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The 'What do I need to start web development thread'


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I notice there isn't anything solid and organized on Neowin yet. As I am a developer I want to extend my learning base to include web development. This means I would like to know all the software (and their tutorials) which are required to perform the following:

1. Web Design

2. Web Development

3. Content Management (Post Design and Development)

I have heard of a lot of terms such as AJAX, RUBY ON RAILS, ASP, MYSQL. I am familiar with some of them due to my development experience but its fragmented. If someone can give me a list of the Tools I need and tutorial to perform this:

I also want to get to know HOW you apply that web DESIGN to the web DEVELOPMENT.

...

And please..no 'Google This or That' replies. This is a guide thread for not only ME but for others who want to start web development

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For what it's worth design isn't always involved with web development. A web designer is usually always just that--a designer. Rarely will they get involved with actual front-end (or back-end) development. So truthfully, unless you want to be a one man show, I would forgo design for the time being. That is more talent than acquired skill (although eventually your acquired skill does play a part (eg: learning about proper kerning, color saturation/contrast, et al).

As far as development goes do you want to be more involved with front-end development (HTML, CSS, Javascript) or would you prefer to get more involved with back-end development (Ruby On Rails, PHP/MySQL, .NET)? There are two separate entities and while there are a good handful of people that will jump between both, it might be best to start off as one or the other--from a learning perspective.

There's a lot to learn from all three, design; front-end and back-end, so I would recommend on what would interest you the most and what you'd want to work with the most. Truthfully, I see design being just as difficult as learning a back-end programming language. Sure anyone can open Photoshop and slab some shapes around, change colors and gradients but it doesn't mean that it's aesthetically appealing, user-friendly or even web-friendly.

Content management systems are what make front-end development easier than ever. We don't have to hunt around for tutorials on custom coding something or perhaps paying out of pocket for someone to create an application for us that we need. There's WordPress, ExpressionEngine, Joomla, Drupal and a plethora more of smaller brands that are available as open-source that you can rely on to make life simpler. Not only are those available but you've got open-source scripts available for just about any needs. It's a matter of just where to find it (which I'll link but not in this post.)

So that being said: Which interests you the most of the three (front-end, design, back-end)? Also when you say you are developer [already], what is it that you do exactly?

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I would recommend starting at front-end development as it really is the foundation for any website. Even if you want to focus more on back-end development, you will most likely still need to understand some HTML, and if you want to focus more on design, it helps to know how sites are structured. So start with HTML, and while you are at it, learn CSS at the same time, lest you pick up some bad coding habits.

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I'm not going to give you an exhaustive list of "all the software and tutorials" that you need to start web development. Different tutorials and tools are suitable for different people - it depends how you learn, what your existing experience is and what you want to learn. I took out loads of books from my University's library, so giving you a list would be a lot of effort for me :p I've always got along with the O'Reilly books for most things though.

1. Web design

The best tool for this is easily a pencil and paper. Once I've got a sketch and concept together on paper, I then create it using Photoshop. Find some books about design principles such as the rule of 3rds, magic ratios, balancing design elements etc. There's probably loads of stuff on the web too, but I find it easier to from paper than I do from a screen.

2. Web development

I do all my front-end development (HTML, CSS & Javascript) by hand (ie, not using a WYSIWYG editor) because when I started, none of the WYSIWYG editors were particularly up to scratch as far as writing code that works in the majority of browsers goes. I've no idea what Frontpage/Dreamweaver/whatever are like now - but I doubt they're particularly great. w3schools is a good online resource for (x)HTML & CSS. I tend to use jQuery for my javascripting - simply because it makes it a lot easier to perform common tasks in a cross-browser compatible way. Their website has pretty good documentation on how to use it - but you'll probably need a grasp on 'vanilla' javascript to understand it.

Most of my back-end development work is done using PHP. Mainly because of the ubiquity of the language, but also for speed of development. I've built my own basic framework that speeds up development massively. The PHP Manual is a great reference for looking up function names and parameter orders and stuff. Probably not the best place for a getting started guide though.

My database backends are almost exclusively using MySQL. It has the benefit of being free and widely supported. MySQL's official documentation's good for helping you appreciate the differences between MySQL and other SQL flavours. If you need to learn SQL from scratch...I've no idea where to look. My knowledge is something I gradually built up over years.

AJAX is a sort of middle-man between the back-end and front-end. I tend to use jQuery for the front-end part and it'll usually request dynamic (PHP) content from the server.

I personally use Netbeans IDE because it manages projects quite well in my opinion and also integrates with SVN. Plus I used to do quite a bit of Java programming using Netbeans, so I got used to it.

3. CMSs can be really helpful. If you have a client who says "I want a blog for my company" - there's no point reinventing the wheel. Install a copy of wordpress and make a theme for it.

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