Hi, i'm Nick, and I'm trying to unleash my inner Web developer, which frankly at this point has limited grasp of html5/css3. My passion for this has taken me to long Youtube videos which don't necessarily cover what i need, so i was hoping a real forum might get me to it.

 

So, i'm trying to build a Social Networking Website( For secret dedicated awesome purposes) , and my journey so far is a trainwreck.

 

1) I Started off with Wordpress hosting. I figured i don't have the PhP knowledge to create a membership website so let's go beginner mode with WordPress.

 

2) WordPress was not as customize-able as i thought. Please there's the problem of spending 100$ every hour for a new widget that you suddenly seem to need.So, 2 paid widgets and 1year of hosting purchasing later, i truly believe wordpress just might not have the juice needed to cover what i need.

 

If you ask what that is, its basically -

 

Customize-able Walls, User profiles, "find friends" function( along with geographical matching), etc. Note- Its true these are available, but i can't emphasize enough on customize because without the widget code editing knowledge( which i really dont want to get in to), this is pretty impossible.

 

 

Ultimately , my question to you dear developers is -

 

1) Should i start learning PHP/MYSQL myself( Long youtube videos again), and is that all what's needed? Are there any more prerequisites?

 

 

2) Is the above really required? Note- I will get my website done even if it's after 40 years ( just so you know im dedicated), but i'm just curious to know about the alternatives here.

 

Note- If you happen to have any good tutorials for Social Networking Site development( from scratch ofc) , pls link. Also, if you're a web developer with some free time and are interested to know what i'm making(Already have the domain name and a wordpress site hosted ) and would like to help out, let me know

 

Many thanks for reading, have a good day!

Edited September 28, 201510 yr by Nikz

Hi,

 

Sounds like a beast of a project. If it was me I would learn PHP / MySQL as these are the foundation of most sites and it's what most pre-built cms are built on. WordPress or scratch built, PHP and MySQL will be involved and knowing them will benefit with pretty much any route you take.

 

A project like this I would really lean towards a scratch built system. WordPress etc already have a bloated table structure and for things like geo-searching and table relations it's probably best to plan it all in from the start.

 

Just my 2 pence.

I wouldn't take on a project like that at such an early stage. Time spent learning the theory is paramount, I find a huge percentage of those who claim to know HTML and CSS have only really scratched the surface so you may want to consider spending more time with that. There's also JavaScript which is also crucial to learn if you intend to develop on the web.

 

Learning to become a developer takes many, many hours, it's not something that can be learnt on a whim, and many senior developers would struggle to make a social media platform without external help / or as part of a team with experts in various areas.

 

I recommend you sign upto a coding school like TreeHouse and/ or CodeSchool and work on your theory. I also recommend you choose a path, be it front-end or backend. you can get pretty good at both, but you're massivley increasing the list of stuff you need to learn. I just live in the front-end and despite spending thousands of hours working professionally in this and studying in my spare time there's still tonnes of stuff I don't know.

 

Building your own stuff is great too, and very rewarding but you must know the theory behind what you are trying to create first. The application you propose covers many areas, when you're getitng better try scaling down and making just individual compontents, or more simple applications.

 

Building a monolith from the outset as a beginner will just be a massive headache.

Edited October 2, 201510 yr by rbrtsmith

Hey Nikz,

 

Welcome to WDF,

 

Just wanted to get this in "That is a behemoth of a task".

 

But you're certainly trying to climb Everest before you can crawl, both @@BrowserBugs and @@rbrtsmith have hit the nail on the head. For a project like that you don't want to be using any kind of pre built CMS. Learning PHP/MySQL is a good start (both back end technologies). TreeHouse is a great place to start, I'm currently working my way through their lessons.

 

As has already been said start off with smaller projects, and build up to what you are trying to achieve.

 

Good luck.

Wordpress is not build for the purpose that you want and you would have to customize it a lot to make it work. The idea of building it yourself while learning is good training and you might be able to piece something together that works but in order to build a scalable and secure system you need much more knowledge and experience than what you can pick up from youtube tutorials.

Social media sites are very vulnerable to database injections because the users creates and manages the content and will need access to much more form inputs than on a blog or corporate site. So you would really need to know what you are doing.

Maybe you could start on a small scale with a some simple forum software (which I think is more in line with what you need than a CMS like WP). You try https://www.phpbb.com/ or http://www.mybb.com/. They are both free and have been around for ages. Or maybe you can find on that suits your needs in this article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Internet_forum_software

Edited October 2, 201510 yr by Nillervision

Wow. Realistically, you'd need to have an in-depth understanding of HTML, CSS, PHP (or equivalent or Node-I put that in for you @rbrtsmith), MySQL (or equivalent), JS, jQuery, AJAX, and security...

As well as SEO, principles for database normalization, software layer architecture, UI design, principles for accessibility and usability, design conventions and more.

Coding an ambitious application for your own pleasure is a great learning experience but for production there simply too many things that can go wrong.

The issue with coding something highly sophisticated as a beginner - and even for those with experience is that you can become overwhelmed with it. Start off with much smaller projects and work your way up.

 

Learn to walk before you attempt to run - or in this case run 10 marathons back to back.

I'm a beginner, I've been learning seriously for 18 months and wouldn't even dream attempting something like that.

 

If I really had to do something that complex then maybe I would find someone I trusted to work on the project with that knows the back-end and concentrate on the front-end myself.

Hi, i'm Nick, and I'm trying to unleash my inner Web developer, which frankly at this point has limited grasp of html5/css3. My passion for this has taken me to long Youtube videos which don't necessarily cover what i need, so i was hoping a real forum might get me to it.

 

So, i'm trying to build a Social Networking Website( For secret dedicated awesome purposes) , and my journey so far is a trainwreck.

 

1) I Started off with Wordpress hosting. I figured i don't have the PhP knowledge to create a membership website so let's go beginner mode with WordPress.

 

2) WordPress was not as customize-able as i thought. Please there's the problem of spending 100$ every hour for a new widget that you suddenly seem to need.So, 2 paid widgets and 1year of hosting purchasing later, i truly believe wordpress just might not have the juice needed to cover what i need.

 

If you ask what that is, its basically -

 

Customize-able Walls, User profiles, "find friends" function( along with geographical matching), etc. Note- Its true these are available, but i can't emphasize enough on customize because without the widget code editing knowledge( which i really dont want to get in to), this is pretty impossible.

 

 

Ultimately , my question to you dear developers is -

 

1) Should i start learning PHP/MYSQL myself( Long youtube videos again), and is that all what's needed? Are there any more prerequisites?

 

 

2) Is the above really required? Note- I will get my website done even if it's after 40 years ( just so you know im dedicated), but i'm just curious to know about the alternatives here.

 

Note- If you happen to have any good tutorials for Social Networking Site development( from scratch ofc) , pls link. Also, if you're a web developer with some free time and are interested to know what i'm making(Already have the domain name and a wordpress site hosted ) and would like to help out, let me know

 

Many thanks for reading, have a good day!

Seriously, it is a long way create your own website. People study PHP, MySql, Java... in Universities and even after that don`t dream about their own site. Why don`t you just try one of the website builders? Here, you may even find a list of them http://bestadvisor.com/main-review/bestwebsitebuilders. Learning PHP/MySql from the very beggining is along journey, not all of us are Zuckerbergs. You will need to put efforts to fully "unleash your inner Web developer".

Seriously, it is a long way create your own website. People study PHP, MySql, Java... in Universities and even after that don`t dream about their own site. Why don`t you just try one of the website builders? Here, you may even find a list of them http://bestadvisor.com/main-review/bestwebsitebuilders. Learning PHP/MySql from the very beggining is along journey, not all of us are Zuckerbergs. You will need to put efforts to fully "unleash your inner Web developer".

 

I built my own site within 6 months. Problem is a lot of universities teach old outdated stuff. Yes it takes a very long time to become really good at it, but you can learn the basics enough to build a reasonable website in a surprisingly short period of time, providing you stick to good resources.

 

You'll never forge any career out of this using site builders. you won't learn anything from the experience with them. The notion you must learn everything is just not true. Nothing is stopping you from using a static site generator (Note this is not a site builder). And in fact for smaller sites they have better performance and security than a PHP based site with a database.

If you do need a big back-end there's nothing stopping you outsourcing that part while you focus on the front-end.

 

The project outlined above is a serious undertaking, and something more along the lines of what a team of senior developers would produce.

 

I doubt any of us on here are the next Zuckerberg, neither are the 100's of thousands of other web developers but many have fantastically rewarding careers.

Edited October 12, 201510 yr by rbrtsmith

Hi, i'm Nick, and I'm trying to unleash my inner Web developer, which frankly at this point has limited grasp of html5/css3. My passion for this has taken me to long Youtube videos which don't necessarily cover what i need, so i was hoping a real forum might get me to it.

 

So, i'm trying to build a Social Networking Website( For secret dedicated awesome purposes) , and my journey so far is a trainwreck.

 

1) I Started off with Wordpress hosting. I figured i don't have the PhP knowledge to create a membership website so let's go beginner mode with WordPress.

 

2) WordPress was not as customize-able as i thought. Please there's the problem of spending 100$ every hour for a new widget that you suddenly seem to need.So, 2 paid widgets and 1year of hosting purchasing later, i truly believe wordpress just might not have the juice needed to cover what i need.

 

If you ask what that is, its basically -

 

Customize-able Walls, User profiles, "find friends" function( along with geographical matching), etc. Note- Its true these are available, but i can't emphasize enough on customize because without the widget code editing knowledge( which i really dont want to get in to), this is pretty impossible.

 

 

Ultimately , my question to you dear developers is -

 

1) Should i start learning PHP/MYSQL myself( Long youtube videos again), and is that all what's needed? Are there any more prerequisites?

 

 

2) Is the above really required? Note- I will get my website done even if it's after 40 years ( just so you know im dedicated), but i'm just curious to know about the alternatives here.

 

Note- If you happen to have any good tutorials for Social Networking Site development( from scratch ofc) , pls link. Also, if you're a web developer with some free time and are interested to know what i'm making(Already have the domain name and a wordpress site hosted ) and would like to help out, let me know

 

Many thanks for reading, have a good day!

You should also think about website hosting services. There are many companies on the market who can help with that, but you may get lost in offers, like what is the most cheap and relevantly appropriate service. For that you may ask Google or follow review sites like this http://bestadvisor.com/main-review/bestwebsitehosting or you may also find solution from citizens of this forum. Hosting is also one of the main parts of running the website.

If you're really hoping to make it a success, then i would recommend you hire professionals with various skills, getting a production ready application cannot be done with a few skills, there is a host of things to consider like Nillervision has mentioned above

The best thing to learn is to build something and web dev is not something that just anyone can take, even that it takes many years of experience to be good at it and be production ready.

 

Alternatively, get a professional developer to do it for you.

Hi everyone. I'm so sorry to Necro this and not reply back on time ( I see that the initial replies were given 4-5 days after i made the topic, and believe it or not i made this topic on multiple forums and kept checking back on them , but i might've given up on this forum after the first 3 days.)

 

I would like to thank you all for the amazing replies, they still make a lot of sense now in '16 and i guess they always will.

 

Sooo, if anyone was wondering about the progress, in between completing my degree and pursuing my passion ( Sadly they're not the same thing, don't ask.), I quit the WordPress thing and started from scratch as many suggested. I now have somewhat of a grasp on PhP and MySql , aswell as Javascript and Jquery.

 

I've got the basic Landing Page/Signups/Login, etc done. I'm at that stage where i look at certain websites and be like " Damn i wish i knew how to do this"

For eg https://www.skill-capped.com/lol/ ( Emphasis on Blue Part Animations,etc.).

EDIT- Is that part something a front end developer would even do, does it fall into a different field?

 

So, could anyone suggest me some Frameworks/Softwares that i could really get into as a Front end Developer, as i transition from being a beginner to being a creator of advanced websites ( The dream).

 

Thanks again, and have a good day.

Edited March 24, 201610 yr by Nikz

To be a front end developer you need to make sure that you've mastered the basics first before pursuing further into front end development.

 

• Strong understanding of HTML5
• Strong understanding of CSS
• Strong understanding of Javascript ( not jQuery, that comes later )

Once you have a strong understanding of those then you might want to look at css pre-processors like SASS / LESS, and some Javascript libraries.

 

Thats just to start with, I'm sure other more seasoned FED's will be able to suggest other options.

To be a front end developer you need to make sure that you've mastered the basics first before pursuing further into front end development.

 

• Strong understanding of HTML5
• Strong understanding of CSS
• Strong understanding of Javascript ( not jQuery, that comes later )

Once you have a strong understanding of those then you might want to look at css pre-processors like SASS / LESS, and some Javascript libraries.

 

Thats just to start with, I'm sure other more seasoned FED's will be able to suggest other options.

 

I agree with all of this apart from LESS, it's pretty much dead and buried now

 

I agree with all of this apart from LESS, it's pretty much dead and buried now

 

Oh didn't realise, I use Sass anyway.

I also use Sass(SCSS) but I think LESS will still be used for some time because of Bootstrap (Bootstrap source is build with LESS but it is now possible to download/clone a version ported to Sass)

Edited March 24, 201610 yr by Nillervision

I also use Sass(SCSS) but I think LESS will still be used for some time because of Bootstrap (Bootstrap source is build with LESS but it is now possible to download/clone a version ported to Sass)

 

The latest Bootstrap is now in Sass, but I still think it's unsuitable for the vast majority of client facing projects.

Edited March 25, 201610 yr by rbrtsmith