Web Development

Hello,

Actually I am not sure how to ask this question, which is about the technique advance on website construction/design. Compared with HTML/CSS, which ones are the most popular for website construction? My colleague recommends Drupal for Linux platform. Any other? Thanks!

Yifang

That depends on your application. I don't like Drupal very much. I think if you are going to pick a high level framework for a website, when in doubt, go with Wordpress... but then again, it depends on what you are planning to do with the web site.

Thank Neo!
I am learning bioinformatics which would include mainly static webpage plus some online programs using local databases with MySQL. I am only a beginner and confused very much with those choices such as PHP-MySQL-Apache, Wordpress, Drupal, HTML/CSS etc. Also perl-script or Javascript are choices, but I was told perl-script is out of date.
I am familiar with Linux (Ubuntu), Perl and MySQL, and some idea with PHP-Apache, HTML, so that I posted my question to ask some suggestions from experts to save my struggling and focus my self on specific bundle before getting lost.
Thanks again! Yifang

Hi Yifang,

I guess you're looking at lower level server side stuff. Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAMP_(software_bundle). HTML/CSS/Javascript are all client side, and they are used for making a website more pleasant. As you've probably observed most websites hosting bioinformatic tools focus more on the function and not so much on aesthetics.

I've built simple laboratory information management system using LAMP (P for Perl) and it worked well. If you choose to stick with Perl, learn the DBI and CGI Perl modules and mod_perl for Apache. You can build extremely useful tools. As for the appearance, I just downloaded some freely HTML/CSS templates and made my own modifications.

I know people who work in bioinformatics that are switching towards Python from Perl and the Python bioinformatics community is growing. They claim the code is much more readable and more understandable. But I've been still sticking with Perl.

As for high-end stuff, I've used Wordpress and Drupal, and I prefer Wordpress. Just try it for yourself.

Dave

Couldn't be more clear of your explanation! Thanks a lot Dave!
Yifang