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General Discussion

Posted by Martin Dweh
Martin Dweh
1,014 Points

Online Store

Hello Friends

I'm in need of some help with an online store project that I have in mind. The Main reason why I joined Treehouse, is to gain the knowledge to make my online store a reality. Any help from Teachers and or my fellow Students, Will be greatly appreciated. -Thanks in advance.

Description of my project:

I want to build an online store similar to Google Chrome online store, To have a better idea of what I'm talking about, here's a link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/apps?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon .

KEY THINGS: The Fixed Header The Fixed Left Panel -that holds the menus / links and the Main Content Panel, that's scrolls with the main scrollbar.

FEATURES: The Main Content Panel loads new contents when you clicked on a link in the Left Panel.
*The Left Panel keeps the height & width of the Browser Window.

*****This is pretty much it. I just want to set up the frame / structure of my online store like this. -Any tips on which programing languish (es) used to built the structure of the "Google Chrome online store" and help on how to achieve this. Will be greatly appreciated. -Thanks in advance.

2 Answers

Keith Monaghan
Keith Monaghan
9,494 Points
Keith Monaghan
Keith Monaghan
9,494 Points

Hi Martin,

You're in the right place. Various Treehouse courses will teach you how get from here to there.

You'll want to work with HTML and CSS to build your design template (what you described is very feasible).

You'll also need a language for app functionality (server side). This could be PHP, .Net, Ruby, etc.

If I was doing a store like what you described I would build a custom solution using PHP or build/modify a WordPress theme (which also uses PHP). However, PHP is my language of choice so that's what I know. If you're comfortable in a different language you should consider a solution with that language.

PHP is a good place to start and Treehouse has courses that walk you through building a store. They even teach you how to integrate your store with PayPal. Which means you could follow this course while building your store and finish with a working site.

Here is the Treehouse PHP content. After you've worked through HTML, CSS and perhaps the design courses, take a look at Build a Simple PHP Application:

http://teamtreehouse.com/library/topic:php/sort:oldest

Martin Dweh
Martin Dweh
1,014 Points

Thanks a lot Keith, for the tips and suggestion -I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to my question.

Keith Monaghan
Keith Monaghan
9,494 Points
Keith Monaghan
Keith Monaghan
9,494 Points

I see that you've been learning HTML, CSS and PHP already. You're on the right track, just keep going.

The business content is great stuff. Just be careful. I found myself using the business courses as an excuse to avoid the harder programming stuff. I was learning but I wasn't learning what I needed to at the time.