Want to move to backend ( PHP, Ruby, Nodejs etc )

Thor

Thor

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Hey, I started playing around with web design for a while now and it's great, but I would like to move beyond the front end part and move more server side.

Now my problem, half the people I know says learn php the other half says Ruby on rails ( I know it's not apples vs apples comparing a framework to php, but you get the point). Also I am not too familiar where all these other stuff fits in like Node, angular etc.

So I am hoping if someone can guide me into the correct direction, for back end web development and perhaps some web applications in the future, what is the ideal language to focus on?

I feel I am trying to learn to many things at once, I recently became fairly comfortable with HTML5 and picking up CSS3 as I go, but I want to focus on a back end language and maybe who knows get qualified in that.

Too be honest I felt like php would be easier to start from than Ruby on rails, I've looked at it and I don't think RoR is as easy as they say it is regarding learning curves, it seemed rather steep, but if it is the ideal language then I will commit.

Tl;dr

I want to move to backend web development:
#1 What is the "best" language for backend web development?
#2 Can someone give me a more practical crash course where stuff like Node, angular and the likes fits in?
 
You will get many opinions of course but I like PHP with the CodeIgniter framework.
 
biometrics said:
You will get many opinions of course but I like PHP with the CodeIgniter framework.
Click to expand...

I'm waiting for the opinions to flow and then once I have the language I am going to ask about frameworks hehe, cause that is a whole new level op debate I guess, I was leaning towards php and Symfony and then I got confused by everyone throwing all these other languages at me, hence the creation of this thread.
 
Don't learn to code. Code to learn.
 
Thor187 said:
Tl;dr

I want to move to backend web development:
#1 What is the "best" language for backend web development?
#2 Can someone give me a more practical crash course where stuff like Node, angular and the likes fits in?
Click to expand...

1.) Best. That depends on your use case.
2.) Node is used to build network applications, http servers, socket servers, etc. With node you can use expressjs to have a front end which uses node as its backend, angular is an opinionated front end framework, which can run on top of express and node. If you want to start getting ahead with development and current trends, I would suggest looking at flux (https://facebook.github.io/flux/).
 
semaphore said:
1.) Best. That depends on your use case.
2.) Node is used to build network applications, http servers, socket servers, etc. With node you can use expressjs to have a front end which uses node as its backend, angular is an opinionated front end framework, which can run on top of express and node. If you want to start getting ahead with development and current trends, I would suggest looking at flux (https://facebook.github.io/flux/).
Click to expand...

Thank you for the second point, I appreciate it a lot
 
Thor187 said:
I hate bs replies like this, I want to start somewhere point me towards a backend language worth learning.
Click to expand...

First find out what you want to do then find out what suits the job. Node.js doesn't apply to everything, there's no point in making it do something it isn't suited for when it can be done in something else much more easily.
 
Just pick something and do it, that is the most important part. You know nothing, so there is no "right tool for the right job". Obviouosly don't pick C if your initial goal is to write some simple web services. Php with some framework, rails, node and express, doesn't matter.

If you are on windows, php is by far the easiest to get started. You will run into ruby issues on windows, and node now requires you to understand npm. Granted these are not very difficult problems to overcome, but at least with php you can one click install WAMP, and drop a php file with <?= "hello world" ?> and it will just work.
 
_kabal_ said:
Just pick something and do it, that is the most important part. You know nothing, so there is no "right tool for the right job". Obviouosly don't pick C if your initial goal is to write some simple web services. Php with some framework, rails, node and express, doesn't matter.

If you are on windows, php is by far the easiest to get started. You will run into ruby issues on windows, and node now requires you to understand npm. Granted these are not very difficult problems to overcome, but at least with php you can one click install WAMP, and drop a php file with <?= "hello world" ?> and it will just work.
Click to expand...

Php it is then :)

Now should one use a framework when starting out or not?
 
Thor187 said:
Php it is then :)

Now should one use a framework when starting out or not?
Click to expand...

PHP is a very raw language. You can go wrong quickly. Especially if you don't have the discipline of strongly typed languages.

Use a light weight, easy to use, yet powerful framework like CodeIgniter. It's well documented and supported with lots of information.
 
Thor187 said:
Php it is then :)

Now should one use a framework when starting out or not?
Click to expand...

If you want to write backend code you should not be using a front end at all, your goal should to write a service and then consume it via the front end, either over rest or perhaps even web sockets.
 
Thor187 said:
Php it is then :)

Now should one use a framework when starting out or not?
Click to expand...


I would advice you do c# and asp.net MVC. Do that for a few months. Later on you can do Angularjs and WebApi.
 
Thor187 said:
Php it is then :)

Now should one use a framework when starting out or not?
Click to expand...

Starting out with what?

Do you have a project in mind already, or you just looking to learn?

Frameworks are handy when you need to focus on getting an application up and running in a relatively short period of time, and you don't really have the time or the required effort to build asinine, day to day functionality. Like modals, exporting, object model bindings, etc etc.

You cannot learn a language by using a framework.

If I was you, I'd invest in a plularsight.com account, and watch some videos about popular open source web languages and frameworks, then decide what you'd like to get into.
 
_kabal_ said:
If you are on windows, php is by far the easiest to get started. but at least with php you can one click install WAMP, and drop a php file with <?= "hello world" ?> and it will just work.
Click to expand...

Not a massive fan of WAMP.

A little more to set but worth it is the following:

Download the MYSQL Installer package for windows and install that.

Then download the Microsoft Web Platform Installer. From there install the following:

PHP (Latest version)
PHP Manager for IIS
Microsoft Web Matrix

Web Matrix is a great tool becaue you can work with more than one project with ease instead of moving stuff around with WAMP.

Web Matrix also provides a site manager to manage sites and deploy them as well as work on remote sites.

Another thing is the file manager where you can actually code your sites and add new javascript, PHP, CSS files etc.

You can also open MySQL files for quick editing like you would edit your average CSS or PHP file.

Web Matrix also lets you start new wordpress projects and a ton of other CMS projects as well as start new websites etc

Best part? It's all free and great quality, easy to use tools :)
 
Lawrence777 said:
Not a massive fan of WAMP.

A little more to set but worth it is the following:

Download the MYSQL Installer package for windows and install that.

Then download the Microsoft Web Platform Installer. From there install the following:

PHP (Latest version)
PHP Manager for IIS
Microsoft Web Matrix

Web Matrix is a great tool becaue you can work with more than one project with ease instead of moving stuff around with WAMP.

Web Matrix also provides a site manager to manage sites and deploy them as well as work on remote sites.

Another thing is the file manager where you can actually code your sites and add new javascript, PHP, CSS files etc.

You can also open MySQL files for quick editing like you would edit your average CSS or PHP file.

Web Matrix also lets you start new wordpress projects and a ton of other CMS projects as well as start new websites etc

Best part? It's all free and great quality, easy to use tools :)
Click to expand...

Thank you so much those are nice tools I currently have brackets hehe
 
Nothing wrong with learning either of those languages. PHP is more widely used still though and as others have said it's really easy to throw together a quick project with php.

I used Symfony for a bit and found it quite versatile and very widely supported and documented, if you want a framework it's a good option although it can feel bloated.

I'm currently fooling around with Python, also super easy to learn and I find the syntax easier to read than PHP.
 
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