Learning some Web Development Skills

[penfold]

Years ago I did do some web coding when I worked on my old school Intranet. I also did some web sites as part of my course which I finished a couple of years ago. The problem I have now is that I haven't done anything since and I can't remember anything that I did. As things have moved on so much I'm finding I'm pretty much starting from scratch. I have access to Visual Studio 2015 Community and have been looking at that to develop some additional skills. Thing is when I'm looking for walkthrough/guides etc I keep finding old guides and I figure that if I'm going to learn something I might as well do it with the latest versions of things.

 

Has anyone got any advice or links to good guides I could use to get going?

[dhicks]

Thing is when I'm looking for walkthrough/guides etc I keep finding old guides and I figure that if I'm going to learn something I might as well do it with the latest versions of things.

 

How do you mean by "web coding"? As in creating nice-looking pages in HTML, or writing code on both the front and back ends to create an application that does something? Personally, I'd simply aim to write something and figure out what you need to install / learn / program to get it done. Choose a backend technology, decide which front-end libraries you are going to use and start writing. If it's any help, I'd tend towards using Python, via simple CGI scripts, on the backend with JQuery and associated plugins for the front end. Write the user interface entirely in HTML / Javascript on the front end, don't have any backend code generate HTML, use AJAX calls from the browser to load data into your frontend.

[sonofsanta]

Personally I'd recommend w3schools.com every day of the week for anything web-based. Absolutely fantastic resource.

[Arthur]

Personally I'd recommend w3schools.com every day of the week for anything web-based. Absolutely fantastic resource.

That website has gotten a bit of a bad rep in the past...

 

http://www.w3fools.com

[penfold]

@dhicks - ideally I'd like to write both front and back end to create an application that does something as this is what I am aiming to move some of the stuff I have done for my job at the moment. Unfortunately that seems like a bit of a leap at the moment for me so I started looking at creating some basic (nice) looking webpages.

 

To be honest I've started questioning what I am doing at the minute (job wise) and am looking to gain some new skills which may take me in a different direction to what I've been doing. Even if it doesn't pan out that way, I would like to have some new skills which I could see some use for in the near future.

[dhicks]

Unfortunately that seems like a bit of a leap at the moment for me so I started looking at creating some basic (nice) looking webpages.

 

Then a good place to start might well be basic HTML / CSS, then start adding in JQuery and associated add-ins to create more interactive pages. The nice thing about all of those is that they can be developed with a web browser and a text editor, you don't even have to have a live website, you can just use a locally-installed web server if you want.

[sonofsanta]

Then a good place to start might well be basic HTML / CSS, then start adding in JQuery and associated add-ins to create more interactive pages. The nice thing about all of those is that they can be developed with a web browser and a text editor, you don't even have to have a live website, you can just use a locally-installed web server if you want.

 

And you only need the locally installed webserver if you're doing server-side tech like ASP or PHP; if you're only learning HTML/CSS/jQuery, just open the local file with your browser. Easy peasy.

[dhicks]

if you're only learning HTML/CSS/jQuery, just open the local file with your browser.

 

I think Chrome, and possibly other browsers, still limit access to Javascript run from local files - you have to remember to add a command-line switch when running the browser.

[SimonHooker]

A little late to this thread, but if you're still looking I'd advise checking out https://www.codeschool.com/getting-started

 

I've used it for some of the more advanced topics in the past, however the basic Javascript and HTML courses are very easy to get into and it leads you through the subjects very well.

Edited March 14, 2016 by SimonHooker

[PaulBM]

Also late to the thread.

 

My son found Adobe's Brackets editor to be a big help with HTML and CSS, which is the place to start. Javascript can come later if required.

 

You might like to look at https://www.codecademy.com/ too, it has structured free courses for HTML, https://www.codecademy.com/learn/web

[chrispounds]

https://www.codecademy.com/ is a great place to start and they have a huge range of courses from start to finish. Also maybe consider Lynda.com? Some educational establishments get this for free but i dont know if that counts in UK - i still have access through my university and im milking it for all its worth!