# Website creation



## Smelge (Aug 28, 2012)

I've got an idea for a site that I feel would be useful for a certain demographic that I am a part of. Until last week I wasn't even aware it was something that was needed until we found ourselves looking up stuff that would have been useful as an online resource.

Anyway, I'm not going in to what it is exactly, because this will hopefully be my thing, and I want to create it.

Thing is, I have the idea and a few other things, but how the hell do you go from your basic concept through to creation? I'm learning Dreamweaver again, but the stage that's got me stumped is the actual pre work. All the stuff that needs done before you even start using Dreamweaver.

Any tips on how to go from an idea to something thats ready to build?


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## Elim Garak (Aug 28, 2012)

Smelge said:


> I've got an idea for a site that I feel would be useful for a certain demographic that I am a part of. Until last week I wasn't even aware it was something that was needed until we found ourselves looking up stuff that would have been useful as an online resource.
> 
> Anyway, I'm not going in to what it is exactly, because this will hopefully be my thing, and I want to create it.
> 
> ...


Wait, are you actually using Dreamweaver as an IDE for PHP or are you just gonna use HTML and use the simple drag and drop interface? That latter sucks if you are building anything dynamic.


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## Smelge (Aug 28, 2012)

I'm going to answer that with "uhhhh?".


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## Elim Garak (Aug 28, 2012)

Smelge said:


> I'm going to answer that with "uhhhh?".


You actually gonna type PHP/ASP whatever code or are you gonna drag and drop crap, and use the UI to change all kinds of crap, which is terrible.
HTML alone doesn't cut it for dynamic sites with users/database storage or whatever.


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## Smelge (Aug 28, 2012)

Elim Garak said:


> You actually gonna type PHP/ASP whatever code or are you gonna drag and drop crap, and use the UI to change all kinds of crap, which is terrible.
> HTML alone doesn't cut it for dynamic sites with users/database storage or whatever.



I know it needs to be dynamic, I don't know how to do it, so I'll be starting with a basic site and working towards the actual site as I learn.


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## Kihari (Aug 28, 2012)

Smelge said:


> it needs to be dynamic, I don't know how to do it



HTML/webpage templates, SQL/database schema design, and scripting/backend coding (in your language of choice, and using preexisting libraries/frameworks to help you out) will be the main tools you'll need to build your mystery site.

You may wish to read this thing here for a sense of how you might use such a framework to tie all of these things together to make a working site.


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## Ricky (Aug 28, 2012)

http://www.springsource.org/spring-roo  :lol:

In all seriousness that's probably too much to just dive into but that program is really neat.

You really can design a fully-functioning web app with a lgin, database, UI, AOP, DI, Dojo for JS widgets and tons of other crap (basically anything you will ever need) in minutes.

They have a tutorial on their site.  Then again, if you don't know Spring, Java/JEE, JS, JSP, SQL/HQL, HTML, CSS and all that other crap there will be a hell of a learning curve.


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## kayfox (Aug 28, 2012)

You sketch stuff out and then work on getting all the elements you want into play.

Or you have a vision of what you want and beat it to death.  Im currently doing this to Octopress.


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## Runefox (Aug 29, 2012)

If you're not familiar with making a site dynamic, then you might want to look into a pre-made content management system like Joomla!, Drupal or Wordpress.


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## Ricky (Aug 29, 2012)

I guess it would help if we actually knew what you were trying to do :roll:


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## Smelge (Aug 29, 2012)

Ricky said:


> I guess it would help if we actually knew what you were trying to do :roll:



I feel it's a pretty good idea that hasn't been done before, but I'm quite keen on it not being done by anyone else who has better knowledge of sitebuilding before I get it built.

I'm being cautious here.


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## Elim Garak (Aug 29, 2012)

Smelge said:


> I feel it's a pretty good idea that hasn't been done before, but I'm quite keen on it not being done by anyone else who has better knowledge of sitebuilding before I get it built.
> 
> I'm being cautious here.


Joomla is a good way to start a lot of projects, unless its something actually never done before and needs a code base of its own. Most sites with galleries and communities can use joomla and third party extensions.

If its totally custom, learn PHP, (MY)SQL query syntax, webhosting basics(Chmod, (S)FTP, SSH, BASH).
Tutorials are everywhere, though ebooks generally tend to be the best.
Also make sure to read this, it's where most people fuck up:
http://php.net/manual/en/security.database.sql-injection.php
http://php.net/manual/en/security.database.sql-injection.php
http://php.net/manual/en/security.database.sql-injection.php
http://php.net/manual/en/security.database.sql-injection.php
and in general: 
http://www.php.net/manual/en/security.php

Also make sure to never use functions listed as deprecated, they will be removed in future versions of PHP.


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## Aden (Aug 29, 2012)

I don't know terribly much about back-end coding, but if you have any HTML/CSS/JS questions, feel free to PM me


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## kayfox (Aug 30, 2012)

You should read everything on this site:
https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Main_Page

 ~ your friendly neighborhood network security engineer


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## Kairuk (Sep 1, 2012)

http://www.joomla.org
^ General sites

enjin.net
^ Clans or Groups


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