I'm an IT veteran with 25 years of experience in programming languages like PHP and Perl, but I'm more on the executive side now with a strong background in infrastructure, cloud, and security. I'm kicking off a project that's fairly straightforward: I want a website that accepts user input, performs some calculations, and displays the results. As I go along, I'm also interested in learning and eventually adding features like user accounts and profiles. I've got access to AWS and Azure, so I'm just wondering where I should start with this project!
5 Answers
Astro is also worth checking out. It's designed for simple, dynamic content and uses the file system as a database—it’s easy to deploy and has plenty of templates to learn from. Plus, there are other headless CMS options and ways to run server code for later features like user accounts. This could give you some solid grounding too!
Consider starting with a simple HTML, CSS, and JavaScript website. You can use VS Code or WebStorm (which is free for non-commercial use). A CSS framework like Bootstrap or Tailwind is helpful for styling—just link it via CDN for an easy start. For user input, use an HTML form to handle submissions connected to JavaScript for functionality. Look up tutorials for basic things like building a login form; that’ll give you a good foundation. For hosting, AWS S3 is a great option if security isn’t a concern, or try Azure App Services which offers a free tier to get you rolling. Once you're familiar, think about expanding with frameworks like Svelte or SolidJS for more features later on!
If you’re feeling ambitious, try out Next.js with TypeScript for both frontend and backend in a single codebase. Pair it with Supabase for authentication and database needs. Vercel or Netlify are excellent for hosting your MVP, and you can scale to AWS later if necessary. You'll adapt quickly to modern tools given your background!
Don’t overlook using WordPress! It’s user-friendly and can easily handle your requirements, especially with SQL and JavaScript for input processes. It might be a perfect fit if you want to set up something quickly and have flexibility for later expansion.
You might want to try Heroku for simplicity over AWS. It manages everything for you—scaling, deployments, OS upgrades, security, etc. I got started with the Microsoft TypeScript-Node-Starter on GitHub and built out from there. It’s a full-stack setup with frontend and backend in JavaScript, making transitions between them smoother. If you need any help, feel free to ask!
Sounds interesting! Is it really that easy to use? I’ve heard mixed things about setting up on Heroku.