I'm an experienced programmer, mainly working with C#, Java, and Lua, and I also have a solid working knowledge of HTML, JavaScript/TypeScript, and PHP. I've built a few small web apps, but most of my background is in game development, and I'd like to develop more web skills for broader career opportunities. I'm especially interested in widely used, industry-relevant tools and libraries, preferably starting with lower-level technologies so I still understand and implement much of the underlying functionality myself. What would you recommend for a static frontend-only site, a blog with administrator authentication, and a site with user accounts and profiles?
3 Answers
Rather than picking a large list of libraries up front, start by building a few projects and add dependencies when you encounter a problem they solve. For a blog, you could use an established CMS such as WordPress, or explore a headless CMS like Strapi or Payload if you want to stay in the JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem. These can handle content and authentication while letting you build the frontend separately.
For user accounts, learn the basics of databases and authentication instead of treating them as magic features. PostgreSQL or MySQL are good database choices, while services such as Auth0, Firebase, or Supabase can provide managed authentication and user storage. It’s also worth understanding sessions, password hashing, and tokens such as JWTs before relying entirely on a service. For frontend work, TypeScript and React are widely used, and the official documentation and starter tutorials are generally strong resources.
For a static site, start with plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript or TypeScript. Those fundamentals are still useful even if you later adopt frameworks. Once you understand the basics, tools like Tailwind or Bootstrap can help with styling, and React is a common next step for more interactive interfaces.
I tried building a frontend entirely from scratch, but it quickly became more work than I expected. I’ll take a closer look at these options while still focusing on the fundamentals.
The official framework documentation is often better than random tutorials, especially once you already know how to program. React’s introductory guides are a reasonable place to start after learning the browser fundamentals.