Easy server side/database combos

**DJ Ms. White** · 10-07-13, 11:37 AM

I am not liking Dreamweaver (bloat bloat bloat; all the bloat makes the code hard to read especially in terms of flow; the time I save by using a WYSIWYG seems to be negated by the time I spend cleaning up code for the sake of future webmasters). However, it's needed for the station since there's the possibility that some station webmaster might not know how to code (I know, it doesn't make sense but that was the rationale behind getting Dreamweaver).

I don't mind teaching PHP/mysql to people, but I was wondering if there were any other well supported options that would be easy for people to pick up.

**gehn** · 10-07-13, 03:02 PM

The station? What station? Perhaps some background?

**DJ Ms. White** · 10-07-13, 03:39 PM

We're a radio station. We have a website, which I am currently redoing. Well...we had one, but it was infected, had poorly written PHP, and a horrible file system. So, the GM and I decided to take it down and to put up a quick placeholder.

I'm currently weighing my options as to what to go with. I know HTML5 and CSS3 are a given, but I'm not sure about what to use for the other languages. The easiest thing is PHP/MySQL since we already have Dreamweaver, but I do not like Dreamweaver. Even if I do go with those, I'm going to set up a different IDE on the station computer if at all possible. The main thing is that I need a language combo that is easy to teach in case I have to teach "special" individuals.

I will be integrating things such as hooking up our facebook to the main page and putting our stream up as well. We're currently also figuring out all of what we need. We used to have a forum on the old site, but it was a piece of shit that was hardly ever used. We don't need one, although, if we did, we would use something that wouldn't require us (and by us, I mean mainly me) to code it from the ground up. The website is essentially going to be something to be a nice public face to get information about the station from and to listen to our stream easily.

My other big concern is security. We are hosted on the university mainframe, but I would also not like to make our IT guys' lives harder. It already got harder after I found the infected files and notified them.

I've heard people speak well (without them getting into specifics though) about ASP. I already have VS through dreamspark, and it wouldn't be hard at all to get an enterprise copy from the university like we do with any other Windows stuff we need. That's the only thing other than PHP that I've heard of that seems specifically geared towards web dev. From what I understand, I could even use Java/C++/etc. if I felt inclined.

So, I'm quite flexible as to what languages to use, but the main thing is teaching other people. Eve-like learning curves are something I'm looking to avoid.

**Partyball** · 10-07-13, 03:49 PM

What you tried Microsoft Web Expressions?

Have you looked into using something like Joomla or WordPress?

**DJ Ms. White** · 10-07-13, 03:59 PM

I don't think I have. I briefly looked at Web Matrix though (left a sour taste in my mouth).

--Just looked at, it looks to be decent. From a learning curve stand point is it easier to use than VS 2012/2013? Do you know if it has built in support for connecting to test servers/the actual server?

**DJ Ms. White** · 10-07-13, 04:00 PM

Originally Posted by Partyball

What you tried Microsoft Web Expressions?

Have you looked into using something like Joomla or WordPress?

I haven't. How much control do those allow?

**Partyball** · 10-07-13, 04:05 PM

It works just like Dreamweaver. It is pretty easy to use.

Joomla and Wordpress are very easy to use and change. Someone with little to no experience can go in and post/change content. There are also a bunch of plug-ins for them as well. Tons of templetes to choose from or you can create your own from scratch. We use Joomla here at the City for our web pages. We have written our own template, but the back-end is all the same regardless.

If you want something easy to use and manipulate, Joomla/Wordpress would be my suggestion.