PoRco. Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Hey guys, I have this strong passion to learn all I can about web designing. I've just recently begun to go through tutorials and e-books. I realize that this is not enough and I need to apply it somewhere to learn and come across problems that I normally would anyway. The question is, where do I do this? Any volunteer sites or do I try making my own website.. just really confused as to where to begin. I was doing a google search and a thread PHPfreaks came up. Where you guys were talking about how it is best to learn within a learning community. I started looking up other threads and posts, and I found that I really like it here. You guys are great. This is my first post, and I'm here to stay for a LONG time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 One thing that might be a good idea is trying to see if you can solve some of the issues other people have on this site. Doing that you'll learn troubleshooting and debugging skills, which are must haves for any developer. It'll also give you insight into some of the problems that occur. You can also just pick a simple project for yourself and start working on it. You'll not be making the next multi-million dollar website, and you might not even create something other people want to use, but it'll be a learning experience for you. When you get better you can possibly join open source projects, which will give you collaboration skills and enable you to work in a team of developers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoRco. Posted May 18, 2009 Author Share Posted May 18, 2009 You can also just pick a simple project for yourself and start working on it. You'll not be making the next multi-million dollar website, and you might not even create something other people want to use, but it'll be a learning experience for you. When you get better you can possibly join open source projects, which will give you collaboration skills and enable you to work in a team of developers. By simple projects, do you mean like those small web-apps ? Or perhaps just a website that is about something I wanna talk about/share. I don't care whether it's interesting or not tbh, as long as I get some experience in Won't making a website involve buying a domain etc? Thank you for your reply Daniel, really appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 By simple projects, do you mean like those small web-apps ? Or perhaps just a website that is about something I wanna talk about/share. I don't care whether it's interesting or not tbh, as long as I get some experience in It can be anything you want. Create a blog where you can write about stuff you like. Create a database for your recipes. Create a gallery for your photos. Create an index for music/movie collection. There are lots of possibilities. All of the things I just mentioned can be done very simply, but do also have plenty of potential for making more advanced and feature rich. Won't making a website involve buying a domain etc? If you actually want a website that is externally accessible then you do need to purchase a domain name and hosting. However, you can also run a webserver on your own computer for local development. I'd recommend developing locally under any circumstances anyway. You can install the individual components (Apache, PHP, MySQL and whatever you need) manually, or you can use prepackaged bundles such as XAMPP or WampServer on Windows, or MAMP on OS X. Linux based operating systems will have a package manager which you can use to easily install a web server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoRco. Posted May 18, 2009 Author Share Posted May 18, 2009 By simple projects, do you mean like those small web-apps ? Or perhaps just a website that is about something I wanna talk about/share. I don't care whether it's interesting or not tbh, as long as I get some experience in It can be anything you want. Create a blog where you can write about stuff you like. Create a database for your recipes. Create a gallery for your photos. Create an index for music/movie collection. There are lots of possibilities. All of the things I just mentioned can be done very simply, but do also have plenty of potential for making more advanced and feature rich. Won't making a website involve buying a domain etc? If you actually want a website that is externally accessible then you do need to purchase a domain name and hosting. However, you can also run a webserver on your own computer for local development. I'd recommend developing locally under any circumstances anyway. You can install the individual components (Apache, PHP, MySQL and whatever you need) manually, or you can use prepackaged bundles such as XAMPP or WampServer on Windows, or MAMP on OS X. Linux based operating systems will have a package manager which you can use to easily install a web server. Thanks again, I've always wanted to create a website that posted a list of my fav movies and tv shows and along with redirecting links to where people can download them, but I thought it was illegal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 It certainly would be in a gray zone. It's an ongoing discussion whether aggregating links to downloads of intellectual property is legal or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoRco. Posted May 18, 2009 Author Share Posted May 18, 2009 It certainly would be in a gray zone. It's an ongoing discussion whether aggregating links to downloads of intellectual property is legal or not. Would they even bother with a small site like mine? I'm thinking, even if they do.. it will be well after I get the experience I want. Posting links etc would be something I'd enjoy doing, would make the learning process far better. Suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Well, I'm not in a position to offer you legal advise. For that you should go to a lawyer. Programming wise there would be no problem creating a such application though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoRco. Posted May 18, 2009 Author Share Posted May 18, 2009 Well, I'm not in a position to offer you legal advise. For that you should go to a lawyer. Programming wise there would be no problem creating a such application though. Heh, my bad. Thanks for all your help though Daniel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcombs_31 Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 I've always wanted to create a website that posted a list of my fav movies and tv shows and along with redirecting links to where people can download them, but I thought it was illegal. For the sake of learning I think it is a good example to get you started. You can build in some type of rating system that allows other users to contribute to. What you want to create is a basic CRUD application that allows you and others users to interact with a database. Doing this will teach you many interesting things and I'm sure you'll have many questions and specific things that you can research. From the sound of it though, you need to go even more basic and learn the principles of HTML/CSS. You can't start thinking of dynamic content if you don't know how to present it. Good luck and I'm sure we'll see you around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waynewex Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 The resulting court case will also give you legal experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoRco. Posted May 19, 2009 Author Share Posted May 19, 2009 For the sake of learning I think it is a good example to get you started. You can build in some type of rating system that allows other users to contribute to. What you want to create is a basic CRUD application that allows you and others users to interact with a database. Doing this will teach you many interesting things and I'm sure you'll have many questions and specific things that you can research. From the sound of it though, you need to go even more basic and learn the principles of HTML/CSS. You can't start thinking of dynamic content if you don't know how to present it. Good luck and I'm sure we'll see you around. Wow, I love that idea. Now I have something to look forward to ! Thank you very very much ! The resulting court case will also give you legal experience. lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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