Copying a website's code?

pog it

Hey all,
I am a complete beginner programmer and don't intend to make this my day job as I am simply and sadly not a born programmer. I can do it, but I'll never make it to the top level.

I would like to make myself a website though and have already done so with content management tools which was easy but unfulfilling.

Am wondering if it's possible to just copy the source code of a website you really like, and then adapting it as you go to learn and make your own changes?

Is it a simple case of copy and paste?

Appreciate any advice!

AltAccount

Ever wanted to be a best selling novelist or release multi-platinum album. Probably far more lucrative and the same principle could easily be applied!

pog it

Hell Yeah. Take for example Joseph O'Connor who said his 'first short story was by McGahern'. He rewrote McGahern books to learn how to write.. using the McGahern text as his base, and then alternating it in parts, editing, etc.
And here's a link: http://www.josephoconnorauthor.com/erm-on-john-mcgahern.html

Has served him well as the original writer that he is.. wouldn't you say?

What I would like to do is very similar, I agree!

28064212

Go to Google.com, hit Ctrl+U (or whatever View Source is in your browser). Think you can adapt that code? Then there's the server-side stuff. If you copy the exact HTML, CSS and Javascript code from Google, put it on your local machine, it won't connect to anything. You won't be able to perform searches, or get suggestions, or do much of anything really.

Basically, at an entirely presentational level, it might be possible (assuming the author hasn't obfuscated their code too much). On a functional level, it won't work.

Also, you say that using a CMS "was easy but unfulfilling". How much more fulfilling do you think copying someone else's site is going to be?

The Corinthian

pog it wrote: »

Is it a simple case of copy and paste?

No. Most Web sites are what is called n-tier; this means that there are several tiers or layers to it, typically three - the presentation layer (HTML, JavaScript, etc), the application layer (PHP, C#, Java, Ruby, etc) and the database layer (MySQL, MSSQL, Oracle, etc).

From your browser, you'll only have access to the first of these; the other two are not accessible unless you have access to the server. So at best you're only going to get static pages (presuming they're not obfuscated), which means that dynamic content will never be accessible.

Appreciate any advice!

Do a site from scratch. Don't worry about the design, just the coding. Look at examples, but don't simply cut and paste them. Use a text editor, not a WYSIWYG. Learn how it's done, even a simple site, and especially the theory behind it - notably fundamentals like the client-server model, what HTTP POSTs and GET requests and responses actually are and the stateless nature of HTTP.

Do that and it'll come to you and there will eventually be nothing you cannot do. Don't and you'll never go beyond being a bottom-feeder.

BrokenArrows

You could do this with a very basic HTML site but once you get into the more complex sites the answer is NO.

Procasinator

No. The closest thing you could do is find an open source project with a permissive license and use that as your base.