Monday, August 22, 2022
Here is a quick rundown.
- If you want your site to be accessible on the Internet, you first need a host. Some hosts let you build your website with non-technical, drag-and-drop tools. (ex. Weebly and Wix). There are usually free versions that have some restrictions, and inexpensive paid versions.
- Similar to Weebly and Wix, there is WordPress -- the .com site, not the .org site. You can build a free site, and upgrade to a paid version for a small fee.
- The next step up is to get a hosting package that gives you 1-click installs of WordPress. Some typical hosts with inexpensive packages are BlueHost, HostGator, GoDaddy, DreamHost, and many others. For a few dollars a month you get hosting and you can install the ".org" version of WordPress following simple instructions. You can then use free themes and plugins to create the site you want with virtually no technical knowledge.
- If you want to look at making your own site from scratch, you still need a host. Then, your most basic technology for building the site is HTML. There are an amazing number of sites on the web that give free HTML tutorials. However, sites with HTML only will look very plain.
- To style the appearance of an HTML website you will need to use CSS. Once again, there are an amazing number of free CSS tutorials available on the web.
- The next level would be to add movement and interactivity to your site. That is done with JavaScript. Once again, many free tutorials.
- To make more sophisticated websites that allow for user accounts and storing information you need two more components: A "Sever Side" programming language and a DataBase. The most used combination is PHP (the language) and MySQL (the database). MySQL is the most popular database. Other "Server Side" languages that commonly go with it are Ruby and Python. However, I believe the trend is toward new "Sever Side" JavaScript. For that you may want to google the MEAN stack