What computer languages should I know to make a professional website?

Question

I know a lot of HTML, and a little C++, although I know C++ is mainly used to create application software. I want to know what languages I should know to create a fully functional website that looks professionaly as well. I was thinking of learning CSS and PHP, but Im not entirely sure if this is the direction I want to go in. I was wondering if it be better for me to learn ASP.net rather than PHP, and what the difference between them was. Also, would it be worth my time to learn something like Flash. What is .ht access used for?

Answer 1

There will always be an ASP vs. PHP war, so let's just look at some samples instead of going into a list of features. Take a look at the following full-blown, full-featured, stable, reliable, scalable web applications....



http://wordpress.com

http://joomla.org

http://drupal.org

http://moodle.org

http://typo3.com



And the list goes on and on.



All were written for PHP/MySQL, and all use CSS.



They also all work best under Apache (to make friendly URLs via Apache's mod_rewrite module, which is almost a whole programming language all by itself).



Other languages you might want to look at are Ruby on Rails, and Python.



And that's just for the server-side of things... for dynamic experiences on the browser side, you'll want to be familiar with JavaScript -- at least, enough to implement AJAX (AJAX being how all the latest web applications like GMail, Yahoo Maps, and so on, manage to be so interactive)... and possibly also Flash (ActionScript) and Java (for which I'd recommend looking at either NetBeans or Eclipse).



Java is also often used at the server-side, for applets, or more often, Java Server Pages (JSP).



.htaccess files are text-based configuration files for Apache. But not always. Some servers will disable then (for speed or security) and store any configuration in Apache's main "conf" folder. The advantage of .htaccess is that you can have multiple files like this in different folders on a website. The disadvantage is that every time Apache needs to serve a file, it has to (a) parse the file location and extract it's folder, (b) check for the existence of an .htaccess file in that folder, and (c) parse that file for any configuration commands. That can be a huge burden on a really busy website. But if you're in a shared hosting environment, it's better than not being able to configure the web server at all.



To start the learning experience, I highly recommend WebMonkey.

Answer 2

user-side languages: HTML & CSS (the visual part of the page) Then any or all of these languages are the 'server-side' languages and are used for any kind of interaction. The only reason you would not need these is if you were making a static site like a photo album, or a recipe site, where the user does not interact. depending on what you want to do you will use one or more (possibly all) of these: PHP (if you want users to be able to register to your site, or any form submission, shopping carts, etc there are alternative languages to php but I like it because it's free and easy to pick up) JAVASCRIPT (reacts to events, like a mouse click or a key press, an example is you can limit how many characters a user can type into a box, it can also validate html data, check what browser a user has, etc) MYSQL (this is both a language and a database you will need to download onto your computer to HOLD all of the data that php and javascript gets, like usernames and passwords, and you'll need it for users to check any kind of history like what products they've ordered in the past, etc again there are alternatives but this is free and easily available) VBSCRIPT (Honestly I've never used this language but I know a lot of people incorporate it into their sites. You can google it.) With just those languages (and probably not even all of them) you can create a very powerful website. Or a very messed up one. Then if you want really complex games, or as you said visuals like 3-d objects I would suggest Java because I picked it up easily as a beginner but I'm sure one of the C langs would suffice. Before you can do any of that though, you need to download a server like Apache, and then download PHP and MYSQL if you want to use their functionality because although your computer will most likely already accept html and css, it will NOT compile php or mysql without you downloading them. There are several good tutorials available on the web for downloading all three together. Follow instructions carefully but also use common sense because changing the wrong settings on those can really screw your computer up if you don't know what you are doing, which you probably don't. When I was a super new beginner I messed up downloading those like 5 times before I finally got it right. Biggest lesson I've learned in this is if at first you crash your computer, try try again! :)

Answer 3

I personally prefer PHP. I learned it before I learned ASP and learning a database language like Oracle or MySQL/SQL wasn't hard. If you plan on keeping databases, PHP might be the route to take. PHP is also somewhat of a C++ language base so you'd be incorporating what you already know. It's also speedier because of the way it uses memory.



ASP is more of a Virtual Basic base. It's a little slower because it's COM-based. If you have more dynamic built-in objects, it may be the right route for you.



Flash is good if you like showy. I've never learned Flash so I can't answer this question.



.ht access is used to protect files, like password directories, you don't want anyone to have access to.



Good luck!

Answer 4

If you know C++, it is not a big change to C#. Using C# with ASP .NET 2.0 is a good way to create web sites that "do" things (like accept answers, present data). You can download the Visual Web Developer Express Edition from Microsoft using the link below. Together with the Starter Kits on the same page and community support for asking questions, this should get you on your way.



An ASP .NET web site can look pretty good with Master Pages and templates for consistent layout. To improve the layout with CSS (cascading style sheets), you can download a trial of Microsoft Expression web. In Expression, you can add layers, refine styles and do a good job on the visual aspects. Expression recognizes the ASP .NET code and does not harm it.



There are alternatives like PHP but they take longer to set up and learn. You will have to gather software from many different places and configure it. For CSS you still want some visual designer with Intellisense, because the CSS (style) syntax is a bit tough. Look for books on CSS from Peachpit Press or O'Reilly.



Flash is used a lot and it is really powerful, but the script language to make things move is difficult to learn (non-intuitive). It pays to learn if you do a lot in Flash. The visual editor for Flash applications, Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, is almost $700. If money is no object go for it. Flash has a large part of the market of things that move on web pages.



.htaccess is a file on an Apache webserver that tells the webserver about access controls (security) and error pages. Files that start with a period are hidden from mere mortals in the UNIX world.

Answer 5

First, .htaccess files are essentially an ini or config file for websites running on an Apache server. A site that might use the htaccess file may be written in php or html; it's used to set redirect addresses, custom error pages, and file protection.



Since you are already familiar with C++ you won't find syntax challenging in any of the c based languages: php, javascript, c-sharp. I develop primarily in c-sharp using the .net framework, so naturally I recommend this path. If you don't already have a copy of Visual Studio you can download Microsoft's free Visual Web Developer to get going. It's probably the best free web dev tool I've ever encountered. If you go this route you'll find that they also offer free downloads including SQL Server Express database as well as language specific client side dev tools. Get it here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/



Also, from a professional point of view, web dev is a fun and creative form of software development; if you decided that you want to make a living in server side dev, a working knowledge of asp.net will make you commercially viable in this market.

Answer 6

Flash can be used for making killer looking websites and you can also make dynamic websites in Flash using action script or a combination of action script with PHP.



Other than that for making websites HTML / XHTML, CSS and JavaScript are a must. And again PHP and MySQL if you want to make dynamic websites.



And... Photoshop for creating graphics.

Answer 7

I´ll recomend you to go to www.w3schools.org and start learning xhtml and css. When you master this, buy a text editor software and start designing for web page

It works for me

good luck!



another thing, when you finish learning xhtml and css, start learning PHP

Answer 8

Definitely try brushing up on ASP.NET, CSS, DHTML, JavaScript and Visual C#. PHP and ActionScript are also a good thing to know :)



Good Luck!

Immy Grant.

Answer 9

there's a website that will teach you any language you need to learn. www.w3schools.com. XHTML is a good language and is extremely easy to learn if you already know HTML. XHTML is a universal code that can be displayed by almost anything. Javascript can be easily learned in this site as well and it is needed to create a nice professional website. Flash would be great to learn too, it provides a very entertaining page to browse in.

Answer 10

Webstarts.com is your answer. It's free to sign up and their online editor uses simple drag and drop functionality so you need zero web experience to build completely custom websites. They also have image search and video search tools, so dropping videos, images, text and even music takes 1 or 2 clicks at most. Check them out here: http://Webstarts.com



You can also register a domain or configure it to work with your existing domain. They make it really simple and provide everything: hosting, domain registration, tons of templates to choose from, images, videos, etc... I've never found anything out there quite like it. It's pretty powerful, and at the same time super easy to use.



Gallery of Websites Created With The Webstarts Editor http://webstarts.com/gallery-hr.php

Answer 11

Java HTML PHP

Answer 12

Give Ruby (OOP Language) and Ruby on Rails (Web framework) a try.

Answer 13

Visual Basic is a good software for website designs...and FrontPage (any version)