List Of Useful Websites For A Web Developer

I have been programming web applications for several years now. It started in 2003 when I was in college, building very simple static HTML websites at that time. Then I learned several web programming languages such as PHP, ASP & ASP.Net, JSP, Groovy & Grails, and some others. And now I’m focusing on PHP. I would like to share a list of useful websites that I use when I want to learn something new or when I get stuck.

Official Documentation Sites

PHP.Net
The official PHP documentation site. It has the most complete and well-documented PHP basic functions and classes.

ASP.Net
The official Microsoft ASP.Net site. It has the MVC Framework and development tools free to download. It also has forums and documentation for complete reference.

MSDN
The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) is the portion of Microsoft responsible for managing the firm’s relationship with developers and testers: hardware developers interested in the operating system (OS), developers building on the various OS platforms, developers leveraging the API and scripting languages of Microsoft’s many applications. The relationship management is situated in assorted media: websites, newsletters, developer conferences, trade media, blogs, and DVD distribution. The life cycle of the relationships ranges from legacy support through evangelizing potential offerings.

Tutorial Sites

W3Schools
W3Schools is a web developer’s portal, with tutorials and references relating to web development subjects, including HTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and SQL. W3Schools is free of charge and is funded through text and display advertising. The tutorials and references on the website and the related code are proprietary.

Code Project
The Code Project is a website that contains articles for an audience of primarily Microsoft computer programmers. Articles can be related to general programming, GUI design, algorithms, or collaboration. Most of the articles have been uploaded by visitors and have not been extracted from an external source. Nearly every article is accompanied with source code and examples which can be downloaded independently. Most articles and source code are released under the Code Project Open License (CPOL), although the license can be configured by the user.

NetTuts+
Nettuts+ is a site aimed at web developers and designers offering tutorials and articles on technologies, skills, and techniques to improve how you design and build websites. Covering HTML, CSS, Javascript, CMSs, PHP, and Ruby on Rails.

Forums and Q&A Sites

Programmer’s Heaven
ProgrammersHeaven.com is one of the internet’s most complete sources of free programming downloads, source code, utilities, and other tools for developing solutions using .NET, Assembly, Basic, C, C#, C++, Delphi, Java, JavaScript, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, VB-Script, Visual Basic, and other languages and technologies. Featuring over 32,000 resources organized in an easy-to-find format combined with outstanding message forums and community tools, Programmer’s Heaven reaches all facets of the developer community.

StackOverflow
Stack Overflow is a website part of the Stack Exchange network featuring questions and answers on a wide range of topics in computer programming. There are a lot of advanced users active on this site. So if you’re really stuck and cannot find the solution anywhere else, probably because your problem is very specific, try asking on this site.

Open Source Projects

Sourceforge
SourceForge is a web-based source code repository. It acts as a centralized location for software developers to control and manage open source software development. The website runs a version of SourceForge Enterprise Edition, forked from the last open-source version available.

Github
GitHub is a web-based hosting service for software development projects that use the Git revision control system. It is written using Ruby on Rails by GitHub, Inc. (previously known as Logical Awesome) developers Chris Wanstrath, PJ Hyett, and Tom Preston-Werner. GitHub offers both commercial plans and free accounts for open source projects.

PHPClasses
The PHPClasses repository is a website with freely distributable web programming components in the form of PHP classes of objects. It was launched in June 1999 by Manuel Lemos as a means of distributing his own PHP object classes.

Google Code
Google Code is Google’s site for developer tools, APIs, and technical resources. The site contains documentation on using Google developer tools and APIs — including discussion groups and blogs for developers using Google’s developer products. The site also features a variety of developer products and tools built specifically for developers. Google App Engine is a hosting service for web apps. Project Hosting gives users version control for open source code. Google Web Toolkit (GWT) allows developers to create Ajax applications in the Java programming language.

CodePlex
CodePlex is Microsoft’s open source project hosting website. You can use CodePlex to create new projects to share with the world, join others who have already started their own projects, or use the applications on this site and provide feedback.

The list includes only some of the useful websites I use frequently. If you have more interesting sites, please leave me a comment below. I will add them to the list. Thanks.