Website development

[davidbieder]

Hi Worthy,

Is it a static website or a web-application? In the later case, did you consider the mean stack:

home - Mongo Express Angular Node

Furthermore, I suggest have a look a Twitter Bootstrap the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web. Allows to get around hand-written CSS and the websites look quite neat from the beginning.

getbootstrap.com

Cheers,
David

[woohoo]

I've had a play with Wordpress. That's kind of what got me into wanting to learn a little more about HTML/CSS and the languages. Never gonna be a web developer, but I have to do something on these long cold nights

If you are just wanting to learn for fun then I don't see the point of WordPress. Get a template, learn about hosting, configuring web server software, IIS, Apache etc, even setup a free account with Azure cloud hosting or whatever, learn something new.

Look at the template and change it to add your text, move things around, experiment. Add the code so someone can contact you, so perhaps learn about sending email. Throw in a slider or a bit of fancy functionality to learn about Javascript.

[LondonManc]

Did several sites using Joomla back in the day and it served a purpose. WP has largely taken over the role Joomla played and with so many themes and plugins it's quick and easy to get a good looking very functional site live in a very short time.

The scope is there to edit themes using CSS or go full PHP for plugins, can't see anything to beat it at the moment unless you want to go eCommerce although it can do that too.

Funnily enough, I'm just about to embark on a private project to convert a couple of my old websites from Joomla to Wordpress; there are few things that I cannot do these days with Wordpress that I can do with Joomla.

[Cliphead]

Agree - I inherited a Joomla site and find it harder to do stuff on it than WP. So much so that I paid someone else when it required a major version update.

Did several sites using Joomla back in the day and it served a purpose. WP has largely taken over the role Joomla played and with so many themes and plugins it's quick and easy to get a good looking very functional site live in a very short time.

The scope is there to edit themes using CSS or go full PHP for plugins, can't see anything to beat it at the moment unless you want to go eCommerce although it can do that too.

[Spoiler]

Go for WordPress or Joomla - Joomla's more powerful but a bit more technical. Both provide similar sets of themes.

Agree - I inherited a Joomla site and find it harder to do stuff on it than WP. So much so that I paid someone else when it required a major version update.

[LondonManc]

Go for WordPress or Joomla - Joomla's more powerful but a bit more technical. Both provide similar sets of themes.

Have a browse round a site like this:
RocketTheme - Joomla Templates, WordPress Themes, Magento Templates and phpBB Styles

It caters for both Joomla and Wordpress so will allow you to try both.

Get your hosting sorted and then create subfolders for each of them. Install both, have a play, see what suits you best and go with it. There are also plugins that allow you to convert between the two (not tried them yet so I don't know the percentage success in converting).

[Spoiler]

Didn't have a clue on website creation until I needed to spin up a site for a new company - since then I've done a few sites.

All are WordPress based. As has been mentioned, you don't have to be a designer, just pick a template you like the look of. If you want a little more control on how it looks, use a site builder plugin. I've used Beaver Builder on a couple of recent sites.

[FarmerPalmer]

My company website is still HTML and CSS based. It used to be hand crafted HTML but these days I use the free version of Microsoft Expression Web. It generates the code, then you can always modify it by hand if you want.

[Whorty]

I would say if you are a developer then I would expect your company website to not only look decent but have no errors and load pretty fast.

Are you going to add a blog or anything? I use https://github.com/madskristensen/MiniBlog/ which works well with live writer and it pretty lightweight.

No i'm not a developer - this is really just for me to learn and keep my brain active. Years and years ago, when I was a statistician, I used to program in SSPS, SAS, FORTRAN, DBase3 and others, and I miss those heady days so learning a new skill is just a way to get back some of my glory days. Never going to do it commercially, but I'd love to build a nice website, step back, and think 'yeah, still got it'

[Whorty]

Get cheap hosting with MySQL and cPanel included, install Wordpress and pick a good responsive theme free or paid. A wee bit of tweaking and you have a great site with little pain. Also check out the hundreds of plugins to add functionality.

I've had a play with Wordpress. That's kind of what got me into wanting to learn a little more about HTML/CSS and the languages. Never gonna be a web developer, but I have to do something on these long cold nights

[woohoo]

I would say if you are a developer then I would expect your company website to not only look decent but have no errors and load pretty fast.

Are you going to add a blog or anything? I use https://github.com/madskristensen/MiniBlog/ which works well with live writer and it pretty lightweight.

[kaiser78]

Anyone built their own website for their contracting company? I had a play with HTML and CSS a few years ago and i'm going to have a go at building myself a little site. Any advice for a beginner?

I use Jimdo, costs £60 for web domain, email addresses and hosting per year. And loads of templates to easily build your own website.

[Cliphead]

Get cheap hosting with MySQL and cPanel included, install Wordpress and pick a good responsive theme free or paid. A wee bit of tweaking and you have a great site with little pain. Also check out the hundreds of plugins to add functionality.

[woohoo]

Anyone built their own website for their contracting company? I had a play with HTML and CSS a few years ago and i'm going to have a go at building myself a little site. Any advice for a beginner?

My two pence, just don't do you own design unless of course you are a designer. There are loads of sites where you can get a responsive template, pay 20-30 quid. Change the logo to your company logo, add the relevant text and host it somewhere cheap.

There are a few like this...
https://wrapbootstrap.com/themes/landing-pages

[Whorty]

Anyone built their own website for their contracting company? I had a play with HTML and CSS a few years ago and i'm going to have a go at building myself a little site. Any advice for a beginner?