ever likely need an e-commerce solution but I'll certainly look into Drupal.
Would it not be a bit of a faff to start with wordpress then later try to manage the site with a different CMS once I know more PHP?
Are there advantages to Drupal over wordpress and if so (given that this is just a couple of pet projects and not anything with a deadline etc..) would it not be better for me to learn php and then start constructing a site.
Learning PHP is overkill. Understanding it is not difficult, actually setting out to write PHP though is a much bigger undertaking. You're far better off just sticking to the core of HTML/CSS and tweaking the PHP of the CMS if necessary. IMO ;D
It's funny really, coming from a development background I find all the PHP/backend stuff easy going. It's the front end "fluffy" stuff that I end up spending all my time on :/