
Ask HN:  Getting started with a web app - bavcyc
I have an idea for a web app (or 2).  The more complex idea is to present information, then ask questions to test retention of the information.<p>I would appreciate advice regarding cheap hosting, recommended stacks for implementation and how to learn best practices for secure storage of data.<p>I&#x27;ll continue looking on the web for info, however I have a feeling that those on here will have better answers.
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proexploit
I think your explanation is too generic to get good advice. You should expand
on what you want to do if possible.

I think the best way I can explain it is that this feels the same as
contacting a caterer and saying "I have an event with people, what should I
serve?" Any good answer would require knowing the type of event, the venue,
dietary requirements, number of people, budget etc. Same with you task, but we
need to know more about skills, specific functionality, goals, etc.

The actual answer, in my opinion, is that hosting, software stack and secure
storage of data aren't a big concern at this point. You have an idea. Turn
that into a plan including all the features you think you need to launch a
first version of your app. Remove 50% of the features. Remove another 50%.
Talk to potential customers. When you have a solid plan, then you can start
worrying about how to make it happen. Then build it using whatever software
stack you know best.

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adventured
I think you should elaborate further on what your skill set/s are, so you can
get specific feedback on stack, hosting and implementation.

To get started on hosting, it's hard to beat something like Digital Ocean; $5
or $10 / month and you can run all your test infrastructure (and if you feel
like staying with them, push a button and scale as your app demands it). There
are a few other good cheap options to get started, such as OVH, if you want a
dedicated box; ramnode is interesting.

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bavcyc
I can perform system admin work and what I consider basic scripting. Today's
task for instance is downloading debian 7, installing, adding beautiful soup
and playing with it to obtain data for statistical analysis related to sports.

My biggest issue is that I have not played on machines that are remote site
and having to learn the current best practices. It has been about 13 years
since I configured Apache.

Digital Ocean sounds like it is worth looking into.

~~~
adventured
It sounds like your biggest wall is going to be the actual app programming. Do
you have any experience with Java or Objective-C? If learning those languages
isn't likely in the cards, you still have a couple of other options, namely a
HTML5 + javascript compiled app (this might get shit on here at HN, but
depending on your app demands, it can definitely work fine; the html +
javascript gets compiled to native code). These are worth looking at:

[http://www.phonegap.com](http://www.phonegap.com)

[http://html5dev-software.intel.com/](http://html5dev-software.intel.com/)
(this used to be called AppMobi / jqmobi, a reduced concept semi-clone of
jquery mobile; Intel purchased it)

[http://www.sencha.com](http://www.sencha.com)

I've used all three. Sencha has a bit of a steep learning curve, but is nice.
The Intel Framework is very easy to get started with; it's pretty fast for
what it does; and so long as you're not trying to build the next Instagram,
it'll work for a lot of different types of average apps. Using the Intel
Framework, the scripting is similar to jquery, it fully supports javascript,
and you can easily make ajax calls from the compiled app to a php / python /
ruby back-end hosted somewhere else.

For a normal app, the systems side is pretty trivial. A modestly well
configured $150 dedicated box will support 99% of all apps these days; and the
bottom 50% of apps, based on usage, can be supported on a $20 Digital Ocean
style account. If you're going to have a large active user base, then a very
well run back-end is obviously that much more important. Today's powerful
hardware provides a huge amount of slack on the back-end for a typical app,
it's simply unlikely you're going to need to run at hyper efficiency.

I'll bookmark this thread, if you have questions I'd be happy to answer as
many as I can here. It can seem like (is) a daunting challenge to build and
launch an app.

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devonbarrett
I think you might have misread. There is no mention of a mobile app.

~~~
bavcyc
While I'm not intending to develop for a mobile app per se, I think I have to
keep it in mind as I'm learning.

One question I have in that regard is how to make an app that is most useable
for the widest audience?

~~~
devonbarrett
It really depends on what the app does, if it is something that the UX will
differ greatly between a mobile device and a desktop, then I would say build a
completely separate mobile version of the site. However, if it is only subtle
changes then just create a responsive app that looks good on all devices.

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sachin0235
If it's a webapp and you do not have much knowledge of java/.net frameworks
then go for LAMP(PHP/MYSQL). And i assume that you already know basic HTML and
Java script

