Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Website from scratch

Options
  • 24-11-2012 11:25pm
    #1
    Username99
    Closed Accounts Posts: 235 ✭✭


    Hi everyone, this must be the biggest tech newbie question ever, but I am just wondering what are the steps a programmer has to go through when building a website from scratch?

    When a client comes along with a project they want done, you obviously draw up your plan, tailored to their needs, where does it go fro there?


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Tomas_S
    Registered Users Posts: 300 ✭✭Tomas_S


    Username99 wrote: »
    Hi everyone, this must be the biggest tech newbie question ever, but I am just wondering what are the steps a programmer has to go through when building a website from scratch?

    When a client comes along with a project they want done, you obviously draw up your plan, tailored to their needs, where does it go fro there?

    Build a prototype maybe using html and css? Limited functionality.


  • Options
    #3
    Username99
    Closed Accounts Posts: 235 ✭✭Username99


    Tomas_S wrote: »
    Build a prototype maybe using html and css? Limited functionality.

    Can you define Limited Functionality?


  • Options
    #4
    Tomas_S
    Registered Users Posts: 300 ✭✭Tomas_S


    Username99 wrote: »
    Can you define Limited Functionality?

    The way it will look with few working links to different pages etc. Maybe more experienced people will add some more knowledge.


  • Options
    #5
    mark renton
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,696 ✭✭✭mark renton


    Username99 wrote: »
    Can you define Limited Functionality?

    Limited Functioanlity: Basic website where users would normally just access web pages which have static data and links to other web pages.

    Extended Functionality : Like boards.ie, where users post data - the data needs to be stored in a database and can be changed by users etc

    Dependant on requirements above would determine which programming languages to use, Limited would usually just use HTML / CSS to display data
    Extended would maybe use PHP to access the data in database


  • Options
    #6
    GreeBo
    Registered Users Posts: 27,161 ✭✭✭✭GreeBo


    I would start with mockups.
    So basically you create the GUI for all the required pages, all the links work in so far as they can be clicked on and do something however they do they same thing each time, essentially its a bunch of static pages that are a hardcoded version of what the finished site will look like.
    I would make the GUI production grade before showing it to the customer, maybe 1 or 2 pages so they get the idea, but you dont want to spend weeks on getting it all just right only for them to say they dont actually like it.
    Frequent customer interaction is your friend here.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    komodosp
    Registered Users Posts: 1,657 ✭✭✭komodosp


    Depends on the kind of project, Is it an e-commerce site? I'd start by downloading one of the many open-source e-commerce platforms and go from there... Is it purely informational that the owner will want to update or something? Then get a CMS such as Wordpress or something.

    But if it's just a couple of pages that are static and will never change, you could build it straight from scratch.

    Is the design already done for you? Start by meeting with them and sketching out what they want on the different pages, and discussing the different functionality they want. Then you can choose a platform, and from there, build the mockups as Greebo says, basically so they know what it'll look like. Regular contact is important at this stage as they'll have constantly changing ideas on what they want where.

    Once they are happy with the look, get coding.


  • Options
    #8
    Steve
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 22,584 CMod ✭✭✭✭Steve


    If they are any way computer literate, get them to show you what they think they want by them putting together a powerpoint sideshow of the pages.

    This serves two purposes - it demonstrates to them how hard it cam be to get something to 'look right' and gives you a huge insight into what they expect in terms of content and functionality.

    Next is get a list of other sites they like the look and feel of, explain the various restrictions of hosting videos / flash content etc and you have a starting point.

    Lastly, best of luck! It's a great learning experience to do it from scratch - make sure it's worthwhile for you as well in that you use and learn to implement latest versions (html5, css3, jquery etc) to their full extent!


Advertisement