I want to start designing/developing web sites,
I started learning HTML and CSS, and came up with this Content Management Systems which are used mostly by web developers.
So, now I am a bit confused of what to learn,
So my questions are,
1. Should I continue learning HTML and CSS only?
2. Should I stop learning HTML and CSS and continue with CMS?
3. Should I do both parallel?
Kindly help me with this,
Thank you.
Related
Background: I have created a CRUD web app using a java based RAD tool called Wavemaker. I am considering developing the app again in a framework that has greater support. Even though I have some experience in development I still get confused by all of the terms. My understanding is that there are languages (C#, PHP, Javascript, Java, etc), frameworks (Wavemaker, Ruby on Rails, Yii, Symfony, Code Igniter, Zend, etc) and editors (Dreamweaver?)?
I outsourced the development of a mobile version of my web app and this was created using jquery mobile, php and ajax. I started using Dreamweaver because I read it had integration for development with jquery mobile and hence I could perform modifications on my mobile app.
I was wondering whether Dreamweaver was a viable choice for the development of a CRUD web app? I used dreamweaver many years ago for the create of html pages and it would automatically create a lot of "unclean" code that made it hard to maintain. I fear that I would put myself in a similar situation here with server-side code.
If Dreamweaver is not appropriate could you kindly suggest a framework that may meet my requirements?
The main things I liked about Wavemaker:
Drag and drop widgets
A lot of the database functions were automatically handled
The main things I don't like about developing with Wavemaker (not Wavemaker itself):
Support: The support generally involves posting to the forums and hoping for a reply that may never come. I would rather paid support over this option which to be fair is offered by vmware but I found it too confusing.
Small number of freelance contractors: Much of the functionality within my app required coding or workarounds outside of the standard features of wavemaker and it is very hard to find a freelance wavemaker developer for help
Ongoing bugs that cause a headache during development
With that being said my priorities are:
Support: great documentation with rapid response to problems (even if this requires a paid subscription)
A large number of freelance contractors available (I guess this means a popular framework using a popular language).
Simple and easy to use (I understand there would be an initial learning curve)
Stable: I won't be running into bugs that hold up my development and need me to wait for the next release for a fix
The ability to incorporate reporting like BIRT reports or Jasper.
Possibly steer clear of Java as I have found Tomcat to be an extra level of complication that it would be great to do without.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Dreamweaver was a viable choice for the development of a CRUD web app?
Yes, but with caveats. It still does not produce code that advanced users would consider "clean" but the integration of JQuery Mobile in CS5.5 makes it a good choice for non-coders or beginning coders who need to spin up rapidly and will worry about elegance later.
That being said, if you are outsourcing the design it is likely that the code you get back will be editable in Dreamweaver but not written in such a way as to take advantage of Dreamweaver's built-in behaviors (automatic code writing). Dreamweaver expects to see code written to its specs in order to take over for the user. If not, it is still a great wysiwyg editor and above-average code editor.
But it's not a framework. In your sitution, JQuery Mobile is the framework and any JQuery Mobile developer should be able to step in and run with the project. But if you write big chunks of the CRUD using Dreamweaver, developers may tell you that they will want to rewrite those sections. Some won't care.
just starting to learn Dojo, and I am having a heck of a time finding some good examples to look at or even a good IDE installation guide (currently using a plugin of Aptana in Eclipse).
I'd love to look an app (with some instruction on how to set it up) that demonstrates some of Dojo Standards of developing a Large Scale Dojo Application (utilizing Modules, OOP, etc.)
Its hard for me to get started without examples / understanding some of dojo's higher level concepts.
Edit**
Found this link from javaworld... I though it was a good start... if anyone has any other tutorials like this (esp for incorporating AJAX / JSON into Dojo) I'd appreciate it.
There exists a lot of Tutorials and documentation on the main page:
Tutorials
Reference Guide
API Documentation
I think the best way is to pick the Tutorials and just work through them. I would start with the basic, finding some DOM elements, AJAX, animation and so on. If you knew the basics work through the tutorials that explains how you can create your own Widgets.
To order it a little bit. Read the other tutorials not linked here before to get warm with Dojo.
Learn OOP in Dojo
Understand the Base Class every widget inherit from
Create your own Widget
GUI Design with Dijit Layout
How to build a large application
Deploy your application
Another good help is to use the maillinglist. There also exists a webgui to the mailinglist with the possibility to send messages from there.
http://dojotoolkit.org/community/
If you need professional Support look at http://www.sitepen.com/
I was posed this question the other day and didn't really know how to respond. Anyone here have any comments?
Some CMS applications can be used as a frameworks, but it does not work the other way around.
I do not suggest using CMSes as frameworks if you're working on anything but trivial blogish/wordpress type websites which don't really need a whole lot of custom functionality.
CMS code is usually not extendable, following no coding conventions and crappy. Frameworks like Django and Zend are very high quality. You'll be able to actually make something useful in a reasonable amount of time instead of killing yourself trying to customize a CMS which wasn't made to be customized.
I’m looking at using Expression Engine for a new site I’m developing does anyone have any experience of using EE, good or bad?
I’ve looked at some other CMS but found they are quite big and although you get everything, I like EE as it looks like you can streamline it to exactly what you want your users to use?
The main feature I need is to not be taken away from the HTML and CSS and not feel restricted on what I design or relying on plugins to achieve certain aspects of the site.
The ability to create snippets of code and include them into a main template or page is really appealing. I looked at other CMS but they seem to focus more on creating pages where I would like to make up a page from varouis custom created snippets?
I come from a asp and MS SQL background rather than a php and my SQL do you think that would cause me any problems?
I've used ExpressionEngine before and found it to be extremely easy to get your head around compared to other CMS products such as Drupal. Plus, you have a lot more freedom with your designs.
One of the best resources I found on the web, is a site called train-ee.com by Mike Boyink. This is the first tutorial I did on ExpressionEngine (when I was first learning) and he goes into great detail while keeping it extremely simple:
http://www.train-ee.com/courseware/free-tutorials/category/building-a-small-business-site/
Hope this helps.
Dan
Jemes,
I have been building websites on EE for a few years now and it is hands-down the most flexible and powerful system to work with. You simply can build sites faster and customize it to fit clients needs better. As a company we were so happy with it that we build our own add-on for e-commerce (BrilliantRetail).
The community (#eecms on twitter) is fantastic and there are meetups, EECI conferences (Oct 2011), Devotee EE addons and a responsive parent company (#ellislab)constantly improving the platform.
Tony
If you have a few bucks to spend (48$), and if you are more of a visual learner, you might want to have a look at Ryan Ierlan's screencasts on Mijingo:
http://mijingo.com/products/screencasts/learning-expressionengine-2-complete-series/
I come from a asp and MS SQL background rather than a php and my SQL do you think that would >cause me any problems?
I have neither background and it didn´t caused my any problems. If you don´t want to build your own plugins you won´t need to know PHP. I can´t program PHP, but never felt the necessity to learn it.
I started with EE 0.95 backthan and never looked for any other CMS, because I could build all my sites with EE. I like the concept of haveing a comercial product that is build upon an open source foundation (code igniter) coupled with a very active and friendly community.
I am facing a really tough time doing this. I haven't done much on web development before this. I know HTML and dats it. What else do I need to learn in order to start coding a good facebook app (specifically scripting languages like JS, PHP, MySQL etc). I have already created a test application using a web hosting site. Time is of the essence here.
I would pick up Head First Servlets and JSP or Head First PHP & MySQL. They will be your best friends in the process of writing PHP or JSP. Then of course you should learn what's in the Facebook API and how to use it.
You mentioned that time is off the essence, but I simply can't think of a reasonable way by which you can learn PHP or JSP without putting in the grunt work (which takes time). You should definitely do some reading unless you want to make an app that's hacker's paradise.
If you're already familiar with Java, then JSP will feel more natural and probably easier/faster to learn.
P.S. Sorry for the multiple edits... I felt like my wording was a bit off.