Small Business Web Development

I’m going to be developing some toy applications using the following configuration.

• Flask – apart from the behemoth Django – this web framework has the best documentation hands down.  It is very important that the tools you use have documentation that is understandable and speaks to you.  This may sound funny – but it’s true.  If you feel like the documentation is speaking to a professor – run screaming.
• Sqlalchemy (not using the orm yet – just learning the basic functionality).  I almost ran from this due to the documentation but its not too far out for the non-orm core.  Its actually simple for me.  Otherwise I would have chosen Peewee – which is wonderful too.
• PostgreSQL server – I chose this because it’s installable on my Windows 7 machine.  MySQL poops the bed.  I could use sqlite – but I’d rather learn more from a server type db.
• Webfaction as a host.  A little slow – but lets me program python and is affordable.

Notes: I work in a Window 7 environment because my laptop loses too much power when running ubuntu.  If you want to get sqlalchemy to run on windows you need:

http://www.stickpeople.com/projects/python/win-psycopg/

Where to start:

I would recommend starting with learning how to use sqlalchemy first.  Read and write to a database before jumping in with the web.

Domain Name:

If you want your customers to type in your business name into the address bar – you need to register a “domain name”.  There are several domain name registrar’s to use.  I use Namecheap . They’re really great.

Hosting:

You need to have a computer somewhere on the internet to “host” your web pages, databases, and programs.  I use Webfaction for my hosting.  The reason for it is if you want to use ruby, python, or any number of tools – webfaction has it.

Business Page Software:

A long time ago people had to hand type html to make web pages.  This isn’t true any more.  A software package called WordPress lets you make web pages easily (or at least more easily).  Webfaction lets you create a wordpress site with very little work.  This will start you out with a basic website.  You can install “themes” that will make your website look different.  You can go to a website like themeforrest and download themes that will improve the look of your site.

I really like the tutorial on amazon called “wordpress to go”.  It keeps things simple.  They use hostgator as their choice of hosting but the information carries over to webfaction well.

Custom Business Software:

This is where some skills might have to be developed.  Having custom web software you can help organize your associates and share information.  When you make your own software you have complete control.  Inventory management, job management, time sheets, all this stuff you can design for yourself.

You’ll have to learn a programming language like ruby or python, then on top of that you’ll need to learn a web framework.  Two frameworks that work well for small apps are “Sinatra” for ruby and “Flask” for python.

Here it would be nice for software developers to write applications to sell to small business to host.  That way developers can sell software, and customers get to keep their data (rather than share it with the developer).