Have you had any experience with the control panel a web hosting company gives you?
it is important for the current setup to know how to:
- create, update, view trouble tickets.
- create, modify, and generally maintain MySQL databases (if using PHP+MySQL on your site).
- edit and maintain and understand PHP code (if using it on your site).
- create users for, and create, maintain(if host drops) password-protected directories.
- create email accounts and make them dummy accounts.
- set up email forwarders.
- periodically backup the whole site & optionally download it to your machine. it's about 9-23MB. Not totally necessary, but it's a good idea if your site gets hacked. or something else catastrophic happens.
- install/uninstall fantastico or elephante scripts (rarely!)
Aside from the control panel [demo],
- inform owner of every change you make to the control panel, and of major domain-gone events (check this through iptools.com's whois lookup).
- upload images by batch into the photo gallery.
- make content changes as necessary.
- upload changes via FTP client such as filezilla, leechftp, cuteftp, etc.
- do PHP/MySQL programming when rarely necessary. I've already done the PHP/MySQL programming, it's embedded in the pages that end in .php rather than .html in between <?php and ?> tags.
- optional:maintain WML pages for cell phones in a /wap, /mobi, /m directory, or xhtml files for cell phones in the /xhtml directory.
Have you ever done any database work in SQL or PHP programming? to get started you need at least a text editor that knows about line numbers like Eclipse (hard to install PHP options), Notepad++, or dreamweaver ($$$), or Textpad ($$).
I automate with PHP+MySQL programming to reduce my work where needed.
Once the site is set up properly you may be doing only 1/3 or half of those tasks. the tasks I mentioned are all needed when you start up a site, and if you are doing MySQL/PHP programming, which most people aren't.
At a bare minimum people might use fantastico or elephante scripts (in the control panel) to install packages of PHP/MySQL programs like Coppermine photo gallery like I did, and Simple Machines Forum (don't bother with PHPbb if you can help it). Most of that is configuration and following the install instructions (even after the installer is done, because the install process is often broken).
|