Dear forumers,

I have been given a small little project to design a website recently. The thing is, the last time I've created a website was around 4 years ago which is for my high school project using just Microsoft Powerpoint.

Therefore, I will be needing some advice in creating a proper website for other people to view. There are several things that is essential for me to understand.

Firstly, which company provides a good webhosting domain. I was searching through some Malaysian webhosing domains, such as ServerFreak, Exabytes and IpServerOne, all seem to provide very good quality services.

Also, are there any special programs for me to be creating a website? Like, i used to play around using Dreamweaver but never did try to upload. Is Dreamweaver a good WYUIWYG program suitable for website creating in this day and age?

I was actually thinking of using Joomla since i had a friend that used it before, the end result for his website turned out pretty well. Any comments about Joomla, be it good or bad for Joomla, or maybe there exist another better program more suited for this kind of job.

Thank you for your advice in advance.

This post has been edited by CyberTroop: Jan 9 2009, 01:20 AM

maybe u can contact me to help you create the website using customize template and we do coding for you. charge is RM588. maybe u can have a view at www.msg.net.my to view our portfolio. we are giving free domain and hosting if you sign up the package with us. if you want futher enquiry, you may submite your question there or email me directly at shiewwai85@hotmail.com.

i am willing to help you.

I think you have misunderstood me. Due to financial difficulty, the project of this was handed onto me (cheap labour), one who any has a limited amount of knowledge in website creation.

Therefore, I will be posting here time to time when i encounter any difficulty ahead. Glad to have a forum like lowyat.

ok...if you got budget, u can look for us. besides,
you may have a look of free template from www.templateworld.com
they provide free template and you just download and it is allow to edit it. it may help you.

thanks.

Dreamweaver is good tools for website creation. You might need some graphic program to help it. Program like photoshop.

but if you plan to use cms like joomla , i don't think you need dreamweaver all that. Joomla can already setup a platform for a portal.

sometimes open source CMS is very difficult to mange. have to study properly b4 fully utilize it. previous using a few open source CMS, it is very easy but hard to modified it. prefer the customized CMS that more friendly user..haha

Thanks for your input! Would you please suggest some customizable CMS that are user friendly, this really does help me alot.

Well usually people use joomla or drupal for websites (never tried them before, so no input for you mate) and wordpress for blogs (quite easy to use, thats why it's for blogs)

Btw I code with only notepads and wordpads. I dont use Dreamweaver and any other software

The idea is to include your header that is connected to a CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) that controls the outlook of the website.

Design wise, CSS is the way to go. Learn that.

EDIT: Hosting and Domain name registration wise ... (One piece of advice: DON'T HOST THEM TOGETHER) and Serverfreak and Dynadot is good enough. I'm so far contented with their service. Godaddy sucks though, they only concentrate on marketing their product like Microsoft.

This post has been edited by SeeD: Jan 9 2009, 07:29 AM

Here is what I use:
International Domain: Aplus.net
Local domain: Exabytes
US Web host: My own reseller account, server hosted at Dimenoc, Florida
Local Web host: Exabytes - reseller account
Web development tools: Dreamweaver, MS Frontpage, Photoshop, Filezilla FTP.
CMS: Joomla <--- highly recommended. You can edit its CSS layout, PHP or even its MySQL database to suit your needs. Joomla can be used for many different business industry too.

Hi,

I second Joomla. Our website: giztech.com.my is built on a customised Joomla script. On top of that, Joomla has an extensive developer community. Thus you have got a good large set of tools or modules to use.

Regards,
Tan

there are many CMSs that you can use, but it depends on what you need!
Learn more about that here:
http://www.designblab.com/cms/the-best-cms-for-you/

For a company website that is simple, use Joomla. Quick and easy to build. If not, try LifeRay - I have not tried this but it could be good.

also, you can find hosting/domain providers using my website.

Guys, any idea how do i add animated menus into that top box i highlighted?

This post has been edited by CyberTroop: Jan 9 2009, 07:07 PM

Hi,

What do you mean by animated menus? like drop down menus? I took a look at the screenshot. It doesn't really say anything.

Can explain further?

Tan

Yep, animated menus as in drop down menus, flashy menus or anything that will enchance the website appearances.

PS. Edited the picture.

What kind of website you're wanting to build? Flash sucks anyways, do away with that if you could, seriously.

ah. take a look at giztech.com.my is that the drop down menu you are saying? If so i'll pass you the module name and you can download it.

Ya!!! Something like that. What's the name for it.

Thanks a bunch!

PM on the way.

Thanks alot for the help. I really appreciate it!

No problem. You are most welcome.

i once learn Dreamweaver on my own, b4 that Frontpage..and it a nice software to build website especially handling CSS coding...in fact my friend in Cosmopint oso use Dreamweaver...i just learn for "suka-suka" as i'm not and IT student and not really expert, just for my general knowledge...then I try Joomla coz my friend use this for his website...now he manage the Kulim High Tech Park website...but creating website really give me a lot of knowledge...just sharing my little experience

(^___^)

Can I know why is it not advisable to get domain + hosting under same registrar?

getting domain+hosting from the same company is fine, but:

1) make sure its a well known company (in which many cases we will not know)
2) as long as you have full control over the domain. (ownership, etc.)

sometimes companies dont want you to change hosting companies so they refuse to release your domain after a quarrel.

---

Added on January 10, 2009, 3:24 amEDIT: note that it happens not very often, but it does happen. most companies release it - some after a lawyers letter.

This post has been edited by djzen: Jan 10 2009, 03:24 AM

Well, as long as the WHOIS information are all my personal details, it means the domain is mine right? I could change nameserver from the provided control panel as well

Ok I got another question to ask, does all domain providers such as serverfreak support joomla software?

yes. most provider supports joomla..

yea, they support joomla. at the same time you can install blogs and forums too

@johntxy

can i have the module name too?..