What languages should I learn to build e-commerce websites?

Question

My question is fairly simple. What languages should I learn to build websites? I have a book that teaches me HTML, XHTML, and CSS. I was planning on branching out to php and MySQL after that. What about after that? I want to develop business websites for myself and family members were users can browse products, save them to shopping carts, even log in with their own user name so they can apply their member discount to all their purchases. Also I want to build personal blog websites, forums, ect.

Answer 1

You are in the right path. Proceed with your learning with html, css and then go for php and mysql, then the whole of the internet world is yours!

You can just play around with these languages to create powerful websites that can facilitate features like carts, login (can be effected through php 'sessions') and almost what ever you want.



Besides these i would suggest you learning some JavaScript(you dont need to master that. just a few basics will do for form validations, etc)



And if you really have much time, then you can learn AJAX. AJAX is just to enhance the browsing experience, like when you place your mouse pointer on name to the left here, it displays my score, best answers etc. This is one example for ajax.

If ajax were not to be employed in this scenario, then it would have been like you should click the my name here and it ll take you to a new page and display the score, etc only there.

Thus ajax can be like some sort of enhancement on your webpage's design and is not really needed for every website to use ajax.



So, for now concentrate on learning HTML with CSS. Its the ultimate frame where all the other languages work on.



You might also wish to refer some good tutorials out in the net. Here are the links to some good tutorials :



http://www.w3schools.com/htmL/

http://www.2kweb.net/html-tutorial/

http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/firstcss

http://www.pageresource.com/jscript/index2.htm



Hope this helps. Happy learning! :)

Answer 2

First of all, good luck :P



Xhtml, css, php/asp, mysql are a must.

Javascript will spice things up, Ajax will provide better interactivity.



Php is easier to use / less expensive, asp will only run on servers running IIS, not apache or any other app for that matter.



ASP will get u further if you're going to go big, it has more functions and basically can do more.



Ajax will provide real time updates on the client side and is usually backed by php or asp. Think of search as you type, or login without refreshing the page or adding stuff to the shopping carts without refreshing.



Hope this helps...

Answer 3

As you may know a domain name is just a name, not a real website. If you are going to create your website: 1- Buy a domain name. A domain name is a name you want to call your website. To get a domain name, you have to pay an annual fee to a registrar for the right to use that name. 2- Buy a web hosting service to provide your online space and enable you to get your website online at your purchased domain name.



To get further information take a look at: http://www.threehosts.com/build



You need a web hosting service which supports online payments like, Master Card, Visa & PayPal. It is very important that your service be uptime. It means that you can access your account whenever you want to update your web pages, and your visitors can view your website whenever they type your website address. If your hosting service is not uptime it is real hell!



If you want to start your website I recommend purchase your domain and hosting together. In this way it is possible to get your domain for free. Some hosting services offer this gift today.



If you want to run a successful e-commerce you must choose a reliable web hosting service. The security of your business directly depends on the security of your hosting service. (Hacker safe)



Take a look at: http://www.threehosts.com/business



There you can reach the three reputable companies that are leaders in the E-commerce web hosting industry. They fulfill all your requirements to sell online. By using each of them, everything you need for your business website is provided in one eCommerce Hosting Package.



Good Luck!

Answer 4

You will deinitely need HTML, CSS as you have said.



You might also need:



Javascript, for client side scripting.

PHP is a good choice for a backend (business logic), I know many companies use it, but for your future you should learn something like Java or ASP.NET. Big companies run on those solutions.



Java Server Pages should let you do everything you ever need on the e-commerce side.