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Closed 11 years ago.
I want to build an e-commerce application with a bunch of features, as multi-language and currency support and some social interaction between the users (it is a fashion store).
I am doing this basically for learning purposes, but also with the hope of earn a little money with it afterwards.
My question is, do you think with all the solutions out there, it is still worth to start from scratch? Which are the pros and cons, and which frameworks do you suggest?
I tend to use ruby on rails, but I know there are also Java and PHP based solutions, so I wonder about the pros and cons of them here as well...
Thanks in advance.
You can make money selling it to non-developer clients for sure. But if you are trying to make a business of an e-commerce platform you will find rough open source competition.
Check out these options:
PHP:
OpenCart
OSCommerce
Magento
Rails:
Spree
In my case I prepared a web-shop application out of one of the open source ones.
Now for learning it is a good experience start from scratch but it will be difficult to make money of it as a platform unless you do it open source and get paid in advertisement
You'll never learn more than when you build an app that does something you want to do for yourself. If your goal is to learn, go for it.
That said, if your goal is to make money selling stuff, you probably should skip ahead to selling -- use an existing platform like Shopify or Spree and start worrying about what you're going to sell and who is going to buy it. That's a totally different challenge from software development.
Good luck either way.
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Closed 9 years ago.
I am using Parse service for my authentication in my iOS application.
I am beginner and I do not have enough information for setting my own authentication server. So far I have made some progress with Parse in my application. So my question is the following.
Should I train myself for learning setting my own server for authentication and implement that in my application or should I just keep going to use Parse? Please note that Parse is letting 1.000.000 api request for month in free edition (I think this is a sufficient number for a application with average user account but I would be happy to see your oppinions).
While it is personal question i would please to see different aspects. So be free to share your ideas.
This is a very personal answer based on my experience and preferences.
Parse is a very good service and idea that allows you to think only to the application and leave out complicated stuff like networking. At the same time it forces you to stay tied with it. So, for example, what could it happen if tomorrow services are limited (not more 1.000.000 API requests) or stopped (I hope not)?
Yes, networking is complicated but also challenging. So, IMHO, if you want to be a good developer, go and create your own service.
To start you can set up a REST architecture where JSON is used for messaging. This is quite simple to achieve in many programming languages (PHP, JAVA, Rails, etc.). Out of there, you can find very good external libraries (like AFNetworking) that can be used to configure the communication in your application.
You can find a complete example where authentication has been set up at Authentication with AFNetworking.
P.S. You can see the video only if you are a subscriber but code is free of charge on Github. Follow the links.
Hope it helps.
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Closed 10 years ago.
Is the Rails for Zombies course on CodeSchool useful?
I am thinking weather it is worth my time, taking it and if it really provides useful resources?
I haven't done any other CodeSchool courses till now. What do you think about the platform? Is it worth paying for other payed courses?
Are there any high quality free online web development courses?
It's meant just to get you excited with the awesome Rails features :)
It will give you the very basics of Ruby and Rails and nothing more.
Actually the framework is much more complicated and time consuming. If you really would like to work with it, that course might be a showcase of some of it's best features.
Anyway it's worth checking it out if you are Ruby or Rails beginner.
The best thing about the current ruby/rails eco-system is there are a multitude of learning resource options out there, and it should't be too hard for anyone to find the ones suited to their needs/aptitude/...
Try out the Rails For Zombies course and a few other CodeSchool courses for free, and decide for yourself if you like them, and want to go for the paid courses.
I am partial to Ruby on Rails Tutorial as the best free resource to learn web development with Rails. The book available for free online. It provides the best introduction to all the concepts & tools involved while working with ruby/rails to build web applications.
RailsCasts - both the free version & the premium version - would be my next recommendation in building up skills.
Take a look at the answers for Best online (free) resources for learning Ruby on Rails? to learn about more alternatives, and pick what works for you.
Quite a few people in the ruby community rave about Why's poignant guide to ruby as one of the best resources to learn ruby, but it didn't work for me. After spending a little time on it, I moved on to Learn to program which turned out to be a perfect fit for my style :-)
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Closed 10 years ago.
I'm a college student trying to make a web community with friends. Although we are not experienced developers by any means, we have taken courses on JAVA and some web programming languages (PHP, JAVASCRIPT, CSS, HTML).
At this point, we need to decide on a web framework and begin learning. I have narrowed down my list to Ruby on Rails and Codeigniter, but I am really not sure why I should pick one over the other.
Thanks in advance.
Pick the one you want to learn and go with it.
I will personally recommend Rails because:
it teaches you a lot of best practices if you do things the Rails Way™
Ruby is a fun, easy-to-learn, expressive language
the community is really big, enthusiastic, and very helpful
there's great books and tutorials available all over the internet
There is nothing like the good framework. It highly depends on, in no particular order :
your skills
your tastes (Yes, it does matter a lot)
your willingness to learn
technical constraints. Your hosting company may support only Ruby or only PHP
...
I personally had the occasion to develop with CodeIgniter and I pretty much enjoyed it. It is light, well documented and leaves you with a lot of freedom.
I also have a good friend for whom Ruby On Rails is the only framework deserving the name of "framework".
If your project is ambitious, a good idea to make your point could be to make a trivial application like a TODO list with both framework and then pick the one that fits your need.
Hope this helps.
If there is no time constraint (as you need to learn both ruby lang and rails framework) and want to know the best practices, i would recommend RubyonRails.
If you have time constraint, then go ahead with Codeigniter. It is easy to learn and well documented.
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Closed 12 years ago.
I am starting a website and am wondering if I should go with PHP, a php framework, or ruby on rails? I want to make a website fast, easiest and without a big learning curve. I already know a little bit of php and a little ruby on rails...But which would be best?
OK so to clarify more on the topic of what my site will be, It's basically a Classified Ads website that needs to have a user login, ability to post classifieds, and categorizing, and basically anything else a classified website has.
I would put my vote in for Rails. It's easy to get started building a website that requires persistence in a database, and there are many websites that host the framework. I agree with #Squeegy that PHP is great for sprinkling dynamic content into an otherwise static page, but it sounds to me that you want something more involved, so I would go with Rails.
Start with anything you know better.
PHP is great for sprinkling bits of dynamic content into a website. Given your requirements "fast, easiest and without a big learning curve" I think PHP would be ideal.
Now a large and more complex site, that would be much better suited to a framework. But with any framework also comes steep learning curve.
Codeigniter.com, try it out, it rocks.
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Closed 10 years ago.
I am working as a PhD student developing scientific/engineering simulations and algorithms to be tested in these simulations. These days the first student started to work on my project (for his Bachelor thesis) and I am wondering: how should I organize the project now?
I think I have some good C++ knowledge (although I still want to improve every day) and the code contains some design patterns, lots of templated classes etc. These techniques are new to the student and I wonder if it's a good idea to have him work directly in the trunk of the project.
Do you have any experiences what happens if programming newbies and more experienced programmers are mixed? Does the code get messed up or do the newbies learn more by this? Is it wise to have a branch for the student to test his algorithms and maybe merge them into the trunk later? Should I first give him a book like The Pragmatic Programmer for reading (better suggestions?)?
Constant code reviews are an excellent way of a) improving the quality of committed code and b) helping the newer programmers get up to speed, integrate and rapidly learn.
We use code reviews and it really does help in so many ways.
Edit: Another advantage of code reviews is that it gives people a chance to describe why they did something the way they did - code reviews are a two-way process, and both parties can benefit from them. Remember, jsut because they're new, doesn't mean they don't have something to teach you.
So long as the students understand that code reviews are a well-accepted industry practice with no small amount of research backing it up, that it isn't intended to babysit newcomers, and that even experienced programmers use code reviews, it should work out fine.
If it helps, have them take part code reviews of more experienced programmers.