Basics of building a dynamic website

[dbadon]

Hello,

I need a very professional reply to my questions :-

1] I want to build a website and am a beginner. Something like a site that is a blog with wordpress [?]
facility, RSS feed, Ads by google, provision for replying/posting to a particular topic.

Beginner ? Well, I do browse and surf and have an empty blog on blogger.com. But do not know HTML, .NET, PHP,etc. Gave up programming 3 years back. But want to get back to it and develop the site.

I know a little shell-scripting.

2] How to build the web-site ? I plan to build it offline , i.e. I wont hurry the hosting part. I will create the content over a period of time and then host it...

What are the programming scripts/languages that I should use ? Which is best suited ? Can I store my blog in a database ? How do I do it ? How will the website connect to the database ?

Thanks and awaiting a good number response.

[edited by: tedster at 5:06 am (utc) on Mar. 12, 2008]

[tedster]

The basics are a database and a scripting language to use that data and insert it into html pages. You don't need to be a total ace in the database, or the scripting, or the html or the css, but you will do lots better with some basic knowledge of each. I find that the best way to learn is to be motivated by a concrete project, which you already are.

However, you will definitely have a learning curve to climb. The most likely pairing I'd say is PHP for scripting and mySQL for the database. You're more likely to find ready-to-use solutions (such as Wordpress) you can adapt for the various purposes that you have in mind, and help online is widely available if you hit a snag.

You may also want to start with a less ambitious version (fewer features, for example) and then expand as your skills develop.

[penders]

2) ...I plan to build it offline , i.e. I wont hurry the hosting part. I will create the content over a period of time and then host it...

In order to build it offline you will need to run a web server on your machine. Either IIS (Windows) or Apache and then you can install PHP/MySQL.

[Dave75]

About three years ago I stood at the server-side language cross roads. What was THE ONE? Out of all the choices: PHP, ASP, JSP, Ruby, Coldfusion and PERL - PHP was the clear winner(those folks down at Zend really do have their act together).

The runner up for me was Coldfusion. It is actually a better language but it costs money to buy into. This lock-out means a smaller, less open community. Personally, every other back-end language has at least one critical flaw that essentially breaks it.

Anyway, the first thing you need to do is setup a localhost on your computer as the basis of your development enviroment and/or intranet. And, every new website you develop should be setup on their own virtualhost. The good news about PHP is that the dev community have a windows installer which sets up PHP5/MySQL5/Apache2 on your machine with a few mouse clicks.

Regardless of what language or enviroment you are using, you will want to go down to a university or technical collage bookshop to find a text book on the subject. Don't buy some cheesy 'Build a website in 10 days' type book. Get something that undergraduates are studying from. A $100 text book is a bargin investment.

[Dollface]

I personally would suggest using an pre-made solution. There are a multitude of blog, CMS, forum and portal scripts available that will absolutely get the job done (and then some). Most of the big ones are open source and free so you can be sure that there is a great community behind them providing new add-on features and help when you need it. Some examples would be wordpress, mambo, joomla, drupal etc...

If you are determined to custom build a solution, then you will definitely need to pick up a book and get cracking :) Since you want to build it off-line, at your own pace, you'll need to setup a local server on your computer. If your on windows, I suggest EasyPHP as it sets up the server, database, database manager and the programming language PHP all in one easy install. Good luck with your site!