Testing out your website coding before going live (12/01/2013)

Testing - vital and annoying in equal measures...

As I have mentioned elsewhere; I am teaching myself coding with a view to developing websites / software / mobile phone apps.

There comes a time when you need to 'break out' and start your own projects to put into practice what you have learnt (and to learn the important skills of project working).

I have had an idea that I wanted to develop for ages and, I decided, today was the day to start. However, I didn't have any idea where I could develop and test my code before making it public.

Before selecting which software/website to use to test your codes; you need to consider the following:

1. Do you wish to work online or offline? Are you happy to download software to your PC or would you prefer to avoid this?
2. Are you testing short bits of code or large sections of code?
3. What coding language(s) will you be using to write the code?
4. What additional 'extras' will assist you? E.g. Do you need a preview pane? Would you like to upload your code to your website once it is complete or are you purely at the testing stage? Do you need it to process AJAX requests?

Once you have considered these points; you have three main options:

1. A Web Editor for your computer;
2. A code testing site; or
3. (For code snippets) Web-based sandbox tool (there are computer-based options but these are probably not necessary when you only want to test small bits of code).

As I am new to this; I think it wise not to spend money until I am certain I can use my new skills to make money. I therefore found these following articles very useful:

• The 10 Best Free Web Editors for Windows;
• The 8 Best Code Testing Sites on the Web; and
• 10 Web-based Sandbox Tools for Testing Your Code Snippets.

jsfiddle interface

I briefly tried out SeaMonkey (Web Editor) but didn't enjoy its layout and decided I would prefer to do my coding web-based.

So I moved on to jsfiddle.

This site allows you to run HTML, CSS / SCSS and JavaScript / CoffeeScript / JavaScript 1.7 coding panels and to see the outcome in the 'Result' panel. You can also import JavaScript or CSS.

All four panels are adjustable according to your needs and the interface is very simple; add your code and then click 'Run' to see what it looks like. You can save your code and share your code via link, Facebook or Twitter. You can also sign up and save your code to your profile.

There are a number of additional options down the left hand side to enable you to fine tune your coding as required.

Overall, a very straightforward method of testing out your code.

This is my blog, my attempt to document one new thing I have learnt everyday. We learn so much and it is easy to overlook just how much we do learn. Any of the products or websites mentioned in my blog are ones I have found useful. I have no link to these websites (unless otherwise stated) and do not receive any benefit from linking to them. I am not an expert in any of the products I mention so you will have to do your own research and reach your own conclusions.