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Me again... What Do I Need To Start My First Site??

H

h0kie99

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2004
82
0
VA
I am starting this HTML course in 2 weeks and I obviously need to create a website... I just recently bought an iBook (OS X) and I am a "switcher" so the Mac is pretty new to me right now.

I have so many questions about how to get started:

- What in the world is Apache and how will it help me? (I clicked the "personal web sharing" in my system preferences, but aside from that, I don't know where Apache is or what it is!)
- I was going to use DotEasy to get a domain name and host my site there. Is that a good choice?
- I downloaded Dreamweaver so I can create pages, but I need some way to get them on the web obviously. Do I need an FTP program or will my web host have that?
- I downloaded both Fetch and Interarchy... do I need one of them?!?

I feel so overwhelmed because I really know NOTHING about the Mac. I wish I had figured out I was going to start in web design before I bought it... I probably would've learned on a PC first. Just because I'm comfortable with it. I'm sorry I have so many questions but I seriously have NO IDEA how to get this going...

THANK YOU!
 
alright kiddo: here's the skinny


personal web sharing in your systems preferences will share all items in your sites folder of the home folder (home>sites). to view the files, open safari and type 'localhost/~*username*' where *username* is obviously your username.

There is also another share point in /Library/Webserver/Documents which can be reached just by typing 'localhost'. This is advantageous if you don't have more than one user running sites on your computer.

If you want a real website that is up 24/7/365, you will need a host instead. This is where the FTP programs come in. In short, a host someone that has a set of space set aside on a webserver which allows you to easily point a domain name to. This server will work all the time, even when your computer is not on.

PS: I suggest Transmit over Fetch for FTP.
 
I agree Transmit is a much better application. How did you land yourself a web design position by the way? I'm working tech support begging my boss to let me do some web work, they are planning a major site redesign and I have yet to get the tap. It's really annoying because if they do decide to let me do it, they are already putting the backend stuff in place with ColdFusion which I strongly dislike.

I'd like that tap any day now...
 
A few answers:

Good info, mnkeybsness.

- Apache is a webserving daemon. Essentially, it's the program that responds when somebody wants to check out your site. It's installed already by Mac OS X, and it's files are hidden so you can't accidentally break anything, unless you decide to start doing some increadibly advanced stuff. By turning on "Personal Web Sharing," you've told OS X to activate Apache and listen for requests. You're set, at least for basic serving on a local network, or for testing (without uploading to your Host's server) purposes.

-As for domain names, I went with EasyDNS. But I'm not sure that they do actual hosting. I host my own, on a small, old Linux box. I've heard people recommend Rackspace, but I wouldn't know how good they are. Try to find some reviews of the various hosting companies, and price stuff out.

-Whether or not you need an FTP client entirely depends on your Web Host. Some will use FTP, and then yes, you'll need Fetch, or Transmit, which are both FTP programs ("clients"). Some hosts like to use WebDAV (an alternative to FTP), which is nice, because it's built into Dreamweaver and OS X. And actually, OS X supports FTP directly through the "Connect to Server..." dialog, but it can be slow.

Your previous posts talk about learning ASP... does your boss or whatever company you're designing this for require ASP? What are you trying to accomplish with this site, or more plainly, what is the site for? What you need GREATLY depends on what you want to do. And there's almost always more than one way to do something. Web programing can involve something as simple as learning HTML and putting together a few pages, or as complex as learning HTML, PHP, Perl, ASP, mysql, and Photoshop - or any combination! So figure out what you *want*, and come back here to ask around for what you need.

Keep asking questions! Macrumors is one forum where people are always eager to help. And though you're more comfortable on a PC, MANY people will tell you that Mac's are actually better for web design. Really, any platform is good for Web Design, it's just a matter of learning the tools. Macs just benefit because of the superior OS. :)

-rand()
 
Thank you all!

You guys have no idea how much you are appreciated here... ALL the info I have gotten has been so informative and I love these forums!!

A little about me (and why I'm asking such a bizarre combination of questions!): I currently work as a Business Analyst basically doing pure SQL stuff. It's excruciatingly boring. A friend just got involved in the internet consulting business and is doing extremely well in the sales area (getting new clients, etc.) but has to contract out all the web programming work because he knows nothing about technology. I have always been interested in web design but just for playing around, nothing serious (and this was on my old PC). I find it fairly easy to pick up new programming languages, too, so this friend was quick to ask me to help. My "plan" is to learn as much as I can (starting out with general web design knowledge and HTML) and hopefully be able to start helping him out in 6 months or so. I'd love to be able to make this my living. But I'm the first to admit I'm at a severely elementary level right now.

Having said that, my internet consulting sales friend informed me of the different technologies his clients are using. (Keep in mind, he isn't a technical person WHATSOEVER, and I'm just starting out so I don't know much about what he's trying to tell me!) He said obviously learn HTML, but he also indicated that a lot of his clients' sites are written in ASP. So, if I were to take on one of his projects, I would need to know how to edit the ASP code, I'm assuming. He also thinks it would be wise to learn some graphics stuff -- to be able to play with pictures that the client wants up on the site. This is all he has told me so far, but I know I need to start with HTML. I just wonder if having a Mac will hinder me from being able to work on some of his clients' sites, especially if they are all written in ASP!?

Thanks for all the help!!! Comments? Suggestions? Frustrations with this newbie? :D
 
Dreamweaver should allow you to work on sites written in ASP. However, you'll need a Windows machine to host the site. Sometimes your internet service provider will offer windows servers, or you could buy a cheap windows machine to test your pages. That's what I did back when my business built ASP pages.
 
i'd stay away from ASP if at all possible if you can and use PHP or perl instead (this way you aren't tied to a windows server - same goes for cold fusion). you already have php and perl (as well as ruby, python, etc.) installed on your mac. you can even download mysql if you need it.

before you start using one of the huge wysiwyg programs, i'd suggest checking out the html/xhtml tutorials on w3schools and do you initial coding in a text-only editor. You'll be much happier down the road when you know the ins and outs of html and can easily fix your problems (and know how to create better code).
 
Fatty Membrane, good advice I'm a big fan of w3schools. Those are a great primer to get you started writing semantically correct code.

I just want to mention a couple of my pet peeves,
1. I hate when sites don't have URLs that make sense i.e.
http://yourdomain.com/products/prod...verymuch.asp?page=43243243243&style=thissucks
should be
http://yourdomain.com/products/

this requires mucking with .htaccess, but is well worth it A List Apart Article

(this also allows for any future changes to be made using any programming language as you learn more without breaking links)

2. Non-accessible websites, just read over http://accessify.com/

3. This is from an upkeep perspective, but separate style and content. Keep your xhtml as lean and clean as humanly possible and serve all the style cues from a css file. Check out http://csszengarden.com/ for some examples and inspiration.

Those are my big three annoyances, but with 6 months you have plenty of time to learn how to avoid those common mistakes. Good luck to you, and hopefully my title will have changed within the next 6 months as well.

Cheers,
Dave
 
H0kie, on a personal note.. Did you go to Virginia Tech? If so tough break with young Mr. Vick, things are looking brighter for Syracuse.
 
Making Note Of All This Info

I swear I have learned more in the 3 days I've been on this forum than I ever have researching all of this on the internet. I am so grateful for you guys!

I've looked at the w3schools website... it looks like it has a TON of information!! Thanks!

And regarding the ASP, I always have my ol' desktop PC in the closet that I stopped using 2 months ago when I got my iBook. So, if necessary, I could plug that sucker in and use it for testing as well.

davecuse: yep, i did go to va tech... young mr. vick is an idiot! whenever i used to run into a syracuse fan, i'd love bringing up that '99 game where we smashed you, but i don't do that anymore... vt has disappointed me in recent years!
 
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