Best way to make a (dynamic, not content driven) website?

[farzher]

Yeah I know, sounds like a really dumb question, but seriously, I'm wondering what frameworks / plugins will help make my code more reusable, object oriented, all that good stuff.

 

The website I'm working on now using Joomla is becoming too much of a mess, I need a better way to create menus, forms, templates, whatever. Also a better way to handle users of different types logging in, each requires a different menu. I hear Zend uses the MVC pattern, but how exactly does that work for a website? Is it worth learning?

 

I leave you with my original question, what is the best way to make a website?

[JonnoTheDev]

I leave you with my original question, what is the best way to make a website?

That is the same as asking, 'how long is a piece of string?'

 

The website I'm working on now using Joomla is becoming too much of a mess, I need a better way to create menus, forms, templates, whatever.

Simple. Do not use Joomla, Drupal or any other CMS. Create your own library of functions that you will require in most of the projects that you work on. These functions can be stored in a central location on your server that all your projects can access or copied into each web site. If you write a function in one project that you may use in another, simply add it to your library.

 

Also a better way to handle users of different types logging in, each requires a different menu.

Again, create a library of user management functions, authentication, privileges, etc. Make it abstract so it is not tied into one particular web site. Obviously it will require the web site that it is used in to have prerequisites such as database tables, etc. I would do this using Object Oriented techniques so you can use as an API in any web site. Store it in a central location on your server.

 

I hear Zend uses the MVC pattern, but how exactly does that work for a website?

MVC has nothing to do with web sites. It is a design pattern used in software engineering and describes the separation of the database logic, in most cases (model) from the application logic (controller) and the presentation layer i.e HTML (view).

Any design pattern in it's simplest definition is a structure for code to solve a problem. In this case seperating the 3 main elements.

 

For more info read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93View%E2%80%93Controller

 

You may want to look at the Zend framework for your projects. As discussed earlier about creating your own library of functions, classes, etc to solve common problems, a framework is essentially that. You will have to learn the syntax and the usage for each different part of the framework that you intend to use, i.e session management, database querying, MVC, etc

[farzher]

Hey thanks, this was actually helpful

 

From most of the stuff I read online it seemed like Joomla, Drupal, wordpess etc. was the standard / best way of doing things; it seemed really dumb to me though because I needed plugins just to run PHP code o_o

 

Looks like I need a PHP framework and not CMS, I'm gonna try out zend, and if that isn't good enough I'll try the 'create your own framework' method, thanks dood.

[Ninjakreborn]

I don't really see anything wrong with CMS systems.  At the start of EVERY "New" project (new meaning something I am building from the ground up) I always perform a little check down mentally.

 

Before I go into details about my Checkdown, I want to mention that I enjoy all standard frameworks.  The "Main" one I use is codeigniter, but sometimes I use another just for some variation.  I have never taken the time to build myself more than a basic framework. They are fun to build, but it would take me a long time to build something as powerful as CI or Cake, so I don't really spend the time doing that when I am happy with the ones that exist.

 

Here is the checkdown I perform.

 

1. Should I do it custom.

2. Should I use a third party system (Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla (strangely I have never decided to use Joomla), or some other third party system.

 

Then I just decide.  If it's a basic CMS system, sometimes I use Drupal/Wordpress. A lot of it depends on if the site can function out of the box, or easy to configure with the CMS. I also go by whether or not the project would be fun to build custom.  To me I enjoy doing custom projects, but I also enjoy sometimes using third party systems when it fits what is needed.  Sometimes it's easier to do custom.  Sometimes I do custom just because that seems like the funnest thing to do at the time.

 

I wouldn't necessarily always rule out the third party systems. Drupal and Wordpress especially are very large, heavy community systems and there is nothing wrong with using them on a deployment for a large site.  Some very large sites, that are very successful were build off of Drupal/Wordpress.

 

Generally about 75% of the time I decide to do custom, the other 25% would be a third party system depending on the requirements, and what my thoughts are at the time.

[Jessica]

I leave you with my original question, what is the best way to make a website?

That is the same as asking, 'how long is a piece of string?'

 

This is my new favorite quote.

 

Great answers above.