WEBucation HELP!!!

[Drones]

I am a graphic designer - actually my background is in Landscape Architecture but has slowly transitioned into graphic design. Lately i have been growing very fascinated with web design and know very little about it. I can work well in Illustrator, photoshop, I own dreamweaver but have yet to dive in to it... not even real sure what it does

I hear terms like CSS/PHP/HTML/WEB HOSTING but it may as well be Swahili!!! Can someone detail the various components and lay out in laymen's terms for me?

Is there a good book out there - (by good i mean an easy read that will not make me want to throw it across the room after five secondS of code and algorithms)...

can anyone drop some knowledge on me. I would greatly appreciate any guidance.

[Maxson]

Umm. Ok. First. There's graphics, something for your future website. I would recommend anything, even paint brush will do (basicaly all my website was done in paint brush^^) Then again u already have all needed graphics programs. Second, there's HTML, first step in web designing. My only recommendation would be here to never use TABLES for positioning - here's where comes CSS for help - it's clean, it's quick, it's easier(after a while^^)

Web hosting is just a simple service, has nothing to do with web design. One has more features, second has less.

PHP is for databases and maybe more of dynamic webpages(but not that much in comparison to html) I prefer to think about it as the last step in webdesigning.

There's more to tell, "go google" for web design. And remeber, google is your best friend^^

I could be wrong^^

Good luck!

[tsmith]

There are tons of good books.

I love Eric Meyer's stuff and the book from the CSS Zen Garden guys is pretty good too.

I also have this which is pretty good and tons of online guides / tutorials.

[_Redrum]

HTML
Go to your browser's main menu and click View > View Source; that text you see is HTML. It's a computer language for creating web page layouts and modifying certain properties of text on a web page (e.g., size, color).

CSS
You'll also see CSS in that View Source document (whether you know it or not ). CSS is a computer language for how the things in the HTML layout will appear visually.

It may sound like these two overlap a bit, that's because they do. For example, HTML is for laying out your web page and CSS is for how things appear visually, but layout is visual as well. The reason we have both is so that we can define the barebones stuff in HTML and then make the look and layout much richer using CSS. Later, if we want to change the look, we just have to change the CSS without touching the HTML.

PHP
This is a programming language, and it's much more complex, but the idea is this: When you go to a website, the images and text that you see are pulled from a computer somewhere in the world. A program written in PHP sits on that remote computer where you got the web page and modifies the HTML in it before it sends it to you.

For example, notice when you go to this thread, you see new posts appearing. But you click the same link every time. This is because, when you click the link to get to this thread, the PHP program "builds" this web page based on all of the posts that have been submitted.

Web-Hosting
As I mentioned, web pages are sent to your computer from one of countless computers around the world. But these aren't just any computers, they are computers owned by companies that have purchased the ability to be a part of the Internet. Other smaller companies, in turn, purchase from them to also be on the Internet. And if you or I want to put a website on the Internet, we must purchase "web hosting" from one of these companies. Web hosting gives you the ability to store your website on one of those company computers, which allows other people around the world to access your website.

Domain Names
You didn't ask about this one, but it's so closely related to web hosting that it would be misleading to leave it out. A domain name is necessary if you want people to access your website as something like www. ________ .com

As for resources...there are literally tons and tons of em on the net. Google any of those terms using "What is _______" (e.g., What is CSS) and you'll get more sites than you will ever need.

[Drones]

First of all thank you so much for your input - it is very helpful

I guess i should layout the big idea behind my line of questioning. I am starting a website for traditional artists (watercolorists, oil painters etc.) that can best be discribed as a cross between facebook and itunes. I can dive into more details of the company in a contest if it comes to that, but at this time the functionality involves creating profiles, uploading images, forums, chats, contests for artists, store, shopping cart etc. Basically a blend between a social network site and an ecommerce.

My struggle has been how do i make this reality. Do I host a contest here? Do i contact a "big" firm, or do i do it myself. I need page design as well as the entire site constructed so when it is launched it works. I trust this community and would love to get its creativity working on my project. What route would you suggest?

Is the total package beyond the scope of this site? It would function similar to Designcontest.net i guess but reach a different market - traditional artists.... would love your thoughts

I have purchased a domain name and can look into hosting - any thoughts for a project of this size?

email : andrew.r.oneill@gmail.com

[Drones]

HTML
Go to your browser's main menu and click View > View Source; that text you see is HTML. It's a computer language for creating web page layouts and modifying certain properties of text on a web page (e.g., size, color).

CSS
You'll also see CSS in that View Source document (whether you know it or not ). CSS is a computer language for how the things in the HTML layout will appear visually.

It may sound like these two overlap a bit, that's because they do. For example, HTML is for laying out your web page and CSS is for how things appear visually, but layout is visual as well. The reason we have both is so that we can define the barebones stuff in HTML and then make the look and layout much richer using CSS. Later, if we want to change the look, we just have to change the CSS without touching the HTML.

PHP
This is a programming language, and it's much more complex, but the idea is this: When you go to a website, the images and text that you see are pulled from a computer somewhere in the world. A program written in PHP sits on that remote computer where you got the web page and modifies the HTML in it before it sends it to you.

For example, notice when you go to this thread, you see new posts appearing. But you click the same link every time. This is because, when you click the link to get to this thread, the PHP program "builds" this web page based on all of the posts that have been submitted.

Web-Hosting
As I mentioned, web pages are sent to your computer from one of countless computers around the world. But these aren't just any computers, they are computers owned by companies that have purchased the ability to be a part of the Internet. Other smaller companies, in turn, purchase from them to also be on the Internet. And if you or I want to put a website on the Internet, we must purchase "web hosting" from one of these companies. Web hosting gives you the ability to store your website on one of those company computers, which allows other people around the world to access your website.

Domain Names
You didn't ask about this one, but it's so closely related to web hosting that it would be misleading to leave it out. A domain name is necessary if you want people to access your website as something like www. ________ .com

As for resources...there are literally tons and tons of em on the net. Google any of those terms using "What is _______" (e.g., What is CSS) and you'll get more sites than you will ever need.

First of all thank you so much for your input - it is very helpful

I guess i should layout the big idea behind my line of questioning. I am starting a website for traditional artists (watercolorists, oil painters etc.) that can best be discribed as a cross between facebook and itunes. I can dive into more details of the company in a contest if it comes to that, but at this time the functionality involves creating profiles, uploading images, forums, chats, contests for artists, store, shopping cart etc. Basically a blend between a social network site and an ecommerce.

My struggle has been how do i make this reality. Do I host a contest here? Do i contact a "big" firm, or do i do it myself. I need page design as well as the entire site constructed so when it is launched it works. I trust this community and would love to get its creativity working on my project. What route would you suggest?

Is the total package beyond the scope of this site? It would function similar to Designcontest.net i guess but reach a different market - traditional artists.... would love your thoughts

I have purchased a domain name and can look into hosting - any thoughts for a project of this size?

email : andrew.r.oneill@gmail.com

[_Redrum]

That sounds like a fairly large project. The visual design of the site would definitely work well as a contest, but the rest seems like a stretch for the contest paradigm (at least based on what I've heard from the web developers here). Unlike a design, a program either works well or it doesn't. If you ran a contest for the programming part, you would likely receive 10 versions of the same thing.

That having been said, you also wouldn't necessarily need to hire a big firm to write all the code. However, I would definitely recommend working with some person or company one on one for that part so that they can dedicate their time to making the site work the way you need it to. We may have a few people here willing to do that, though I'm not entirely certain who they are; maybe they will surface as a result of this thread.

Please visit our Start a Contest page if you'd like to start a contest for the website design.