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  • Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    Thank You!

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    I failed to note thus far that the one year timeline is for learning only. I’m estimating six months for actual deployment, start to finish, though that is more of a maximum “time left” than an estimated timeline to completion/launch of the site.

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    Background: It is hardly a background in programming or impressive from the viewpoint of someone who already has a real career in web development, but this where I am coming from.

    I taught myself HTML at 16 and have used it on and off over the last 15 years. I have built 20+ websites, worked on more community projects than I can count, and worked with other languages for most of these projects. I cannot read them per say but I am good at analyzing code structure, figuring out what likely goes where, looking up what I need on the internet, etc… I have heavily modified phpBB well beyond downloading plugins, I’ve worked extensively with phpMyAdmin and databases, I’ve modified a JavaScript search engine to suit my needs, started learning Visual Basic, Python, C#, CSS, XML, PHP, and JavaScript all over the last 10 years. Life has been busy and often unstable, so I never got much farther than 50 pages into any book for these languages. Note that any examples that were taught were successfully completed though.

    I’ve rented three linux based dedicated servers at different times, all self-admin, for web hosting and running game servers. I’ve installed linux, apache, mysql, php, and a variety of other things on linux all by command line. I never know anything when I go into these new ventures but I learn very fast and am a great observer. I learn a great amount from looking at other folks code and by digesting both hand holding educational and reference style books. I read the HTML book (500+ pages) in about two weeks. I know that is nothing like PHP or JavaScript as I have started reading those before as well.

    I believe I do have the necessary skills to administer a server including security and backend administration of all aspects of the servers operation. I have never used linux at home or work personally, but utilizing it to administrate my own DS(s) was never a problem. I already have done my research on hosting and will be going with a company called SwiftWay.

    Swiftway has 9 datacenter locations worldwide and a high quality network AS35017 with multiple uplink providers like Nlayer, Level(3), Steadfast, Hurricane Electric and private peering with Cogent and Fiberring. I will be using their CDN and eventually Colocation services. They also offer streaming services should I need them. I’ve talked extensively with customer support and feel very confident in my choice to use them. I will have an unmetered Gigabit connection through them. All in all, I think my hosting needs are well researched and more than sufficient for the project’s needs. I do have the money to get my hosting and coast with it for a few months while I get everything setup server side.

    I do plan on offering something like WordPress.com but not on that scale. I am starting a modeling company and the pages will be for the girls to self-market themselves with. Girls will be given a website with tons of features and content, but in the beginning I will be selling one single experience which will utilize the same theme, where they can change the colors to “customize” it as they like. This theme will most likely be tested by the community itself (free release?) or if I choose to keep it in house I will hire someone proficient in theme creation to look it over and analyze the various aspects required for it to be client ready.

    From that point on my skills will be going into theme creation and site administration/maintenance. My wife will be handling the business side of things. We just closed down an eBay business we successfully ran for 10 years out of our home doing large scale reselling of item lots purchased on ebay. The business side is definitely something we are both well versed in but for the sake of time management I will focus purely on web development.

    This is the plan so far. I imagine the amount of clients I will be looking at will be in the low hundreds for the first two to three years. With any luck it will grow well beyond that. So those are my plans and a little about my background. As for my personal drive, everything in my life depends on this. I have a wife and four children to support, the youngest being a newborn. Pushing myself hard and performing well is something I have done all of my life. I am ready and I am hungry. I just want to make sure I am walking the most logical path before I begin this new journey.

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    So there really is no way to get around learning PHP and JS. Someone just told me today that due to similarities, learning them at the same time will be ridiculously problematic and probably result in more confusion than productivity. There really is no fast track to learning theme creation then…

    I don’t suppose I could get by using plugins for anything JavaScript. I even came across a plugin for generating administration controls for the backend of WP themes. I don’t know how great it would be but it makes me wonder, would it be better to attempt to only learn CSS/PHP and just try to get by without JS for awhile? Then move on as time and experience permit?

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    “If I was planning something like this, I’d be thinking in terms of a team of people”

    Question: For what it is worth the development of these sites will be slower. Essentially making sites available en mass using open source and commercial themes that allow it, developing my custom themes one at a time. I will likely reuse as much as possible (code wise) from other open-source themes and use commercial themes as a primary reference; almost entirely in the beginning while I continue to learn. As themes are finished they will become available for the users in the multisite to use. As long as the end user is happy, my job will be successful. Using this strategy I hope I can avoid the need for other developers, at least until profits start to make expansion financially possible.

    To write good HTML/CSS you really need to be aware of the philosophy: semantic markup and the separation of style and content.

    Question: Are there IDE’s or Frameworks that could help me learn best practices in the beginning? Just so I am not completely in the dark and left to referencing books and tutorials? Any types of programs out there designed to look at your code and make suggestions?

    Ditto JavaScript. It depends on how complex you want to be with JS. Probably just taking advantage of, say, JQuery would not be too hard.

    Question: In terms of web development for WordPress, where PHP is the primary focus for actual development of most of the site and its plugins, what else can you really do with JavaScript beyond some fancy effects to add glitz and glam to your site? I plan on cramming as much functionality into the site via PHP as possible, just so anybody not using or who disabled JS won’t be missing anything crucial.

    My last question is about PHP. I know WP is setup so you don’t need to know how to code in PHP to design themes (HTML/CSS only requirments). Beyond plugin development, will knowing PHP have any application in WP development? I’m just curious what the benefits of seriously dedicating myself to learning PHP will yield, specifically to WP theme development? I apologize if this is a poor question. My experience with WP plugins is pretty poor but not non-existent.

    Thank you so much for your feedback peredur. I sincerely appreciate it.

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    Nevermind. That really doesn’t have anything to do with the thread. I went ahead and created a new thread if you wouldn’t mind commenting.

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    Can I ask what you mean by you think I am going to need good luck? Is this task particularly unlikely to succeed given I am 110% new to both PHP and JS? I know HTML about as well as a person can. I know CSS is more about memorization when it comes to learning. Wielding it like a samurai sword will take practice, but I don’t think it is frightening or unlikely to succeed. Am I shooting too high?

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    Thank you very much peredur. I will go ahead and add Javascript to my list of languages to learn. Going to be a busy year =P.

    Note: Upon going back and looking a google I see the problems people have are with adding javascript to posts and pages. And upon reading a few of these articles it isn’t too difficult to get around. A big misconception on my part. Thank you again perdeur!!

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    Thank you peredur! I did a little searching on google before your response and it seems that people have to resort to “hacks” in order to get JavaScript to work. The WP Codex says that if you can do with PHP what you aim to accomplish with JavaScript, then do it in PHP when at all possible. I’m curious, is JavaScript in themes rather standard? That is, do most of the big commercial theme developers use JavaScript to achieve such flashy results and functionality?

    I’m just trying to figure out how important it is going to be to learn JavaScript when developing high quality professional themes. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    My question now is about Javascript. Will learning Javascript really help my theme making ability?

    Update On Previous Post Research (optional read)
    Alright I’m no longer focusing on the theme frameworks. I’m back to just focusing on the coding. After a lot of research it is pretty clear that I won’t be able to choose wisely until I’m actually ready to use one =P. I don’t think products like Carrington Build are what I’m looking for. I’m more interested in Gantry, Catalyst, xScape, or even Headyway (though unlikely).

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    Upon more research I have confirmed it uses PHP, CSS, HTML, light JavaScript, and has AJAX support, though I don’t think it played much a of a role in its development. From what I can tell it tosses the standard WordPress theme structure and tried to reinvent the wheel by using a template system. The only big drawback is that these guys really love to program and aren’t too crazy about documenting its functionality or even how to use it properly.

    One thing is for sure though, programming something at this level required a truly intimate knowledge of the WP core. The purpose of the project is to optimize repetitive WP coding tasks and the way they went about it throws many WP designing philosophies on their head. They say it is a theme engine designed to turn WP into a complete CMS. It’s features are truly impressive and recreating something like this, at this scale, would take years. They have five or six developers and have been developing it for close to five years now. It seems it would be better to just use it versus recreating it or its functionality.

    I just wish it wasn’t so expensive. While the code is open source under the GNU it doesn’t seem like I would get very far without access to their developer community. People post tutorials and discuss using it in a forum. Even seasoned developers seem to have trouble with figuring it out though. Unfortunately I can’t seem to figure out how up-to-date their website documentation is compared to where the project currently stands. All of the good stuff isn’t available publicly but gaining access will set me back $500 (not an easy investment for me).

    PHP and CSS should allow me to develop it further quite successfully but with so little information I feel very insecure about jumping in. All I know is that the demo they have available is truly impressive. The time I would save developing sites for others would be astronomical when compared to coding everything myself. I’m looking around but I can’t seem to find anything like it. It really is remarkable. GRAWR =(

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    I only ask because that is something I am likely to design for myself. I will be building websites for different types of people and businesses and I will need the ability to quickly adapt. Doing all of the code by hand on that level really eats away at the time. If I design something similar to Carrington Build then I will be able to achieve much greater heights within my business. Unfortunately they don’t really give the specifics of all that went into making it on their site. At least I couldn’t find anything. It is a shining example of what I would like to do though.

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    Thank you very much for your detailed response. I just stumbled across something called Carrington Build. They say it isn’t really a plugin or a theme though. Do you think this was done in PHP or was a programming language used to create something like this?

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    I have no problem redoing permissions, changing name servers, and I planned on doing static subdomains (non-wildcard) I define myself. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to become broken somehow because the hardware on the host machine changed drastically or because I was switching between a shared hosting from dedicated hosting setup. Awesome news! Thank you!

    Thread Starter Mulsiphix

    (@mulsiphix)

    It would be two different hosts. The first is HostGator and the second is SwiftWay. The later offers a CDN and streaming and streaming specific bandwidth which I will need a few months after the launch. What kind of dangers are there?

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