Help picking web page applications please !

September 26, 2006 2:26 PM

I'm asking for advice on which web applications you would recommend to a person wanting to start their own web-page. I am new to web-page design and want to get up and running on a simple web-page relatively quickly and easily. I'm not afraid of trying to create some of my own design as I know a little HTML and the bare basics of web design - CSS etc -- it's just I haven't used it in real life yet. My e-mail provider (runbox) provides free web-site hosting and I needed to buy a domain name which I did. I want to start my own web page for personal use on items such as pictures, surveys or polls, blogs, discussions etc. My domain provider uses the following applications and I'm asking for advice on which applications a new user, relatively green on the tech side, should use. See below for the list of supplied web applications (if that is what you call them).

Here is the list. I'm confused as to what I should use, or even more importantly, what not to use. Any and all recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance...

Navigation
Fantastico Home
Control Panel Home

Blogs
b2evolution
Nucleus
pMachine Free
WordPress

Content Management
Drupal
Geeklog
Joomla
Mambo Open Source
PHP-Nuke
phpWCMS
phpWebSite
Post-Nuke
Siteframe
TYPO3
Xoops

Customer Relationship
Crafty Syntax Live Help
Help Center Live
osTicket
PHP Support Tickets
Support Logic Helpdesk
Support Services Manager

Discussion Boards
phpBB2
SMF

E-Commerce
CubeCart
OS Commerce
Zen Cart

F.A.Q.
FAQMasterFlex

Guestbooks
ViPER Guestbook

Hosting Billing
AccountLab Plus
phpCOIN

Image Galleries
4Images Gallery
Coppermine Photo Gallery
Gallery

Mailing Lists
PHPlist

Polls and Surveys
Advanced Poll
phpESP
PHPSurveyor

Project Management
dotProject
PHProjekt

Site Builders
Soholaunch Pro Edition
Templates Express

Wiki
TikiWiki
PhpWiki

Other Scripts
Dew-NewPHPLinks
Moodle
Noahs Classifieds
Open-Realty
phpAdsNew
PHPauction
phpFormGenerator
WebCalendar

Extras
Language
Side menu appearance
Email notifications
Installations overview

posted by orlin to computers & internet (11 comments total)

In addition, can I use other's you might recommend that are not on this list? What would you recommend. Thank you...
posted by orlin at 2:28 PM on September 26, 2006

The list you provided are all pre-packaged apps that your provider has setup to install very easily onto your hosting setup. They do varying things from blogs to shopping carts.

If you're looking to get stuff done (blog, share pictures, etc), try those out and see which you like. I've used WordPress and Gallery respectively and liked them. You can re-style both of those to your hearts content if you like.
posted by Skorgu at 2:42 PM on September 26, 2006

I'm in the same boat you are -- I know enough HTML/CSS to get by, and I wanted to use my website to get more familiarity and experience, so I didn't want to go with a managed, pre-designed creation program. The first thing I did was download a template from Open Source Web Design and tweak it a bit. Then I decided to do a similar page design up from scratch, and I have found the following programs to have a good blend of helpful features, without forcing design choices on you:

For CSS stylesheets:
TopStyle Lite. For $80 you can get TS Pro, which I have not tried, but if it is anything like the Lite version, it could be a good all-in-one solution if you have the budget.

For HTML:
Stone's WebWriter. For personal use, you can register it for free. I really like the integrated FTP functionality of this one.

And that's pretty much all I use. It's a very simple, rarely changing site, but it has definitely helped me hone my skillz.
posted by Rock Steady at 3:19 PM on September 26, 2006

Maybe a stupid question -- is "Open Source" a type of code I can copy, alter and put back out on the web? I'm really not at all experianced with design --- YET --- although I will like to give it a good try !
posted by orlin at 3:23 PM on September 26, 2006

Also -- I'm don't want to break any laws copying and altering any code. I just want to do it the right way and legally... Thanks...
posted by orlin at 3:26 PM on September 26, 2006

Would "Typo3" be a good beginner application? Thank you...
posted by orlin at 3:35 PM on September 26, 2006

orlin; There are various meanings of "Open Source," and various licenses under which programmers can release their software.

GPL licenses allow you to see the source code, edit it, and redistribute it, as long as your modifications credit the original author and are themselves licensed under the GPL, in a nutshell.

All of your software should mention what license(s) it is released under.
posted by odinsdream at 4:01 PM on September 26, 2006

Become fluent in HTML and CSS and do your coding from scratch. WYSIWYG editors produce messy code. With that kind of knowledge, you'll be able to take any of those free apps (Wordpress, etc) and easily "hack" them and style them to suit you.

I knew absolutely no PHP when I started a phpBB forum, but I did know HTML and CSS. Just from adding a few simple mods to the board, I picked up on PHP syntax. I can't necessarily code in PHP from scratch like I can with HTML & CSS, but I can move things around and find missing marks.
posted by IndigoRain at 8:56 PM on September 26, 2006

Thanks for all your help everyone...This should get me going -- WOW there's alot out there to review -- will be hard to decide what's best...Orlin
posted by orlin at 11:32 AM on September 27, 2006

If you want to review a few of the programs before installing them, go to OpenSourceCMS.com and try out their demos. They reset every hour or to, so you can see what you would most likely see when you do that install through Fantastico. You will find a demo version of almost every program that's listed.

In regards to Typo3, DO NOT use it. In my experience, it has a learning curve as steep as running into a wall.

Most of what you are describing are Content Management Systems. If you want to really learn about PHP, try to hand code it all yourself. ;) It's absolutely crazy to do, with all the applications already available, but you will learn it alot quicker.

I personally prefer Drupal as a Content Management System. It can do everything you want, with a few extra add ons that you must download. But it takes some effort to learn.

I'll also second IndigoRain's advice. Try not use WYSIWYG editors. For learning HTML/CSS, do not buy anything. It will be a waste of your money until you become good enough with it to take on paying work. If you have to use an editor, NVU is good and free, but try not to.

One of the better HTML/CSS tutorials I've found is HTMLDog's HTML and CSS tutorials, because you design the HTML, then the corresponding CSS site at the same time.
posted by coreb at 6:38 PM on September 29, 2006

I recently became a webmaster in one of my clubs in college. started of looking at oswd.com and owd.com.

If you have to start

Learn Basic HTML/CSS
Get a template from those pages
modify/change experiment.
Use Notepad ++ (much better than normal notepad)
As for forms and discussion boards.. there are many online services that will do that for free.
One example is response-o-matic which will produce a free form with html code and record responses.

Hopefully that was helpful
posted by radsqd at 3:45 PM on November 20, 2006