I'm a web developer now!

[bweyandt]

I'm a help desk/Mac Support/Print Production former English teacher who was asked as part of department reorganization to become a web developer. I'm starting from scratch, really. I know what the technology can do for an intranet, but I don't know which tools people really use or what training would get me the skills to do what I need to do. The focus will be on an intranet, and creating applications for various manual tasks. Any interfaces to existing business systems and web front ends to reporting will be a plus. I just thought to get the thread started and use the feedback to help put a skills development plan for myself together. Any and all help, suggestion or opinion is welcome. Also, any insight into the various debates in the web development community (the web development equivalent of Mac vs. PC and what the various camps are) would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[MstrBob]

Aye, so, as a new web developer, what exactly are you looking into. If this is an intranet, are you going to be creating a local website? If this is what your aiming for, what aspect are you going to be responsible for? The basics are, obviously, that your pages are composed of (X)HTML, and are then layed out and positioned with CSS. But considering your looking into applications, it looks like you'll be doing some sort of Server Side Scripting, if I read you correctly. The choice of language for this would depend on your servers. Ex:

Unix/Linux servers, then you might want to consider going the PHP route
Widows servers, then you might want to consider going the ASP.net route

[bweyandt]

I'll be doing both the pages, some server side scripting, and trying to figure out which of our users' needs can best be served by some kind of web solution. What I have now is knowledge of how our systems currently work, but as far as servers are concernd we have both Apache on Linux and IIS in production. I'm supposed to hit the ground running as fast as I can, so any input folks would have on which paths to follow in scripting and what page/site construction tools to use would be helpful. I happily defer to experience and informed opinion.

[MstrBob]

Well, erm, you'd be best to pick, or find out which server you'll be using. Me, I'd say go with Linux/Apache, but its a matter of opinion.

Erm, in terms of development tools, well, you need two things to develope webpages. An editor, and a graphics program. While some here may say you can use Notepad, they are all wrong! (:p) I'd say that you get a REAL web editor. My suggestion is HTML-Kit (http://www.chami.com/html-kit/) . A lot of people here use Dreamweaver, but its expensive, and HTML-Kit is free. And then, you may want a graphics program to make graphics, though graphics aren't necessary.

http://www.w3schools.com/

They have excellent resources. If you've no prior experience in web design, then I'd suggest you start off with the latest technologies, namely, learn XHTML and CSS.

http://validator.w3.org/
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

That's some good stuff. Right, and as for server side programming (Where the real fun is!) you need to know your server's support. But there are good tutorials on that stuff at w3schools.

Also, Database. If your going to be doing interactive programs, its really hard to escape Databases. MySQL, MSSQL, PostreSQL, Oracle, ect. Find out if you have database options. They'll be invaluable.

[toicontien]

If you're looking for the cheapest route for acquiring software, go with Apache/Linux and get PHP running and a MySQL data base. PHP and MySQL are open-source software, but both are available for the Windows platform too. Choose an operating system, choose a server, then scripting language and database technology.

But like I said, PHP and mySQL are open-source and free.

For creating graphics and Web pages:

HTML Kit is awsome. After downloading it, go to my site: http://users.tm.net/gburghardt/home/ Hover your mouse cursor over "Web Development" and click on "HTML Kit Customized (.zip)"

It contains a bunch of keyboard shortcuts for writing virtually every HTML tag and a number of HTML entities, like curly quotes, bullets, and dashes. The ZIP file also contains instructions on how to install the keyboard shortcuts.

If you really want to be a rebel, download The Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/) - a freeware graphics editor that supports many of the same features as Photoshop. Or just bite the bullet and get Photoshop (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/). You won't be sorry.

You'll want an FTP client too. For that I recommend Smart FTP (http://www.smartftp.com/) or WSFTP (http://www.wsftp.com/products/file-transfer.html)

If you're going to be designing using CSS, definitely install multiple versions of Internet Explorer/Win (http://www.skyzyx.com/archives/000094.php) on a Windows computer.

Mac Vs. Windows

Eh. I'm indifferent. Mac OS X is great. Lots of free software for that OS too. Just be sure to preview pages in browsers from both operating systems. If it doesn't look exactly right on a mac, remember that people often use one type of computer over another and probably wouldn't notice that a shade of green looks a little more blue on a PC than it does on a Mac.