DEV Community

Cedric Garcia
Cedric Garcia

Posted on

4 1

Need advice on first website

Hello!

I am starting my journey as a developer and building a simple website for an NGO.
I am able to code in Ruby on Rails and some basic Javascript (in addition to HTML and CSS) but am thinking to ditch JS to make it lighter.

The only requirement would be that the client should be able to modify the content without my intervention (update events section, add articles or modify some info of the website).

On the optional preferred aspects would be a very light-weight website (I'm interested in delving into sober, more eco-friendly web development, any resources on that would be appreciated too!), as open-source and cheap as possible and obviously as easily maintainable as possible. Scalability isn't required.
Although very unfamiliar with the deployment and hosting aspects (I only learned Heroku during my bootcamp), I have seen Hugo could be a good option for this since there's no need for dynamically generated content (just the introductory page of the NGO, upcoming and past events and latest scientific publications by the NGO (short article, text only) but I'm a bit lost and would like some advice.

Thank you very much!

Do your career a big favor. Join DEV. (The website you're on right now)

It takes one minute, it's free, and is worth it for your career.

Get started

Community matters

Top comments (8)

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern β€’

I am able to code in Ruby on Rails and some basic Javascript (in addition to HTML and CSS) but am thinking to ditch JS to make it lighter.

Are you familiar with Turbo and Stimulus? These seem like the very Rails-centric way to accomplish "sprinkles" of JS in an otherwise very interactive site.

As far as hosting goes, render.com would give a lot of Heroku-esqe simplicity at a cheaper price. But if you want something even cheaper while still being much easier than stuff that's closer to the metal, I'd recommend checking out hatchbox.io as another option.

Collapse
 
discopigeon profile image
Cedric Garcia β€’

Thanks! You are correct indeed, my basic JS is Turbo and Stimulus but although it feels tempting to use Rails, I don't think the scale of the project requires a backend and I'd rather learn to adapt to the project than do the opposite!

Collapse
 
discopigeon profile image
Cedric Garcia β€’

Thank you for your feedback! would you know some use-cases or specificities of Jekyll over Hugo or Astro? From the glimpse I got at those 2 static site generators, Hugo seems to work similarly while Astro might have some interface for the client to update the page.
I'll definitely have a look at Netlify Drop in that case!
Thank you for the help as well, I think I'll make a serie on the project for documentation and if it can help future newbies!

Cheers!

Collapse
 
lilxyzz profile image
Travis β€’

Hey Cedric, I would recommend a static site generator like Hugo as mentioned or something similar being Astro, Gatsby and next.js. I have a post about some great sites for themes and templates that might help you get inspired. Good luck with your project!

Collapse
 
discopigeon profile image
Cedric Garcia β€’

Thank you very much Travis!

πŸ‘‹ Kindness is contagious

Explore a sea of insights with this enlightening post, highly esteemed within the nurturing DEV Community. Coders of all stripes are invited to participate and contribute to our shared knowledge.

Expressing gratitude with a simple "thank you" can make a big impact. Leave your thanks in the comments!

On DEV, exchanging ideas smooths our way and strengthens our community bonds. Found this useful? A quick note of thanks to the author can mean a lot.

Okay