Hi all, me and my friends would like to program a sort of social network, from scratch. We have learned HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, SQL by ourselves, mostly on w3schools.com. We're aware that it's very far from being a perfect and complete learning. We want to do this social network as a side project, for as long as it takes us to finalize the website. Since we're new to web programming, we have zero past experiences that could help us build the website. Therefore, we're a bit lost and we're not sure where to start. We know how many pages will be needed, which will link to others, etc. So the website's architecture plan is already finished.

We thought about starting by programming the pages in HTML, then PHP files, then Javascript, and finish with CSS. Is that a good plan? We'd appreciate any tips/help you can provide us.

Thank you!

Uh. It doesn't work like that. If you try all your HTML first then go to PHP next, you'll just end up re-writing most of your html.

I would first start with a complete list of features of everything you want to be available. A UI screen flow chart, which you call "website architecture", will be helpful with this.

Before you jump into the front end, you need to focus on the back end. Create your data model first. Have your database set up, design your tables/indexes/etc, then create all your stored procedures. All your testing will be back-end first, not front end. Create unit tests for every stored procedure to make sure it works. You should be able to create users, add friends, write posts, subscribe, etc etc BEFORE you ever start a web page.

Before you commit to php, you should look at different web frameworks.

I'm not sure what your goals are with this project. Keep in mind it will take A LOT of man hours.

I agree, start with the functionality first, make sure you everything you want to be done listed down. then start coding that. a site (that i no longer really do too much with) took me about a year to build (off an on) everything was custom coded.

make sure you have lots of security(preventing XSS and SQL injection ext) i can give you a filter class that will help with this, and i can show you how to implement it, tho it might need some updating as its a few years old.

your going to need a hosting site with a mySQL backend, host gator, godaddy ext. and learn how to build some databases using it. then learn how to integrate php with databases. don't expect this to be done anything soon if you guys are all jumping into this without any knowledge.

Oh we already have a complete list of feature though, I forgot to mention it. I'll post on the same thread later on, probably in some weeks. I'll probably PM you Huayra for the filter class.

Thanks for these replies, it's really appreciated.

lmk when its done.

I bet it will take you approximately 2 years or you won't do it at all.

I don't know how much time it will take me, but as I said it doesn't really matter as it's a side project

edit: but yeah, will let you know!

This post was edited by bail6002 on Jan 9 2013 06:50pm

You'll definitely need to start reading up on Software Architecture.

If you don't get the core of your website built a smart way, you'll end up re-writing most if not all of the code.
I suggest to not jump straight in to coding.
You'll need to follow a programming cycle. i.e. Plan -> Analysis -> Design -> Implement -> Maintain and back around.
If you don't have a solid plan and are unsure where to start, don't even think about coding.

Coding right away will usually result in bad code and will need rewrites.
I don't think I can emphasize enough how important it is to plan and design FIRST.
Knowing about software architecture will help with the design phase. (i.e. UML diagrams, database models, process flow etc.)

Thanks for info, will definitely look into software architecture! Keep these tips coming They're appreciated!

Also, someone stated above to NOT start with HTML first. I would disagree with that.
Yes all of the backend will most likely be PHP, but the front end will basically be PHP spitting out HTML.

It won't hurt (during the design phase) to plot out some very basic pages in HTML.
If you take a look at Wordpress for example. Wordpress has a core of PHP and allows you to add "Themes".
These Themes generate all of your pages. All of those pages are just HTML.

I actually find it easier when I'm making a theme to first plan it in HTML and then transfer it in to a Theme for Wordpress. That way I can just copy/paste most of my clean HTML code in to my PHP files to spit out later.

If that doesn't make sense, you might want to read up on how Wordpress works and what their Theme system does.

Good luck

Can't agree more here, I code my pages in html first, then it's a simple copy/paste for the most part
and php is so nice I can just code right in my html