I've learned CSS and HTML, what should I learn next if my goal is to create templates for joomla and worpress? ajax? php? js?
I poked around and haven't found a question that is alike so I posted this one
thank you in advance!
views:
53answers:
3
A:
From your question the best answer I can give is:
Install Joomla & Wordpress, then start tinkering with the templates
- See how the templates are structures what the different template engines are
- Modify the default templates to create some changes you can see.
- Add jQuery if you so choose, and try some JS/Ajax tutorials (jQuery has plenty of demos)
- View the completed changes in your CMS templates.
Otherwise from your question going to read about something, isn't going to help you 'learn' you need to start with baby steps and work your way into more complex examples. Then just exmplore with either technology and see how others are doing it. Always review and correct, and learn from your mistakes.
Jakub
2009-12-02 15:16:28
thanks, I'm doing it for a few days now, I'm starting with joomla, the markup seems kinda messy... but it is workable, thanks to the firefox web-developer toolbar I can play around with it! but it's gonna take a hell lot more time than I've anticipated!
Evilalan
2009-12-02 16:05:29
A:
A little bit of php will surely help you, but if the developer (or the cms) is good you'll never have to edit the php parts (you should see just many foreach, while, if, else loop/condition)
Js (ajax) is used (sometimes, mis-used) to handle some layouts elements, so yes, take a look at jQuery, but remember: never rely just on javascript.
DaNieL
2009-12-02 15:23:41
Why you say never to rely on JS? Well php seems like a good idea for now joomla is a sea of php code...
Evilalan
2009-12-02 16:00:42
javascript must be used just for convenience, but keep in mind that the website MUST work even with javascript disabled.. while php is server-side and so works the same on everry browser/SO, the same js can work on firefox but not on IE... you'll allways have to test it on the major browser (ff, opera, chrome, safari, IE6, IE8)
DaNieL
2009-12-03 09:03:18
..and i forgot another important point about js: it can be easly faked or edited by the user, for example with the firebox extension on firefox.. this warn you about the input sanitization: check the input value with js for convenience and to help users to insert correct data, but ALLWAYS sanitize those data server-side (php or other).A website that sanitize datas only by javascript, is the heaven of the kiddy-hacker and injections of every tipe
DaNieL
2009-12-09 11:55:04
@DaNieL, totally offtopic and out of curiosity, what is the language of the first paragraph in your profile?
Pekka
2009-12-10 11:25:05
@pekka: irish ;) "doesnt matter how many times you lost your way; what is most important, is that you desire to find it again".. or something like that
DaNieL
2009-12-10 13:05:40
+1
A:
Both Joomla and Wordpress are PHP applications, so in order to understand what exactly happens with your templates and in order to override template parts succesfully, it surely is a good idea to learn some basic PHP.
Now Javascript and AJAX are two different pairs of gloves and the terms belong to two different levels of abstraction.
Javascript is a scripting/programming language while AJAX is a technology which makes use of Javascript. Learning Javascript is definitely a MUST if you're in the UI design area. And once you know it, using AJAX (asynchronous javascript communication with the server) scripts will be one of your possibilities.
So, if I were you (but it also depends on the task at hand) I would learn Javascript (jQuery as a library) first and later look into some basic PHP.
tharkun
2009-12-02 15:36:55
thank your for the explanation of what AJAX is! To be truthful, I had no idea, I just thought AJAX was something else! I think in the very interest of templating I might learn php first but I'll definitely learn JS in the long run!
Evilalan
2009-12-02 16:24:51