Looking For Advice on Learning General Web Programming

Hello!

I’ll try to be brief. I used Team Treehouse to learn HTML and CSS. It was great. However, with Webflow, I rarely end up coding anything, as Webflow allows me to work faster and more efficiently. That’s a good thing!

I want to learn more now. I want to learn how to implement membership into websites, where you can register and login, have a user dashboard, stuff like that. I’d also like to learn how to implement a simple blogging system into a website with PHP and what not. I know this stuff isn’t simple, but that’s why I want to learn!

My question is, what are the programming languages and foundational things I need to pursue and learn in order to learn these things? I’m in no rush, I have no delusion of it being easy, I just don’t want to waste my time going in the wrong direction.

Any advice helps!!!

You seem to be describing Wordpress.

Here are a few examples I exported from Webflow and integrated with Wordpress:

A simple Google search will bring up any information you need to get started:

Thanks for the response! I’m actually looking more to learn programming rather than relying on Wordpress or similar systems. I want to learn how to program :slight_smile:

That’s quite a broad question for this forum then; I would suggest Googling tutorials and examples on the internet, or attend a bootcamp/attend programming-related courses. Relying on a framework isn’t a bad thing rather than trying to build something worth decades of combined programmer knowledge and experience (e.g.: open-source) from scratch.

If you are serious about this, go ahead and create a Stack Overflow account. Most of your questions you Google about programming will end up pointing there.

Here are a few things you may need to put these sort of functionality together (each bullet point below may take you a minimum of 3 years to be proficient in):

Frontend languages/libraries:

  • JavaScript
  • jQuery
  • CSS
  • HTML

Backend languages:

  • PHP
  • Node.js
  • C#.net

Databases:

  • MySQL
  • SQL Server

Full stacks:

  • LAMP stack
  • MEAN stack
  • WISA stack
  • Ruby stack
  • Django stack
  • Java Web stack

Concepts/Algorithms:

  • Sessions
  • Cookies
  • AJAX
  • Setting up and managing server, backups
  • How to send email (based on what backend language and system you decide to choose)
  • CRUD

Security:

  • SQL injection
  • XSS
  • proper way of storing passwords in your choice of database and backend language
  • common vulnerabilities & pitfalls

See also: is it wise to create a CMS from scratch?

There are many services out there that provide pure Javascript API’s to do what you want, with no necessity to write server-side code. There are complete CMS you can access from Javascript. Webflow being only one example.

Try to avoid creating a database, particularly an SQL one, wherever possible (see SQL injection - suggested above - and other security exploits/vulnerabilities).

You may find that learning programming in a simplified or general purpose context first helps before tackling harder tasks. Examples would be: