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Jesse Sudich
11,398 PointsHow to move from Treehouse courses to setting up a development environment?
Hi all, I am loving Treehouse and have completed the PHP Development track. I already have a webapp which I designed in a spreadsheet and then paid to have developed. I now have the code but have since decided to learn how to program so I can make changes and upgrades at will.
Without going into a lot of detail about the app, I need to set up a development environment using the following: HTML 5 CSS 3 (with SCSS) PHP (Laravel) Javascript (AngularJS)
Frontend tools include Grunt, Bootstrap, Yeoman, Bower.
I'm slowly getting my head around all of this but I basically have the files in a folder which includes both an app and a dist folder and then the configuration files for everything they used as front end tools.
Having learnt enough to start making edits, I need to get it set up on a development environment where I can edit the app and then run it through the relevant processes (mainly Grunt processes such as minify, uglify etc) to transfer to the 'dist' folder.
I guess what I really need is a course or something to help bridge the gap between knowing how to code and then using that knowledge to set up a complete environment because there seems to be a big jump. Looking up guides on how to set up Virtual Machines using Vagrant and Virtual Box etc leaves me fairly lost pretty quickly because there is a huge knowledge gap that I haven't filled yet. I have installed Ubuntu and started installing the necessary software but really need a beginners guide to setting up as a developer, coming from the position of ONLY knowing code.
Doesn't look like there are any courses on Treehouse which are quite like this? Any suggestions will be most appreciated.
4 Answers
Matthew Greenberg
8,173 PointsI would say look into purchasing a shared CPANEL account from a web host you can play around with. Cpanel is a graphical interface thats sits on top of a linux operating system which allows you to manage a live development area in a user friendly way.
Most shared cpanel accounts are fully managed by the company you purchase them from, so everything you need will be setup for you.
Usually shared hosting cpanel accounts are the cheapest hosting solutions you will find at only a few dollars per month or year depending on how much space and bandwidth you need.
I would look around on a site called webhostingtalk.com then scroll down to advertising forums and find the sub forum for shared hosting. They have many deals going on right now. Just make sure the shared account offers free cpanel.
You can search the web for some cpanel lessons; however, its really easy to navigate. I think that treehouse should offer a course in cpanel since its such an industry standard.
Any ways, best of luck with your search, hope this helps.
Kris Phelps
7,609 PointsIn Addition to Matthew's Suggestions, you might also consider installing XAMPP locally. On top of that, you might want to get an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that supports the features you're looking for. For example, I use PHPStorm which has support a lot of the things you need, such as using Grunt.
Jesse Sudich
11,398 PointsThanks for your response, Kris. I am looking into running Vagrant and it has advantages over a local XAMPP installation.
Andrew Stelmach
12,583 PointsMaybe work through this?
http://teamtreehouse.com/library/build-a-simple-php-application
Jesse Sudich
11,398 PointsHi Andrew, Thanks. I've already worked through that course in the track I did. From memory it was simply using XAMPP/WAMP and did not go into much detail around the production environment.
Jesse Sudich
11,398 PointsThanks for the responses. I found some INSANELY helpful videos on the LearnCode.academy YouTube page which give a great overview of development as a whole and a general idea of all the languages, tools and processes within.
http://www.youtube.com/user/learncodeacademy
The dude over there makes amazing videos and offers awesome backup with comment responses. He also plugs Treehouse btw.
Jesse Sudich
11,398 PointsJesse Sudich
11,398 PointsCheers, Matt. CPanel doesn't really appeal to me because I'm fully willing to learn from the ground up rather than use a GUI overlay. I'm learning how to use Vagrant as it seems like a fantastic solution.