Taking over a site

[MelissaBerrett]

We are looking at bringing our website in house to maintain. I have little experience, but have talked to the webmaster and languages used are HTML, CSS, Javascript. The admin tools are done with PDP and MySQL. The only programs used area a plain text editor for the code, and Photoshop for the graphic.
How hard it it to maintain a site? What software do I need to purchase to get going? A little guidance would be much appreciated. The website is

http://www.avamere.com.

Thanks!

 

[BigBadDave]

I won't dignify your post with a response

Let this be then end of it Regards
David Byng

http://www.byngdesigns.co.uk

davidbyng@hotmail.com

 

[tanderso]

Wullie, again a very special case. 99% of people who have 100 driving lessons will be able to drive quite well. Sincerely,

Tom Anderson
Order amid Chaos, Inc.

http://www.oac-design.com

 

[MelissaBerrett]

moirakris Thanks for the response!
Yep, mainly calendar and job openings, possibly adding pages. Had another question though, we would also like to use this oppotunity to move our site to a different host. I'm not sure what that all entails. It seems like a simple thing, I just don't want to miss anything, anyone got any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Wullie]

Tanderso

Wullie, again a very special case. 99% of people who have 100 driving lessons will be able to drive quite well.

That is very misleading. There are a number of factors that would depend on. Quality of teacher, the persons confidence, persons concentration level etc etc etc.

Actually, have you ever heard of an author named Robert Jordan?

A quick look at his bio shows the following:

After Vietnam, he entered the Citadel, the military college of South Carolina, where he received a degree in physics. After attaining his degree, he was employed by the Navy as a nuclear engineer.

Amasingly enough he is now a world class author with no formal degree relating to his work. There are a lot more of these special cases than you realise.

Your comments above would not have offended me if you posted in general terms, but every time you posted something in general terms, you followed it by an offensive "dig".

If you can't see what I find offensive about the following, there is something seriously wrong.

However, these people are usually very committed and spend incredible amounts of time with self-learning. And still they do not have the breadth of knowledge necessary to tackle all aspects of a website


It took you two years to learn the skills necessary for basic web development, but still not a mastery (as you admitted), and certainly not the in-depth background that some aspects of maintenance require.


Moreover, no matter how much experience you have with specific technology, you will never be prepared to deal with problems involving subtle logic errors or come up with truly unique solutions. Sometimes the depth of a bug goes below simple syntax.


Unfortunately, if you believe that, as a self-taught technician, you are able to handle the depth and breadth of web-related programming and maintenance as someone with a 4-year degree from a decent school, you are deceiving yourself.

I wish you luck with your business and hope you avoid running into any problems beyond the common. However, I advise that you read about some fundamental computing concepts though.

But the truth of the matter is that without sticking to a strict Computer Science curriculum (either self-taught -- which is unlikely -- or class-taught), then you simply cannot handle the full range of problems that a degreed individual can

Perhaps you are a good designer and can implement pages to upload to the server, but from what you've described, I cannot infer that you can do much in the way of complex interactions such as ecommerce and web services.

And I know that people will only learn as much as is necessary to produce a result, not enough to have a good understanding of the underlying principles, as schools will force you to learn.

Hope this helps
Wullie

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.freshlookdesign.com

http://www.mailtosanta.co.uk

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change.
The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell

 

[Wullie]

Melissa,

You need to find the new host, then they should provide you with the nameserver information that you require.

Contact your current host and ask them to change the nameserver information for your domain over to the new nameservers. Within approx 48 hours your domain should be transferred to the new server and the dns should be resolving to the new server correctly.

Make sure that you have uploaded the site to the new server when you tell the host to transfer you over. Also, most hosts will keep your account open for about a week so that e-mail and http are not affected in the transfer.

Hope this helps Wullie

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.freshlookdesign.com

http://www.mailtosanta.co.uk

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change.
The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell

 

[MelissaBerrett]

Thanks!

 

[tanderso]

Melissa, just make sure your new host supports whichever databases or scripting languages your site currently uses. Also, if you have email on your old host, it might be a good idea to copy the mailboxes to the new host. However there will be a transition period while the domain name transfer takes effect across the internet where some people will access your website on one server while others access the other, and emails may go to both servers too. Sincerely,

Tom Anderson
Order amid Chaos, Inc.

http://www.oac-design.com

 

[JillC]

Melissa,
What you do is ask the person who is "ripping you off" at present to train you to do your own maintenance - it means you'll have to pay for a training session but it will show you within an hour or two exactly what's involved and you'll be able to see how easy it is.

As the site is already constructed, all you'll probably need to is to make minor alterations in between the code - and there's only one rule for that: make sure you've got a copy of the original so you can restore any file if you make a big booboo.

You might have to buy Adobe Acrobat if your current designer is preparing those PDF newsletters. Otherwise it's probably quite feasible to use free programs. Only don't use Notepad - only idiots would use Notepad. At the very least you could use Notepad+ (open multiple files, etc) but there are dozens of free editors available with loads of features. I use EditPlus but I've often seen Textpad recommended in this forum - and there are lots of others.

In most cases the hosting companies have got very helpful techies at the other end of a phone or email just dying to help with any little problems you might have. Your new host will often do the work of transferring your site for you, but if not they'll usually bend over backwards to help you do it. So changing hosts shouldn't be a problem - just make sure you explain to them what you need to satisfy yourself that they'll be providing the service(s) you require.

 

[tanderso]

Hey Jill, actually Notepad is quite sufficient for all HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, etc. Despite being a Microsoft program, it is actually very small and fast which is important when you've got dozens of windows opened at once. It doesn't have the fancy features of some more evolved editors, but a warning against Notepad is hardly warranted. No harm could come from using it. And for quick fixes, it is the fastest way to do it (assuming a Windows workstation). Sincerely,

Tom Anderson
Order amid Chaos, Inc.

http://www.oac-design.com