I’m interested in web development and I was wondering if there is a way I could show my HTML pages with external CSS and JavaScript site to ppl (clients, co workers, friends, etc) without having to launch the site.
Usually I use Atom and when I got stuck, I paste my code to https://jsfiddle.net/… I think it’s better than codepen.io, if you don’t buy PRO SERVICE 
but I recommend try both.
1 Like
There’s lots of ways to do this. I sometimes push my code to GitHub and create a link to a preview of the content using http://htmlpreview.github.io/. You could also use Heroku’s free plan or GitHub Pages.
1 Like
Thanks everyone. Those are all good answers…
I have a few more questions though. I have the coding part down pat. But as I never launched a site before my knowledge is limited. I want to make sure there are no surprises down the road…
How do I go about uploading my site to the web.? Also if anyone could tell me the responsibilities involved with being a web designer/developer that would be much appreciated. Like what tasks would I have to complete on a day to day basis to maintain a site and keep my clients happy…
I want to join codewars but not quite there yet
Do hardwork just that, every failure is a priceless achievement
Not sure what the above two comments (by pamela113 and mandaputra8) have to do with OP’s questions…
The first time I uploaded a website to the web for a client, it was somewhat of a challenge, after that, it’s easy. There’s 3 primary things to consider: domain name registration, web hosting, and e-mail hosting (I find most clients want an email address associated with their domain name, i.e. yourName@yoursite.com). You could do all of these things separately, in fact, I launched my first website with my client with free web hosting (via GitHub pages), free email hosting (via Zoho mail) and only $9 for 2 years of registration for the domain name (with CanSpace Solutions). Because I did all this with separate providers I had to play around with the DNS zone file to get things connect/working properly. I would suggest doing all the email hosting/web hosting/ domain name registration at one place. Namecheap is great, I’ve used them in the past and their interface is really intuitive.
After deploying/launching the finished website you may have to fix some bugs and update some text/images in the first week or so, depending on how picky your client is, other than that, I’ve not had to do much day-to-day updates with the finished websites (it’s really more like monthly updates on simple things). If it’s a WordPress site, I just show the client how to change the text or images using the WP dashboard and then I have even less responsibility to update the website post-launch. Although to be honest, I don’t like working with WordPress.
2 Likes
github, codepen, and some free hosting x10hosting
Ok. Thanks for the info… To bes honest I’d rather avoid WordPress also. My end game is to be able to code apps and games for mobile phones. I’m just using web development to kinda learn the basics. I like to learn things from the ground up. For this reason I decided to avoid WordPress. I heard they have themes u can choose from but I’d rather code everything from scratch. At least til I learn the basics.
I was also wondering what language would be good for coding an ecommerce app to go along with a clients website. Something like eBay or amazon
Also are there any special skills or techniques I need besides being proficient in the language. I’m more focused on android phones ATM. I heard java is the way to go…
I’m starting a web development agency. Focusing on websites for now. But I plan to incorporate app making where the client would basically tell me what they want and I would build it.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated
Making games and mobile apps is a tough market to break into, but you said you want to eventually offer mobile development for your clients so that is a nice option to add to your list of services you offer. I am currently building a website for a client that needs an eCommerce/store as well. Building one from scratch would be a pain, especially with my limited time-frame, and the thing is, if you built one from scratch you may end up re-using it maybe only a couple times, and it will most likely never be as good/secure as the free and commercial products available that are constantly being updated. For the store section of the website I am seriously considering using x-cart. Another free and open source alternative is OpenCart. Shoprocket is another one, although it’s paid and not free & open source. There are lots of available options if you search the web for eCommerce software. I’m using either x-cart or OpenCart because they are open source (I love open source software) and because, as far as I can tell right now, it will integrate nicely with my already developed website using PHP. As for learning Java to develop android apps, that is a nice choice, because Java can also be used in other areas like back-end development, etc. React native is also becoming popular for developing mobile apps.