6 ms·

This is a very well done and pretty comprehensive tutorial. However, there are plenty of pretty good basic web development tutorials out there, and few, if any

This is a very well done and pretty comprehensive tutorial. However, there are plenty of pretty good basic web development tutorials out there, and few, if any of them address what I think is crucial. Once you have all your HTML and CSS and JavaScript all ready to go, how do you actually got about putting that webpage online the right way for the modern internet, including basic security best practices. As the website name says "interneting is hard," but I think the hardest part for an absolute beginner isn't throwing some HTML but actually getting it online. Googling around will present one with a lot of choices and advice for what to do, at various levels of complexity and it's not at all clear what applies to their particular case. Questions that often need answers are things like: - What's a domain and how to get one? - What kind of hosting solutions are there and how do I decide which is right for me? - How do I point my domain to my server? - What's a certificate, do I need one and how do I set one up? - How do I make sure I don't get hacked by a script kiddie? For an absolute beginner web developer, learning HTML and CSS is pretty accessible, they can write, test and iterate on their machine and they can pretty much figure what questions to ask of google and quickly see if the answer works, but when it comes to actually hosting their site, it can be hard to even know what kind of questions to google, much less how to choose the correct answer. If someone were to ask me to recommend then a tutorial for making a website, I'd probably link to this or one of the other similar tutorials online, but at this point I'm not sure if there's a similar authoritative, modern "How to get your website online" tutorial, although I admit I haven't looked all that hard.

varrock 7y ago
This is the crux to my imposter syndrome. Luckily, I work with people that specialize in this, but it limits my personal growth quite a bit. I really need to figure this portion out.
- tiborsaas 7y ago
  If you refer to releasing stuff, then try Netlify to publish a HTML document and static assets online. They made it so simple that you can just drag and drop content from your desktop to the browser and it takes care of the rest.
- radiator 7y ago
  Yeah, just rent a VPS for a month for $5, install an OS, install a (software) web server on it, acquire a subdomain for free (or buy your own domain) then edit the configuration of the web server to respond to requests for different domains and to enable HTTPS.
  - CM30 7y ago
    I think you've explained rather succintly while many new web developers find the whole hosting thing a confusing mess. The assumption (especially on tech forums like this one) seems to be that everyone should learn server management to get a website off the ground. But that's a bit of a jump to make. Learning how to install a web server or edit a server's configuration isn't always the most straight forward thing in the world, and something like Digital Ocean isn't the best solution for someone who's just starting out and wants to put a few pages online. So really, my advice for someone wanting to know where to get hosting wouldn't be to setup a VPS, but to ask yourself how much you're willing to learn about configuring servers, and to pick a managed solution or simple shared host if you're not interested in that side of things overall.
    - Xelbair 7y ago
      I would disagree - configuring nginx/apache/whatever to just display a static site is really easy - and honestly - it dosen't take much time. Honestly, i had more trouble helping my friend with 'simple shared hosting' CMS to setup his webpage correctly, than with setting up nginx on ubuntu for the first time.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - krapp 7y ago
        Every shared host I've ever used would let you just SFTP your files to the server (which, for static or PHP is all you need,) and they all come with their services already configured, and tend to work out of the box. I've only ever had to deal with the CMS when viewing logs and creating email accounts. Configuring a server may be relatively easy, but not having to is easier.
- LargeWu 7y ago
  Part of the problem is that it's become a completely different and independent body of knowledge. And you often have to learn a how a specific hosting stack (AWS, or whatever) works on top of that. Some people find it really interesting. Personally, my eyes glaze over when I try to learn that stuff. It's literally the most boring stuff in the world to me. Oh, I'm supposed to be able to figure out why our DNS configuration is working because I also wrote some database queries 10 levels up in the stack? No thank you, I'd rather just find a new career.
eralps 7y ago
> if any of them address what I think is crucial. Once you have all your HTML and CSS and JavaScript all ready to go, how do you actually got about putting that webpage online the right way for the modern internet, including basic security best practices. I consider this the seperating difference between a good and bad tutorial.
thorwasdfasdf 7y ago
I mean, if you're just doing it to learn, you can use a hosted tutorial like mines here: https://codeorc.com/learn-web-development-by-programming-a-rpg/ https://codeorc.com/learn-web-development-by-programming-a-r... It takes you step by step. Every step of the way, it can automatically sync the example code to a working running example, so you don't have to worry about setup and can just worry about learning.
anarchodev 7y ago
I'd personally love a recommendation for a set of basic security guidelines for static websites. Less interested in OWASP stuff and more as you said, hosting-specific issues. This would also be a lot to cover, from using static-site deployment tools like github pages or netlify, to throwing it up on an S3 bucket and routing using Route53, to even for whatever reason configuring a VPS with nginx or apache to serve it out of a directory. This could further be extended to static sites that want do some authentication, covering which providers are best for that, basic security for using solutions like firebase for hosting and database, etc.
anonymous5133 7y ago
All of that could be covered in a seperate course. I think the author could probably conclude this html/css course by saying to learn all of those things you mentioned to put the website online.

varrock 7y ago

This is the crux to my imposter syndrome. Luckily, I work with people that specialize in this, but it limits my personal growth quite a bit. I really need to figure this portion out.

tiborsaas 7y ago
If you refer to releasing stuff, then try Netlify to publish a HTML document and static assets online. They made it so simple that you can just drag and drop content from your desktop to the browser and it takes care of the rest.
radiator 7y ago
Yeah, just rent a VPS for a month for $5, install an OS, install a (software) web server on it, acquire a subdomain for free (or buy your own domain) then edit the configuration of the web server to respond to requests for different domains and to enable HTTPS.
- CM30 7y ago
  I think you've explained rather succintly while many new web developers find the whole hosting thing a confusing mess. The assumption (especially on tech forums like this one) seems to be that everyone should learn server management to get a website off the ground. But that's a bit of a jump to make. Learning how to install a web server or edit a server's configuration isn't always the most straight forward thing in the world, and something like Digital Ocean isn't the best solution for someone who's just starting out and wants to put a few pages online. So really, my advice for someone wanting to know where to get hosting wouldn't be to setup a VPS, but to ask yourself how much you're willing to learn about configuring servers, and to pick a managed solution or simple shared host if you're not interested in that side of things overall.
  - Xelbair 7y ago
    I would disagree - configuring nginx/apache/whatever to just display a static site is really easy - and honestly - it dosen't take much time. Honestly, i had more trouble helping my friend with 'simple shared hosting' CMS to setup his webpage correctly, than with setting up nginx on ubuntu for the first time.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - krapp 7y ago
      Every shared host I've ever used would let you just SFTP your files to the server (which, for static or PHP is all you need,) and they all come with their services already configured, and tend to work out of the box. I've only ever had to deal with the CMS when viewing logs and creating email accounts. Configuring a server may be relatively easy, but not having to is easier.
LargeWu 7y ago
Part of the problem is that it's become a completely different and independent body of knowledge. And you often have to learn a how a specific hosting stack (AWS, or whatever) works on top of that. Some people find it really interesting. Personally, my eyes glaze over when I try to learn that stuff. It's literally the most boring stuff in the world to me. Oh, I'm supposed to be able to figure out why our DNS configuration is working because I also wrote some database queries 10 levels up in the stack? No thank you, I'd rather just find a new career.

eralps 7y ago

> if any of them address what I think is crucial. Once you have all your HTML and CSS and JavaScript all ready to go, how do you actually got about putting that webpage online the right way for the modern internet, including basic security best practices. I consider this the seperating difference between a good and bad tutorial.

thorwasdfasdf 7y ago

I mean, if you're just doing it to learn, you can use a hosted tutorial like mines here: https://codeorc.com/learn-web-development-by-programming-a-rpg/ https://codeorc.com/learn-web-development-by-programming-a-r... It takes you step by step. Every step of the way, it can automatically sync the example code to a working running example, so you don't have to worry about setup and can just worry about learning.

anarchodev 7y ago

I'd personally love a recommendation for a set of basic security guidelines for static websites. Less interested in OWASP stuff and more as you said, hosting-specific issues. This would also be a lot to cover, from using static-site deployment tools like github pages or netlify, to throwing it up on an S3 bucket and routing using Route53, to even for whatever reason configuring a VPS with nginx or apache to serve it out of a directory. This could further be extended to static sites that want do some authentication, covering which providers are best for that, basic security for using solutions like firebase for hosting and database, etc.

anonymous5133 7y ago

All of that could be covered in a seperate course. I think the author could probably conclude this html/css course by saying to learn all of those things you mentioned to put the website online.