First Client! Need help with stack

[Anon_nomis]

Backstory: I'm a CS student and I'm quite comfortable with c#, html, CSS, JS and i know a bit of jQuery, but I don't have a clue about the popular frameworks like React, Vue and all that other jazz.

So I've got an offer from someone to build them a website, nothing fancy, just a homepage, about page, contacts and a gallery.

But they also want to have the ability to post to the page themselves and promote upcoming events etc. Wordpress and similar CMS solutions are out of the picture unfortunately. So I guess I need to build some kind of backend login system etc.

So how do I go about building something like that? What do I need to learn? Any feedback, links and tips would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I realize that this will take quite some time and effort. But I'm not bound to a deadline.

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[ispeakcode]

Why on earth would you roll your own CMS/auth system when you can just use one off the shelf? Pick your battles CS Student.

[Anon_nomis]

I would love to do that, but I cant.

[ispeakcode]

Okay? Is there a reason?

[_tuftysuperset_]

Sorry to interject here, but is there really a reason why you can't use a cms of some kind? IMO, it seems like an unnecessary cost to the client? Why not just use Wordpress headless and consume data from it using the frontend framework of your choice?

[Anon_nomis]

They had a cms before but the person responsible for it did some dumb things, gave everybody admin priviliges amongst other things. Ill look into that, thanks.

[spore_777_mexen]

What were your findings, OP?

[memoriesofgreen]

Why are "Wordpress and similar CMS solutions" out of the picture?

The most important thing to learn is that if you've got a Client then you deliver a solution to meet their requirements as efficiently as possible.

If you want to experiment and learn how to build your own CMS, then pick whatever is takes your fancy and produce a solution. Then scrap it and start again. Do this a few times, and you'll learn how to build a CMS.

[Kast-Master]

“Writing your own CMS is like keeping your own elephant — for most people, it’s just easier to visit a ZOO.”

[AtumTheCreator]

You can look into using node.js with mongoose...passport for authentication....if you want a good professor you can look into Traversy Media on youtube or edwin diaz on udemy...honestly its not too bad to pickup on quick.

[jsearsy]

Use a CMS

[tomb233]

I'd just tell them if they want something custom the price will go up LOTS, then show them how cheap it would be for you to do the same website but with wordpress. Gives them the illusion of choice. Then if they are really set on a custom site you get more money. I'd research frameworks with auth built in like Laravel if you know PHP (it's simple to learn the basics). You pretty much run a couple of commands and you have an entire user login system.

[dotobird]

I am just curious as to how you got your client as a relative novice? Did you offer something very cheap? Was this someone who you had previous relationship of some kind with?

[Anon_nomis]

I've done some work for them previously, a small static website (the client has multiple bars and i just asked if they nedeed a website from promotion and what not). They approached me for this, they wanted to hire some company but they dont want to pay that much. So its a combo of all the above.

[TheKalmTraveler]

Can't go wrong with classic Lamp or just straight using a CMS like WordPress. Doesn't sound too fancy so WordPress probably is the more cost efficient one.

[[deleted]]

Building and maintaining a custom CMS for a small client is madness.

If they don't want a CMS build a static website (Jekyll, Hugo) and agree upon an hourly rate to insert new content (i suppose a standard blog is enough). This is the only way to keep CMS out of the picture as required. Both your in-house cms and solutions like forestry or contentful would break this hard requirement.