Website Design/Layout Question

by CJFinkle

Posted: 17 years ago 9 replies

WEB DESIGN

Hello All,

I am trying to help my little brother create a website for his photography hobby and we are both up to our waist in trying to learn what is required to create a decent site to show off his work.

My question is whether or not there is a way to pick any site and determine how that particular site was create? IE: what software was used, etc. It might be wishful thinking, but I was hoping there is some type of software or website out there that can tell you just by analyzing the website in question. If this isn't possible, how can I go about figuring out the software used for a particular site?

We are most likely going to go the wordpress route, but we would also like to have the ability or basic knowledge to know what to ask for when we go to hire someone to make the changes we see fit.

Thanks,
-CJ

#design or layout #question #website

wayfarer 17 years ago

There is no sure-fire way to tell if a website has been created with a particular publishing platform. Sometimes, as with Dreamweaver, I can recognize the code right away, because the JavaScript functions always have a MM prefix.

Wordpress leaves certain markings in the code that are pretty much impossible to get rid of, mostly in the file paths (/wp-content/, /wp-plugins/, etc...)

Wordpress is hardly a one-package fits all for websites, and most of the sites I build are not in Wordpress. Most of the sites I build will leave no clue as to what I used to help build it. I'm developer by trade, and hand code, which of course doesn't leave any particular marking.
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NKelly 17 years ago

Wordpress can be easy to spot most of the time. If your not good at recognizing code look for similarityes between say a wordpress site and the one you want to compare and see does this help.. best of luck
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- CJFinkle 17 years ago
  
  Are there any recommended sites to learn about modifying Wordpress themes?
  
  Thanks
  
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Richard Whyte 17 years ago

Hi

Nothing will tell you want software was used for the design or the graphics unless it as some information in the META tags of the page. Some software (like MS Frontpage) will place information in the meta tags telling you that it was created with it.

Graphics are a different beast all together. Nothing I know of will tell you what the image was created with or edited with.

I work as a freelance web design / graphics guy. I use Adobe Dreamweaver for my pages and Adobe Photoshop for all my graphic work. These are NOT cheap programs but if you want to be serious about what you are doing and are going to learn the best tools, these are good things to get. Both are industry standard tools and are this way because they are very powerful.

If you want a basic guide to Wordpress, I have sent a couple of folks over to Caroline Middlebrook's site. She has a free eBook that will teach you how to use Wordpress to build Niche Sites with it...

Have a Great Day!
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- Kage Banned 17 years ago
  
  [DELETED]
  
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  Jason Clay 17 years ago
  
  If you check the extensions used on the web pages, you can have a good guess:
  
  .php - Dreamweaver
  .asp - Visual Studio
  .aspx - Visual Studio .NET
  .html - way too many to figure out
  
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  CJFinkle 17 years ago
  
  Thanks everyone, I appreciate the quick responses.
  
  -CJ
  
  Thanks
  
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  wayfarer 17 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Tiamat
  
  If you check the extensions used on the web pages, you can have a good guess:
  
  .php - Dreamweaver
  
  What??? That makes absolutely no sense. In fact, most of the PHP programmers I know absolutely hate Dreamweaver.
  
  Thanks
  
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Alibaba 17 years ago

CJ,

take a look at this site.
I think it will get you up an running in say 2-3 hrs for a complete newbie.

I highly reccomend you get 'something' up first and then figure out better way - otherwise you are always searching but not doing.
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Alibaba 17 years ago

ooops.
here is the site
Gallery | Your photos on your website
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