Best way to build a website?

[p0intblank]

I've been building sites for a few years now and I really enjoy it. It's definitely up there in my list of personal interests. However up until now I've only built my sites using Dreamweaver, Squarespace.com and the Gallery 2 script (all separate sites). I want to expand my horizon and learn how to build a content rich site with that Web 2.0 feel to it. A great example of a site would BarackObama.com.

It would have to be flexible and easy to update, as well as have the option of embedding a blog. Like I said, I've done a lot of web design work, but I want to know the best way of handling things. Any help is much appreciated!

 

[angelwatt]

Well if you learn to hand code, then the possibilities are endless. If you're not wanting to go that route, then I suggest looking into a CMS.

 

[TheReef]

I hand code everything, offers me greatest control and lets me make exactly what I want. For page content I'll use the open source "Kompozer" for text styling etc and just copy it in.
Taco Edit, CSS Edit and Cyberduck are mainly my only tools.

Layout is 100% styled Div tags.
Wordpress embed is as easy as copying in the php and styling the div tags.

I can't say if it's the best way but it works for me.

Although it becomes a pain when doing the whole "make IE compatible" process, that's where Dreamweaver could come in handy.

 

[lucidmedia]

Best is impossible to measure in general terms... it tends to shift with context.

Personally, I no-longer create sites without content management. My CMS of choice is the open-source Drupal.

Drupal + Web standards is a powerful thing.

Drupal also serves as the back end of a few of my flash-based sites as well...

Drupal is powerful, extensible and has a great community...

You will need to understand how to hand code HTML and CSS, and have a smattering of PHP skills to design for it.

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

Although it becomes a pain when doing the whole "make IE compatible" process, that's where Dreamweaver could come in handy.

Best advice I could give you beyond what was given by others is to focus on learning how to code to standards. This specifically means learning the DOM techniques in terms of XHTML, CSS and JavaScript. Then use the various W3C validators to identify problems and help you learn how to resolve them. Doing so cuts out 90% of the "browser incompatibility" issues, then you focus on hand coding fixes for the other 10%, such as some of the hacks/snippets and fixes listed on http://www.websemantics.co.uk/resources/useful_css_snippets/ (My .02, of course)

In DW you can validate most stuff via the File Menu -> Check Page, or visit http://validator.w3.org/ and select what it is you wish to validate or install the Firefox Web Developer plugin which makes it even easier.

-jim

 

[samwich]

+1 on the drupal

drupal.org