Yeah. In the last few years (I'm not sure how long actually, but it was new to me when I went to use the steemjs api) a new server stack has emerged - called nodejs. What's great about it is that you can do server-side programming in javascript now. What's bad about it is that you can do server-side programming in javascript now. ;) It's terribly documented, and being javascript it is non-blocking and asynchronous which adds a "tear your hair out" level of difficulty. If you've ever used PHP and an *AMP stack, you'll be in for the shock of your life. Where everything is simple and just works in PHP and *AMP, it's infinitely more difficult in nodejs.
But having said all that, you can do some amazing stuff in nodejs, and there's a huge repository of modules/extensions (which is usually documented even worse than nodejs).
It can be a really frustrating exercise, not least because the steemjs api is documented so badly as well. Honestly, I'm not sure if the last 3 months that I lost down the rabbit hole that is nodejs and steemjs was worth it... ;)
By the way, if you want to get a good overview of what you can do with steemjs, look up @jfollas's posts. He did series of about 12 tutorial posts which are simply the best documentation you will find on steemit. Here's his last one with links to all the previous ones - https://steemit.com/steemdev/@jfollas/write-a-steemit-web-app-part-14-recap
But if you've got any questions on how to do stuff in nodejs/steemjs, feel free to ask, as it's all fresh in my mind at the moment.
Wow, that's an excellent link! Thanks! Went straight to the bookmarks :-D
Comming from strongly typed languages this feels like swimming in the mud, lot's of dirt splattering around and me not going anywhere.
Anyone got advice on web hosting? Preferably not too complex. I want to start with a simple website that does some blockchain iteractions using steemjs. Thinking about using a bootstrap template. Later I will be needing a database and a secure connection because I want to do something with steemconnect.
I looked at aws s3 but that feels overwhelming.
Because I'm poor, and didn't know whether I'd get any community support for my websites/apps/etc I went with namecheap because they are inexpensive beyond belief. What's surprised me the most is that their online support is excellent. They know stuff all about nodejs, but anyone who says they know anything about nodejs is lying.. ;). As I went with the cheapest package I had to set up everything on the server myself, and do it from the command line. While googling, I found that a hosting company called "Digital Ocean" I think it was, had excellent detailed articles on how to set up nodejs and all the accoutrements on CENT OS (which I chose to be the OS of my server). They might be worth looking into as well.
I'll tell ya, I came from strongly typed languages as well, and javascript is a sloppy mess and a nightmare. You can use Typescript which is strongly typed and compiles to ordinary javascript. However, I had an awful time trying to get it to work with nodejs and expressjs (look expressjs up, as you'll want to use it if you go the nodejs route). I gave up in the end and just used the ES6 javascript syntax with "use strict" flag and it at least pulls you up if you start making errors with types and whatnot. Not perfect, but a good first step.
Database-wise you can't go past MySQL. Although, the node stack seems to be geared towards something called MongoDB, which is a different model, as far as I can work out, and is centred around JSON. JSON is JavaScript Object Notation, in case you haven't stumbled across that one yet. ;). It's a data notation like XML, but exactly resembles javascript objects (which aren't really 'objects' like you would have known them from proper OO type languages).
Man, I'm rambling. Oops.. :)
Man, thank you for all your 'ramblings'. Too bad I can only give you my $0.03 vote. I hope to be able to contact you later with more questions ;-)
I'm follower 207 :-D
That's ok, it's 3 cents more than I usually get.. ;)
But way less than what you deserve. Are you on discord/steem.chat?
Yeah, but I don't really check in there all that often. I'm a big fan of forums and it's why I'm preaching @jesta's chainbb whenever I can. It's exactly what the dev community need here.