Computer Science Canada

Making a website??

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Wed Apr 24, 2013 7:54 am ]
Post subject:  Making a website??

I'm looking to get a website going pretty soon, but I have a few questions. First, how does getting a domain work? I'm planning on buying from godaddy, but after I buy the domain, how do I edit my website? Would godaddy provide an editor for me to put my code in? How would I tell the editor weather I'm writing in HTML, or CSS, or JS? Obviously I'm gonna learn a bit of HTML before I get a website, but I want to know how Id actually use the website as well.

Author:  Insectoid [ Wed Apr 24, 2013 11:06 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

I wouldn't recommend godaddy. They are evil. Unfortunately I don't know of any alternatives. I just know that godaddy is evil.

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Wed Apr 24, 2013 11:34 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Could you explain why GoDaddy is evil? It has the highest ratings on all the sites I've seen...

Author:  rdrake [ Wed Apr 24, 2013 12:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a website??

Depends if you like elephants or not.

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Wed Apr 24, 2013 12:53 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

O.o That's horrible... Any suggestions for alternatives? Also still looking for answers on original question.

Author:  Panphobia [ Wed Apr 24, 2013 12:57 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Whether they are evil or not is irrelevant. The service they provide is what matters.

Author:  DemonWasp [ Wed Apr 24, 2013 1:21 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

In this case, though, the service is widely known to be subpar. There are a lot of other hosting services out there, most of which don't have the terrible reputation that GoDaddy has.

Also, many of them don't blatantly lie about their uptime. For further details, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Daddy#Controversies

Author:  Zren [ Wed Apr 24, 2013 4:24 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

You don't have to buy your domain and web hosting at the same place. You can buy a .ca domain for 10$ at http://www.10dollar.ca . I'm not sure who to use for a paid host though.

Just understand that you probably don't need the best of the best. Stick with the lowest tier. I very much doubt you'll use more than 100Mb storage space unless you are hosting binaries/archives. If you are, then just use a file host like http://www.mediafire.com/

What do you plan on putting on your site anyways? If you just plan to practice, I'd recommend using one of the millions of free web hosts out there.

Eg: http://www.awardspace.com/

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Wed Apr 24, 2013 4:29 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Well for the first month or so, Ill just be screwing around learning HTML/CSS/JS blah blah blah, but after that, I plan to create a gaming site of some sort. I've already got a few cool game idea's I'd like to make, so after I learn JS, or maybe flash or python, I'll start making the site into a game site.

For the most part though, The site is just going to be a learning experience for me, nothing too serious. 10dollar.ca looks good, I'll probably get my domain from there.

I still don't quite understand how I'd go about editing the site. Like would I do it through my web hosting site? Would I just upload .html files to them?

Author:  Zren [ Wed Apr 24, 2013 4:45 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

You buy a domain from a registrar, who will register your domain and tell it where your DNS servers are. A number of registrars will host your DNS servers as well.

The DNS server maintains your subdomains. Eg: domain.com, www.domain.com, mx.domain.com, foo.domain.com. This is where you tell the subdomain to point to a particular server. Eg: www.domain.com would point to your webserver which would be run by your web host.

To put files on your web server by using FTP (file transfer protocol). Use FileZilla after your host gives you your FTP username/password/ftp server url.

Once you get used to editing static web pages, you could move on to a scripting language like PHP and using a database to edit content like a blog post.

Also, you don't need to buy a domain if you are using a free web host as they'll give you a free (unattractive) subdomain.

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Wed Apr 24, 2013 4:49 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

I think I understand it now, thanks for the information! Smile

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Thu Apr 25, 2013 1:11 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

One more question. On http://www.awardspace.com/ there are two plans I'm interested in. One is the free one, and the other is the 41c/m one. Which plan should I get? Obviously I don't need a ridiculous amount of storage or traffic, and I only need one domain. But the 5 dollar plan has Python and Ruby, and I feel I might need that...

Thanks

Author:  Zren [ Thu Apr 25, 2013 10:56 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

5$ is in impulse buy territory.

There's nothing stopping you from first making a free server, then buying a 5$ one before the sale ends.

Unless you plan on using Drupal, a Content Management System (CMS) (sorta like Wordpress but in python), or writing scripts that are always updating 24/7 then don't bother buying it for Python/Ruby. If you do end up with wanting to try a python/ruby webserver, then check out Heroku. It has a free dev tier for learning. I'm currently using them for a flask (python) webserver, and a NodeJS webserver.

The hardware you'll be on as a paying customer will (hopefully) be better. That said, I honestly can't remember the differences between free and basic tier from when I used awardspace as it's been awhile.

Author:  rdrake [ Fri Apr 26, 2013 11:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a website??

Hosts I've either used or had recommended to me:

  • For shared hosting, I've used A Small Orange in the past. If you want a good starting point I'd really recommend them. They offer great support, a stable environment, and are quite affordable with room to grow on their shared plans.
  • I've heard good things about these guys if you're running a very small site and want pay-as-you go. If you start to serve large files they can get expensive pretty quickly.
  • As was mentioned before, Heroku is a great PaaS. They support numerous common stacks, use PostgreSQL as the default database (wordpress only supports MySQL, but PostgreSQL is wonderful), and offer a free tier. I'd look at Heroku once you get more advanced.


I've bought my domains either directly from ASO in the past, or from Namecheap.

rdrake's law of choosing a web host: If the company's site has numerous pictures of stock models and groups of smiling models staring at a presentation, they're probably not worth dealing with. Odds are they will try to lock you in and never let you leave.

Author:  BigBear [ Sat Apr 27, 2013 12:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a website??

My issue with GoDaddy is that it doesn't use cPanel.

@Zren Drupal is php Smile

Are you planing on having dynamic content or just static pages?
You said you want to make a game site. Do you want to play games on your site?

Quote:
How would I tell the editor weather I'm writing in HTML, or CSS, or JS?


Put simply a website is a collection of webpages. A webpage in its simplest form is an .html file. While an html can technically contain CSS or JavaScript, they are usually placed in .css and .js respectively. Even with CSS and Javascript in separate files you still need to import them into HTML.

Getting a little bit more complicated there are cgi scripts where you can run a scripting language as a webpage with the file extension .cgi.

Then there are Content Management Systems (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal), which make creating sites really easy, but make customizations more difficult.

The extra knowledge you need to customize something is quite large. Most of the time there is a ready made solution (Add-ons, extensions, etc) but if there is not, writing your own is not trivial.

Then there are frameworks like Ruby on Rails or Django, which require you to build your site from the ground up but give you a deeper understanding and make customizations easier.

Comparing CMS' to frameworks.

With a framework you actually directly control and see what your database looks like (for better or for worse). Writing your own code requires more work up front than a ready made solution but if you need to customize the ready made solution to do something it currently doesn't, there is a large knowledge gap, whereas modifying your own code is trivial.

I would recommend Django and start developing on your local machine and play around with web development before you worry about hosting, especially paying for hosting.

And if you do want to put it online, I would recommend Heroku. You get one Dyno (thread) for free and it is a lot like hosting it on your own computer.

Django Resources:
http://gettingstartedwithdjango.com/
https://django.2scoops.org/
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/intro/tutorial01/

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Sun Apr 28, 2013 7:31 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Ended up going with 10dollar.ca, and got a 2$/y plan from awardspace.com which suits my needs perfectly!(The free one put ads on my page)

Now for building my website, I'm trying to decide what to do... I kind of wanted to build from scratch with HTML, but it seems kind of inefficient and slow, and I feel like it will take forever to get anything visually pleasing. Would it be would using Wordpress, or would I not be learning anything if I went that way. The #1 goal of this website was to learn, so I'm not too sure which way I should go...

Author:  Sur_real [ Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:29 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Well what kind of site is it and what do you want to learn?
Is it just a blog? a personal site?
For the backend, do you want to use PHP? python? ruby?

Wordpress is good for blogs but for anything else, it's better to go with some other framework.

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:57 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Its just a personal site, and I don't know what a backend is Wink I think I've decided just to go HTML/CSS with no editors or templates or things like that.

Author:  Sur_real [ Mon Apr 29, 2013 7:44 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Oh, backend just refers to the stuff on the server. With a server, you can deliver dynamic content and not just HTML/CSS/Javascript.

Hm, most people nowadays rely on some sort of front end framework to help with the front end stuff.
It's definitely worth looking into instead of trying to do everything yourself Smile

One that I recommend is Bootstrap: http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/
While you might want to wait on Bootstrap 3 to come out in a couple of months, you can try 2.3 to familiarize yourself with front end dev.

Foundation is also a nice one to consider: http://foundation.zurb.com

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Mon Apr 29, 2013 7:49 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Hmm, neat, Ill have a look at those two!

Could you help me out with a small HTML problem I'm having aswell? Basically, I'm trying to put the "About" hyperlink anywhere on my page(x and y coord), but I can't quite figure out how to do it. I tried the <DIV> style thing, but that didn't work, and right now, I've just got it centered on my page, but thats not really what I want, since I want a bunch of links to other pages on the top bar. Could you let me know what I'm doing wrong, and how I can get the About hyperlink at a specific point? Thanks Very Happy

You can view the source at GamesWorld.ca

Author:  Sur_real [ Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:07 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Well you can add margin or padding (difference between the two http://www.w3schools.com/css/box-model.gif) in your CSS but it's best to not try and find an exact point on the page to put something since everyone has a different screen/resolution.

If you try to understand and go through the tutorial for bootstrap, http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/getting-started.html it'll simplify all these problems for you and make your site look much cleaner

Author:  Zren [ Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:13 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

This will run through the display:; and position:; and a few other general layout techniques.

http://learnlayout.com/

But yeah, bootstrap makes layouts a million times easier.

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:23 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Ok, I'll check it out in the morning and let you guys know how it goes. Thanks for all the help!

Author:  BigBear [ Mon Apr 29, 2013 9:51 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

You will still learn a lot using a CMS, but mostly what you will learn is how to use that CMS.

You will learn more using a framework, which still lets you use whatever methods you want.

For example in django you still use html/css. I also use and recommend twitter bootstrap.

To get familiar with HTML/CSS I recommend HTML Dog's tutorials. I just checked and they have been updated for HTML 5 and CSS 3.

http://www.htmldog.com/guides/css/
http://www.htmldog.com/guides/html/

I look forward to seeing your website!

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:56 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Alright, so I've downloaded bootstrap and i watched a couple vids on it, but it looks like its just a template that people edit... Is that it??? If thats it, I don't think I can work with this yet, I don't understand half the HTML/CSS/JS in the templates provided.

Author:  Sur_real [ Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:48 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Try going through some tutorials?
Have you checked out the site zren suggested?
http://learnlayout.com/
or
http://learn.shayhowe.com/html-css/
or
http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/web

Yeah bootstrap has templates but most of all, it's a tool that will help you make awesome websites Smile

Author:  BigBear [ Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RE:Making a website??

Nathan4102 @ Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:56 pm wrote:
Alright, so I've downloaded bootstrap and i watched a couple vids on it, but it looks like its just a template that people edit... Is that it??? If thats it, I don't think I can work with this yet, I don't understand half the HTML/CSS/JS in the templates provided.


Twitter Bootstrap provides code for the layout and look of your site.
And you need to know enough HTML/CSS to get by when using it, which is why I recommended the HTML Dog tutorials.

Once you know the basics you can use some of the code from the twitter bootstrap examples on your site.

The great thing about the web is that you can see how other websites were created.

You can view the page source (ctrl + u) and see how everything was done. The HTML code references CSS which is also available to you, since it is available to your browser. Just look in the header for src files with .css and click on them and you can view them (or download them).

Another popular way to examine the source of a particular part of a webpage is with Developer Tools (FireFox) or Chrome's Developer Tools. Right click on an area and select "Inspect Element".
I recommend Code School's course on Chrome Development Tools: http://discover-devtools.codeschool.com/
The knowledge will also apply to Firefox.

As an aside. FireFox's 3D View is crazy cool.

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:31 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Alright, I'll learn a bit more HTML and come back to this later. Thanks guys!

Author:  choofieblankets [ Mon Jul 22, 2013 1:42 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a website??

I think you can edit it with any Web developer you are good of..

Julia Williams
Choofie Owner
http://www.choofie.com.au/

Author:  letsassist [ Tue Sep 03, 2013 3:01 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

Learning a little bit of HTML will not be of any help! You need to hire adequately experienced web designers and developers who will design the entire site with the functionality according to your needs! Yeah, godaddy is undoubtedly the renowned domain hosting provider.
If, you are looking to have your own website within nominal budget, then you should opt for Bigrocks

Author:  Nathan4102 [ Tue Sep 03, 2013 5:13 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

... Objective of this site was to learn, not to come out with a fully functioning website.

Author:  mirhagk [ Tue Sep 03, 2013 7:50 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

I feel like the last poster was just a spam bot. It probably posts on anything where someone is talking about domains and learning html.

Author:  EricLover [ Thu Feb 01, 2018 4:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a website??

Nathan4102 @ 2013-04-24, 04:54 wrote:
I'm looking to get a website going pretty soon, but I have a few questions. First, how does getting a domain work? I'm planning on buying from godaddy, but after I buy the domain, how do I edit my website? Would godaddy provide an editor for me to put my code in? How would I tell the editor weather I'm writing in HTML, or CSS, or JS? Obviously I'm gonna learn a bit of HTML before I get a website, but I want to know how Id actually use the website as well.


Getting a domain is easy. Go to Namecheap and buy one for less than 15 bucks. It will also include free privacy so nobody can see who the real owner is.

After you get a domain, get something called 'Web Hosting'. This is where you will host your website. Also fairly cheap these days. I think 1and1 is offering them for a $1 a month.

Then just install Wordpress. If you want to code your own, better to learn some basic HTML. Everyone uses Wordpress though. Almost everyone.

Author:  TokenHerbz [ Thu Feb 01, 2018 4:48 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a website??

EricLover, I hope they change your "Newbie" to "NecroLover"


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