Thank you for sharing this! After years of working with PHP, databases, networking and linux I finally decided to become a web developer. And now I'm searching for everything about that. What I'm looking for is a roadmap of how to become a good web developer. And your article is just in time. :)
First of all let me say, I don't think it can be done in twelve months...
In 2008, after a successful 10 year career as a professional photographer, I decided to reinvent myself as a Web professional.
My decision to leave photography as my primary career was based at first on the horrible, declining economic prospects for freelancers of ANY profession during this time. I decided that since I was spending more and more time behind the computer doing retouching work, graphic design, etc, that the logical thing to do would be to find an in-demand career path that utilized my growing knowledge of the Adobe Suite.
At the ripe old age of 40, to become a web designer what should one do? I returned to school... After a Freshman year at a national "chain" art college, I was lucky enough to get a phenomenal internship at the AdultSwim.com branch of Turner Broadcasting. The CRUSHING stress of a full load of classes, the internship, trying to maintain my photography enough to survive, AND a dying Father gave me a stroke in May of 2009.
While at my internship, I had decided that the "chain" art school was not for me. With the exception of one amazing professor who started to drill usability into me early on, the school provided nothing I could not learn on my own as you suggested above. It even turned me off to code, as my first experience was with Actionscript 3.0 and a teacher that did not tolerate people who had NEVER used a computer for coding before. I was frustrated, but still not convinced I could learn all I needed on my own... I applied to SCAD Atlanta and was accepted. I was even blessed with a generous scholarship! I had a week in the hospital and three weeks at home to recover post-stroke before classes started at SCAD.
It is now April 2011. I am graduating in nine weeks with a BFA in Interactive Design. SCAD has been an amazing experience in a lot of ways. BUT I do think you are 100% correct, that the skill-set can be self taught with the proper motivation and resources. I have never managed to become a multi-faceted coder... I can code pretty nice websites (both in AS3 and HTML), but CMS based stuff is still a skill to be learned. SCAD, did however, teach me how to become a self-reliant, self-motivated knowledge seeker. Two wonderful professors constantly pushed me to reach my true potential. My true passion lies in UX/UI design and that is path my career is now focused on.
Now most days, I am up at 5:30am or so (so I can work before our 8 month old twins get up!), reading most of the materials you suggested plus some others (Quora, Mashable, UX Magazine, Smashing Magazine). I have been building my online presence, actively working on projects (both student AND personal!), and finding my way in this EVER changing environment.
In 2008 i started this path thinking I would become a website designer. In 2011 that term is as outdated and archaic as the technologies I was learning then... The one bit of advice I can add to the excellent advice above is this: NEVER think you are going to be done learning. This field is about constantly learning as much as possible above any one specific skill-set.
These have been the hardest years of my life, but ultimately the most rewarding...
One last thing: Listen to the advice on SCRUM and Agile, ABSOLUTELY necessary for large scope group projects!
You'll also need a fully working WAMP/LAMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) package. Otherwise, you won't be able to do local development. The two I like are XAMPP and WampDeveloper.
Wow - you completely beat me to the punch. I just had my best friend (who was a financial planner for 15 years) tell me he wanted to learn how to be a web developer like me. I came from the sales/marketing side and was lucky enough for someone to give me a shot to learn HTML/CSS on the fly. To me, it literally was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. I had no idea what to tell him or where to start since a lot of the stuff I learned was exactly how you described it. Thanks for putting all this information together. It will help my friend a lot, and give me more avenues to explore. I've only been in the game for 4 years now, and there's still so much I want to learn.
Spot on. I'm doing something similar for front-end web-developers. You absolutely have the right idea on this and I think we as a community need to invest more time into showing this path. It's actually really difficult. There's so many pieces of knowledge you have to attain to gain ground in this industry.
I'm focusing on the front-end developer in this regard.
I agree with all, but "Build" and "Play" are the crux of the whole thing. All the rest of the list are best utilized by buttressing one's expanding coding skills. I'm about 6 months in to my dedicated, hardcore effort to turn myself into a programmer (with a focus on the web). Nothing happened for me that was worth mentioning until I started making things. THEN I started participating in HN, reading books and researching more vigorously. Because I had context.
Sorry if I'm missing the obvious, but what does this have to do with learning web development? Cut and paste from "How to construct a blogger?"
I should've clarified - this was a list for someone wanting to become a freelancer, so touting themselves "as a service." I've clearly not edited that bit down enough to be less specific, but don't want to do that now!
But then again... these days, your "CV" that savvy employers see first is basically your presence on github, the questions you ask on Twitter, the references you get on LinkedIn.... That's not to say it's the only thing but it can really strengthen your chances of getting a job in development, and not just being a hobbyist.
Can't fault most of these resources / suggestions but:
"consider what your audience wants. Get yourself a presence online in a way you might find slightly aggressive at first, as you've got a lot of ground to cover quickly."
Sorry if I'm missing the obvious, but what does this have to do with learning web development? Cut and paste from "How to construct a blogger?"
Get involved in an open source project. This will allow an aspiring dev to get hands on with code while providing structure and exposing them to (presumably) good code/coding best practices.
This is the major difference between learning then and learning now. Check out lynda.com, Nettuts+, css-tricks, YUI Theater, peepcode, and Rockable Press...
Sorry about that. I've only just discovered yours.
Thanks for the feedback; I've fixed the hook_(un)install now. You're right that you do need some code to re-import the feature exports: my test environment was corrupt and I thought they were getting re-imported when they weren't. I'll write a basic follow-up post when I can but for now if you look at my Features Conf Wizard module on github then you might be able to find some tricks on how to do the re-import.
The code implements hook_install() twice, i think you meant hook_uninstall() the second time.
Also, I got my exportables working by inserting the 9 lines of code into the hook_schema() like you said (modified to work on my table), and then I went and created a feature. The feature code looks good, it has the data in the code as objects. BUT when I enable the feature, my module's table doesn't change. It's as if the data's not getting properly imported back when I enable the feature, any ideas?
Maybe my module needs to do an extra step in order to import the data?
[...] an OGN, especially not good, locally grown ideas and talent. The upshot of all of this is that both keynotes and microslots are confirmed for [...]
The fix to third-button emulation can be made permanent by typing the following at a command line:
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.mouse middle-button-enabled true
Why the GUI doesn't do this when it apparently fixes it for the current session is beyond me.
Thank you for sharing this! After years of working with PHP, databases, networking and linux I finally decided to become a web developer. And now I'm searching for everything about that. What I'm looking for is a roadmap of how to become a good web developer. And your article is just in time. :)
First of all let me say, I don't think it can be done in twelve months...
In 2008, after a successful 10 year career as a professional photographer, I decided to reinvent myself as a Web professional.
My decision to leave photography as my primary career was based at first on the horrible, declining economic prospects for freelancers of ANY profession during this time. I decided that since I was spending more and more time behind the computer doing retouching work, graphic design, etc, that the logical thing to do would be to find an in-demand career path that utilized my growing knowledge of the Adobe Suite.
At the ripe old age of 40, to become a web designer what should one do? I returned to school... After a Freshman year at a national "chain" art college, I was lucky enough to get a phenomenal internship at the AdultSwim.com branch of Turner Broadcasting. The CRUSHING stress of a full load of classes, the internship, trying to maintain my photography enough to survive, AND a dying Father gave me a stroke in May of 2009.
While at my internship, I had decided that the "chain" art school was not for me. With the exception of one amazing professor who started to drill usability into me early on, the school provided nothing I could not learn on my own as you suggested above. It even turned me off to code, as my first experience was with Actionscript 3.0 and a teacher that did not tolerate people who had NEVER used a computer for coding before. I was frustrated, but still not convinced I could learn all I needed on my own... I applied to SCAD Atlanta and was accepted. I was even blessed with a generous scholarship! I had a week in the hospital and three weeks at home to recover post-stroke before classes started at SCAD.
It is now April 2011. I am graduating in nine weeks with a BFA in Interactive Design. SCAD has been an amazing experience in a lot of ways. BUT I do think you are 100% correct, that the skill-set can be self taught with the proper motivation and resources. I have never managed to become a multi-faceted coder... I can code pretty nice websites (both in AS3 and HTML), but CMS based stuff is still a skill to be learned. SCAD, did however, teach me how to become a self-reliant, self-motivated knowledge seeker. Two wonderful professors constantly pushed me to reach my true potential. My true passion lies in UX/UI design and that is path my career is now focused on.
Now most days, I am up at 5:30am or so (so I can work before our 8 month old twins get up!), reading most of the materials you suggested plus some others (Quora, Mashable, UX Magazine, Smashing Magazine). I have been building my online presence, actively working on projects (both student AND personal!), and finding my way in this EVER changing environment.
In 2008 i started this path thinking I would become a website designer. In 2011 that term is as outdated and archaic as the technologies I was learning then... The one bit of advice I can add to the excellent advice above is this: NEVER think you are going to be done learning. This field is about constantly learning as much as possible above any one specific skill-set.
These have been the hardest years of my life, but ultimately the most rewarding...
One last thing: Listen to the advice on SCRUM and Agile, ABSOLUTELY necessary for large scope group projects!
For learning web programming, Web2py is about as good as it gets.
You'll also need a fully working WAMP/LAMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) package. Otherwise, you won't be able to do local development. The two I like are XAMPP and WampDeveloper.
Thats a lot of reading and conference attending before getting started!
Wow - you completely beat me to the punch. I just had my best friend (who was a financial planner for 15 years) tell me he wanted to learn how to be a web developer like me. I came from the sales/marketing side and was lucky enough for someone to give me a shot to learn HTML/CSS on the fly. To me, it literally was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. I had no idea what to tell him or where to start since a lot of the stuff I learned was exactly how you described it. Thanks for putting all this information together. It will help my friend a lot, and give me more avenues to explore. I've only been in the game for 4 years now, and there's still so much I want to learn.
Great article.
Spot on. I'm doing something similar for front-end web-developers. You absolutely have the right idea on this and I think we as a community need to invest more time into showing this path. It's actually really difficult. There's so many pieces of knowledge you have to attain to gain ground in this industry.
I'm focusing on the front-end developer in this regard.
I agree with all, but "Build" and "Play" are the crux of the whole thing. All the rest of the list are best utilized by buttressing one's expanding coding skills. I'm about 6 months in to my dedicated, hardcore effort to turn myself into a programmer (with a focus on the web). Nothing happened for me that was worth mentioning until I started making things. THEN I started participating in HN, reading books and researching more vigorously. Because I had context.
Sorry if I'm missing the obvious, but what does this have to do with learning web development? Cut and paste from "How to construct a blogger?"
I should've clarified - this was a list for someone wanting to become a freelancer, so touting themselves "as a service." I've clearly not edited that bit down enough to be less specific, but don't want to do that now!
But then again... these days, your "CV" that savvy employers see first is basically your presence on github, the questions you ask on Twitter, the references you get on LinkedIn.... That's not to say it's the only thing but it can really strengthen your chances of getting a job in development, and not just being a hobbyist.
Can't fault most of these resources / suggestions but:
"consider what your audience wants. Get yourself a presence online in a way you might find slightly aggressive at first, as you've got a lot of ground to cover quickly."
Sorry if I'm missing the obvious, but what does this have to do with learning web development? Cut and paste from "How to construct a blogger?"
I was trying to find something llke this. Thank you very much..
http://wp.me/1lx5C
Get involved in an open source project. This will allow an aspiring dev to get hands on with code while providing structure and exposing them to (presumably) good code/coding best practices.
This is the major difference between learning then and learning now. Check out lynda.com, Nettuts+, css-tricks, YUI Theater, peepcode, and Rockable Press...
really a useful list. thanks for sharing!
thanks for this piece.
@Gary thanks for the kind words, but I can only hope you don't reproduce anything I say above in your next job interview ;)
Sorry about that. I've only just discovered yours.
Thanks for the feedback; I've fixed the hook_(un)install now. You're right that you do need some code to re-import the feature exports: my test environment was corrupt and I thought they were getting re-imported when they weren't. I'll write a basic follow-up post when I can but for now if you look at my Features Conf Wizard module on github then you might be able to find some tricks on how to do the re-import.
Not that this was the purpose for your post but I learnt loads about languages I've heard of but not really known about.
Thanks JP
Gary
I read the artical and found it quite intresting... though i could still not find the search box top right of your site ;)
The code implements hook_install() twice, i think you meant hook_uninstall() the second time.
Also, I got my exportables working by inserting the 9 lines of code into the hook_schema() like you said (modified to work on my table), and then I went and created a feature. The feature code looks good, it has the data in the code as objects. BUT when I enable the feature, my module's table doesn't change. It's as if the data's not getting properly imported back when I enable the feature, any ideas?
Maybe my module needs to do an extra step in order to import the data?
Cheers!
If It spits out nicer markup than panels I'm sold :)
- @Prydie
Any idea why those videos don't work on the iPhone? (I know Vimeo videos sometimes do.)
[...] an OGN, especially not good, locally grown ideas and talent. The upshot of all of this is that both keynotes and microslots are confirmed for [...]
Thank's for sharing!