Learning Order?

[willnburger]

Hey all,

I taught myself Python recently and I want to learn some web development. I've been told that to build a website I'll need to know HTML, CSS, PHP and Javascript. Do I really need all of them to create a website? If so, what order should I learn them in? Also, where does Django fit into this? If I'm learning all these is it even worth learning, or should I do Django instead of these?

 

 

Thanks for any help

[Ecchi]

When creating a website for your first time, don't try to pack as much in as possible. Focus on 1 part at a time. Getting stuck in is the best way to learn, but start off simple, if I was creating a website for the first time, I'd probably do something along the lines of...

 

Set up the UI (HTML & CSS), then make it interactive (JS).  Get the basics set up first. Then add on the fancy parts, such as Django and PHP parts.

[MoVo]

The absolute essentials are HTML and CSS. With HTML, you'll be able to create the basic structure of the site. Headings, paragraphs, images and containers, all of these are defined in HTML. CSS is used for styling these sites components. This can get quite a while to get used to a level where you can create good looking sites, but the basics are very easy.
JavaScript is used for clientside interactivity. For some things like form validation Javascript is commonly used to improve the user experience. The JS syntax is something you really have to get used to, but since JS is not necessary for every site, I'd recommend you skip it completely for your first projects.

PHP is just used for interactivity. Sine you learned Python, I'd recommend to go with a Python framework instead of learning PHP, since PHP isn't really used that much nowadays.

If you want to learn how to build a website, I'd suggest you build a static site first. Therefore, just use HTML and CSS, no JavaScript or Python code. If you feel comfortable with that, add some interactivity. Since you're apparently pretty new, I'd recommend using a lighter framework than Django, maybe try Flask or something similar. Django uses quite a lot of default components and has a big codebase, if you start by using Django, you'll end up learning more about the framework itself rather than about actual web development.

If you have a full working site and a working backend, you can try to improve the user experience by using JavaScript features such as Ajax and other client side features.