General
I never thought web-development was going to be so complex. There are so many details, and different rules that you have to remember. It is a bit insane. So far I am enjoying learning the material, especially the stepping-stones: start with HTML (titles, body, and paragraphs), add some style to the verbiage which you create to make it lively through CSS (create ID’s, change fonts, change font-styles) and finally add some interaction to your HTML and CSS creations through JavaScript.
Codecademy
Codecademy is a great learning mechanism, it provides step-by-step instructions. The only functionality that is a somewhat disappointing is the hint feature. The feature seems to be hit or miss. Some of the exercise have very clear hints others are clear, but not at useful. I have truly learned to appreciate bloggers who have posted their Codecademy questions, especially the JavaScript paper, rock, scissor blogs. That exercise was pretty difficult in my book.
Questions
1. How long did it take you to learn how to code and what language did you start with?
2. What source can I look at to create a form? I want the webpage that I create for class to have a registration sheet which includes a name (first and last), address, phone number (required field), Date of birth, and a free text field which for medical history. Will we be learning about these features in class? Can these functions be written using HTML, JavaScript?
3. Is it possible to gather information from a registration page without a database? If yes, how? If no, which database option is the most effective?
4. What webpage do you recommend for leveraging tab features, specifically: home, about, contact us, testimonies
I am really excited about creating my own web-page, but at the same time am feeling overwhelmed, there is so much to learn.
1. I’ve been teaching myself how to code (it’s a continuous process — I’ll never be “finished”) for about five years. I started with a few simple HTML tags in a CMS, then move on to making a few web pages in HTML and CSS. It wasn’t until summer 2009 I started learning JavaScript using a book. That process wasn’t easy and put that book down on a few different occasions, but picked it up again each time with a better understanding. I needed practical experience to really move forward.
By early 2010 I started learning some PHP and MySQL, which are — respectively — the scripting language and database software that WordPress uses. I moved on to learning Python on-and-off in early 2011 because I wanted to learn Django, which I began learning that summer.
For six months last year I worked on my newsroom’s application development team using a little JavaScript for one project but mostly Django for a couple of others.
2. I’d recommend using a Google Form
https://support.google.com/drive/answer/87809?hl=en
Here are the fundamentals if you want to make your own:
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_forms.asp
3. Yes, you would need a database. What kind of registration form would it be? Some cases, like an email newsletter, wouldn’t require you to make a database if you were using third-party software that had that capability. But they would probably provide that registration form, too. General site registation forms, like news or paid service sites, use databases and usually cookie their users.
4. Foundation and Boostrap, the two frameworks that have been mentioned in class, provide good starting points for creating common menus.
There is so much to learn! It’s very exciting!