Hey Janine,

I am a huge fan. Your DWCS4 tutorial on Total Training has greatly expanded the communication possibilities I have to fellow students when it comes to cooperative file sharing. However, I would like to begin learning ASP or Cold Fusion to make dynamic web sites. Any advice on where to start?

Thanks,
Jonathan

Hi, Jonathan,

Thank you for the kind words about my videos.

There are many benefits to using ColdFusion or ASP or any of the other technologies (such as PHP or ASP.NET) that make it possible to create dynamic web sites. But I must warn you that the complexity and technical training required are significant and developing these skills takes a lot longer than mastering creating static pages with Dreamweaver.

In my advanced Dreamweaver CS3 training, I cover the basics of Dreamweaver’s dynamic site development features and how to work with Cold Fusion, but if you don’t have a background in programming or database development, you will almost certainly need someone to help with the most technical aspects of your site, or you’ll need considerable additional training to build a complex site this way.

One alternative that I’ve seen more and more web designers use these days is to customize an existing Content Management System rather than creating one from scratch.

Some of the more popular programs for creating dynamic sites are Joomla, Drupal, and Expression Engine. I’ve also seen many sites that were created with the WordPress blogging program and then customized to add more advanced features.

I hope that helps you find the best solution for you and your fellow students and I wish you all the best with your web site.

Janine

Thanks for the advice, Janine. I do have some background programming-wise, I code in Java and some C++. Do you think that will be of benefit? Also, would you say that the programs such as Joomla do provide one with the majority of the versatility one would have if I were to code my own?

I am a high school student and my programming teacher has the knowledge and many years of experience, so he could assist in any issues. Would you suggest I go with a program such as Joomla or I learn from scratch? By the way, programming / software design is the career path I am currently trekking so in the long run would Drupal or others similar be better to know than the languages themselves?

Thanks again,
Jonathan

Hi, Jonathan,

I encourage you to do some experimenting at this point. You’ll have the greatest flexibility if you can create your own custom dynamic site, that’s for sure, but you’ll also probably be writing code for things that many other programmers have done already. When you start with one of the existing programs, you benefit from not having to “reinvent the wheel,” and your programming skills will still be important because most of these programs require customization to do anything but the basics.

Your programming experience, even if it’s with Java and C++, will certainly help you if you start working with PHP or ASP.NET because you’ll at least have some background in programming. Many people come into web design from a graphic design background, and the leap from Photoshop to PHP is much harder than the step from C++.

Here’s a quick look at a few of the most popular CMS tools and why you might choose one over another (I’ve been meaning to add this to my web site, so your question is a good excuse to start writing all this up).

Not only can using these programs help save you time, but experimenting with them will also help you learn from other programmer’s experience. As you see how they have created these tools, you’ll surely learn things that will help you if you decide you might want to create your own custom site.

WordPress
www.wordpress.org (note: wordpress.com is a free hosting service)
Price: Free / Open Source
Pros: One of the most popular and powerful blogging tools, WordPress is increasingly used as a CMS for more complex sites. You’ll find many great extensions for WordPress and it’s very easy to teach people to use the administrative tools to update the site after you build it (even if they don’t know any HTML).
Cons: WordPress was designed for blogging and it’s great for that, but if you want to add more complex or advanced interactive features you’ll still probably have to do some custom programming yourself.
Additional Resources: WordPress has many, many extensions that you can use to easily add special features, including polls, discussion forums, and shopping carts.

Joomla
Price: Free / Open Source
Pros: Offers more features than WordPress, including the ability to easily create categories and subcategories for magazine-style sites.
Cons: You’ll need some programming skills and advanced HTML/CSS knowledge to fully customize a Joomla site.
Additional Resources: Joomla has many, many extensions that you can use to easily add special features, including polls, discussion forums, and shopping carts.

Drupal
Price: Free / Open Source
Pros: Designed by programmers for programmers, this CMS is popular among the most technical fans of open source. If you have the programming skills, you can do just about anything with Drupal.
Cons: If you’re a designer, the learning curve on Drupal is a bit steeper than with Joomla and you won’t find nearly as many templates.
Additional Resources: Drupal has many extensions that you can use to easily add special features, including polls, discussion forums, and shopping carts.

Expression Engine
Price: $99 personal use, $250 commercial use
Pros: Because it’s not open source, many professional web designers prefer Expression Engine, saying that it’s better supported by the staff at Expression Engine. The open source programs listed here are free, and you’ll find lots of support for them, but you’ll also find unfinished tutorials and calls for volunteers to help.
Cons: You won’t find many templates or extensions for Expression Engine because most people using it are creating their own custom solutions and have no motivation to share them with other developers.
Additional resources: You’ll find decent support and documentation on the Expression Engine site, but you won’t find all of the third-party resources, templates, or extensions available for programs such as Joomla and WordPress.

Hope that helps,
Janine

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