Hi, I am looking to starting web development with the hope of one day freelancing. I have read books on Html and css. Just wondering if I can head straight to CMS such as Joomla, Drupal Etc. Just wondering if this is a good idea? Or should I learn Javascript and Php?
Thanks.
Hard to say. It depends on what your goals are. I use Wordpress for the sites I build and know some of the basics of PHP and HTML. I would recommend specializing in the CMS you plan to use rather than offering them all.
Donnie,
Technically you don’t need to know any kind of coding in order to set up Joomla and WP sites. If you want to dig into them at all though you will need to know a lot more than HTML and CSS.
In my experience, I would say charge forward on your own with anything you want. The best way to learn is to get in there and start playing with things. Reading about coding is good but you don’t learn much until you are actually solving problems.
WebEminence has a good point about specializing in a CMS. Many web development companies that I have encountered are either Joomla shops or WP shops or Drupal shops but few do them all.
Here is a good write-up on what CMS to consider,
Hope that helps,
Shawn
I say you should start playing with CMS’s, i found it very easy to manage Wordpress and Joomla, no need for coding skills. But of course, if you want to build your own theme … you need a bit of coding 
I would say you dabble in some raw html, css, php and javascripts before moving on to CMS like joomla, drupal etc. It always doesn’t hurt to have a solid foundation.
CMS is not necessarily the easiest way of putting websites online, although many people seem to think it is.
It is well worth learning how to hand code with HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript, because you can then create sites that look exactly like you want and do exactly what you want. And you can do this quickly and directly, without having to force some bloated piece of CMS software, which you don’t really understand (and never will, since it constantly changes), to do the things you want.
Unless your client is regularly (ie daily) going to be updating pages, and adding and removing pages, then a ‘full’ CMS is often overkill. It will need constant upgrades, because the developers never stop tinkering with these things; it will be at more risk of attack than a non-cms site; extensions, add-ons, or modules can stop working if the add-on dev doesn’t keep up with the CMS versions; backing up and restoring is not always as easy as people pretend; and your clients will include many people who simply will NOT take the time to learn how to make even the simplest updates without constantly calling you for help. You can train them and train them, but some will never figure it out. And the thing is, in the end, many clients who believe they need a CMS never actually add or delete any pages, or even update any pages. So in many cases, a CMS is gross overkill and just adds a level of complexity that is really unhelpful, especially over time.
In contrast, you can update non-cms websites very fast, and add/remove pages fast too, if you’ve set the site up properly in the first place. There’s no bloated software between you and the online website. Open the page in a text editor, make the change, upload the file, check it in the browser. Done.
Summary: choose the best tool for the job. And often a CMS is not the best tool.
Paul
Not knowing your motivation for this post, I wonder if your question is perhaps more than just which skill sets to acquire.
If you are looking to develop commercially marketable skills; perhaps your journey may need to start with, or at least include, your personal network – specifically those of your acquaintance who are already gainfully employed in web development. That way you not only have a good sense of what skills are in demand, but have a personal contact within a potential future employer / partner / contractor.
For example, after 35 years, the mainframe application development and analysis industry that kept me gainfully employed went away. I was able to self-educate in the traditional web literacies: XHTML, CSS, PHP et. al. But nearing age 70, attempting to break into the industry without any web-development personal network contacts has proven futile. (I enjoy driving school bus and accepting clothing and furniture donations at Goodwill – but the remuneration is [quite] something less than the 6-figures I was used to bringing home <grin>).
So if you are looking at building a career, looking at your market options and expanding your personal network may prove appropriate to include in your calculus.
Regards,
grNadpa
I have to agree with the other posters when they ask what your primary motivation or goal is? To break into the industry is easy, but to have a truly valuable skillset is hard. Go browse on job sites (or even craigslist) and see what people are looking for in a web developer. Where I am locally, there’s a lot of call for someone who knows AJAX, JOOMLA, MySQL, etc – stuff that the average person won’t know. And they’re looking for it all in one person. But no doubt a lot of them are looking for CMS help, too, but I feel that it’s a bit limiting to work with things like Wordpress.
It’s also important to know what your strengths are. If you’re an excellent designer, focus more on web optimization, graphics, HTML/CSS, even Flash – and then let someone else take care of the scripting and dynamic elements from there. If it’s vice versa, personally, I would recommend PHP before JavaScript (but both in the long run). I’m just delving into PHP, but finding it to be quite powerful and useful, like HTML on Red Bull. I’m not ashamed to say that throughout my entire web history, I’ve always just used copypasta with free JavaScripts to accomplish what I need. JS is great, no doubt, but I just don’t have the wearwithall to learn it. jQuery might even be a better thing to pursue these days.