Making sense of all the products and terms

I'm interested in learning more about how to develop websites, particularly ones designed to handle dynamic content (e.g., store,
manage, and display data entered by users). It seems that there are 500 million different products out there to support web site development, and I'm having trouble sorting out exactly how these products differ and what specific role they play in the development of a website.

For example, I read wikipedia entries for eight different Microsoft products (Microsoft Expression Web Designer, Microsoft SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer, Microsoft Visual Web
Developer, ASP.NET, ASP.NET Web Matrix, Microsoft Windows Server,
Microsoft SQL Server), all of which mention that they can be used in some form "to develop a website." But I doubt I need to buy all 8 of these products to build a website.

So I've tried to summarize (below) what I've gathered so far. Can someone clarify some of the steps I've listed, and point out what's
not accurate? Or, if there's already a good beginning introduction which explains the role and distinctions of the many available products needed for web design, please point me to the link or source.

Anyway, here's what I've gathered. Crudely speaking, there seems to be four basic components to a website:

1. You need a program to design the website.

Examples include Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft Expression Web Designer (formerly Microsoft Frontpage).

But I've also read that you can use these products to develop a website:

• Microsoft SharePoint Services
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer
• Microsoft Visual Studio
• Microsoft Visual Web Developer

- Can these products completely replace Dreamweaver or Expression Web Designer as standalone web-design programs, or do they serve some other purpose?

- Do they need to be used in combination or are they standalone?

- I hope I know what a "web-site" is, but what exactly is a "web-application" and "web-service"? Examples?

2. If your website needs to store dynamic content (like posts on a forum, customer orders), you need a place to store the content.

This is called a server, also known as a backend or database. Examples include Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and
Oracle.

- What are the differences between MS Windows Server and MS SQL Server? Are they both servers, or are they more distinct than that?

3. If your website requires a server, then you also need a way for the webpage to communicate with the server.

You use programming language to do this. Examples include PHP and ColdFusion. For example, a website with a user forum might use MySQL as the backend (to store the data) and PHP to communicate between the website (the forum) and the MySQL.

- Is ASP.NET an alternative to PHP, or is it something entirely different?

- I've also seen the term "ASP.NET Web Matrix." Is this some variation of ASP.NET? Or a product you buy that includes ASP.NET?

4. Lastly, you need to a place to put your website so people can see it.

This requires purchasing a domain name (e.g., www.mywebsite.com). If you hire a company to "host" your website, they will probably also provide the space to store your data, and the software to manage it
(e.g., a server like MySQL and a programming language like PHP). If they don't, or if you want to host the website yourself, you will need
to install your own server and programming language.

###

Thank you for any pointers, links, or clarifications regarding my humble attempt at an overview. I just need something to point me in the right direction and help make sense of the forest of product options.

Thanks!

Kurt

I'll have a go at a couple of your questions.. some I'm not qualified to answer.
First go to this thread http://www.webforumz.com/html-forum/...ml-editors.htm
There is a great list of text editors there to use at different costs for coding websites. Dreamweaver is another good one but do not use the WYSWYG (What you see is what you get) view. If you are starting out, it is most important that you learn to hand code. There is also a list of resources in the beginner section of this site.

So you need something above to build the site. You will also need a graphics program such as Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Fireworks, Paint Shop Pro etc.

You will need a domain, webhosting to store your site on their server. People here love www.site5.com(gosh I think that's right).

That's a start, I'm sure other's will add to this!
Linda