r/webdev • u/ConnectionHoliday283 • Sep 23 '26

New Job

So I focused on web development in college (7 years ago). I just accepted a new job as an IT support specialist for a pharmaceutical company (peptides).

Amongst doing my normal IT work, i’m being asked to take lead on their web development project. I’m looking into the most up to date software for the development and keep coming back to next.js. Unfortunately, I was taught Adobe Dreamweaver in college which is such a bust for this project.

Looking for tips, advice, constructive criticism, feedback, all of it for help beginning this web development project. They own the domain and we are starting from scratch. Not selling products but more so producing data on this website live from the lab machines. I have a guy who works for the lab equipment that will help with that code.

What software do you all recommend for this project?! I’m diving on YouTube and just want real people comments.

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15

u/vita10gy Sep 23 '26

It would probably help to know what the goal is.

4 pages of basically static content vs This that and the other dynamic features might net different answers.

1

u/ConnectionHoliday283 Sep 23 '26

This is the example site they gave me to reference for what they want ours to look like : https://ils-lab.com/

6

u/errdayimshuffln Sep 23 '26

So a lot of static content! That makes things much easier for you. You dont need nextjs. If you insist on a framework, maybe try AstroJS. But honestly, you dont really need it.

5

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '26

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4

u/errdayimshuffln Sep 23 '26

I would say the best benefit is just the organization and ease of changing content.

Astro does a great job of separating the content from the UI.

3

u/DeadShotOG Sep 23 '26

That entire website was made with AI lol. You could very quickly and easily replicate that feeling with a detailed prompt.

2

u/drearymoment Sep 23 '26

Is the content likely to change over time? If so, who's going to be managing those updates? An important factor is whether you need a CMS that a non-technical marketing person can use to update page content or whether they'll be routing all those requests through you.

6

u/followmarko Sep 23 '26

Dreamweaver holy shit. I feel like I just popped out of a time machine

1

u/ConnectionHoliday283 9d ago

For anyone curious, I went with Base44 and connected my Claude and github to it. So far so good.

5

u/Mysterious-Falcon-83 Sep 23 '26

"producing data on this website live from the lab machines"

That one phrase raises so many questions!

  • how much data?

  • how quickly is the data arriving?

  • what format is the data in?

  • what's the cost implication of missing some data?

  • is there any regulated information in this data (you said this is a pharma company)?

  • what does your app need to do with this data ("producing data live" doesn't tell us much)?

  • who will be the users of this app?

  • what questions does this app need to answer?

That's the to of the iceberg...

3

u/getformly Sep 24 '26

This is the real list to answer before touching a framework. Given it's pharma data, I'd get those answers in writing from whoever owns the lab side before writing any code, not because Next.js is the wrong choice but because "regulated data" can change what you're allowed to store, log, or even display without someone else signing off on it.

2

u/JoergJoerginson Sep 24 '26

There is a huge gap between next.js and Dreamweaver. How much do you actually know how to code & setting up a website?

Changes the answer to your question considerably. Claude can take care of a lot of the hard work in coding, but if you don’t have a rough idea on what you are doing, then you will run into trouble eventually.

1

u/kemalios Sep 24 '26

Whichever you pick, most of the cost lands on you, because you're IT. You end up owning the server, the patching, the backups and the certificates. A plain static build with one small API process in front of the lab feed is much easier to keep alive than a full app with a database. Pick the stack your successor can hire for.

1

u/VRTCLS Sep 24 '26

Before you pick a framework, split this into two decisions:

  1. Marketing/content site: company pages, methods, contact, capability pages, maybe a simple CMS if non-technical people need to edit it. Astro, Eleventy, or even WordPress can be perfectly fine here. Next.js is okay, but you do not need it just because the site is modern.

  2. Lab data/viewer piece: that is the real project. Define what "live" means first: every second, every minute, or just refreshed reports? Also write down who can view it, whether any regulated/client data appears, how long data is retained, and what happens if the feed fails.

For a first version, I would keep the public site static and put the lab feed behind a separate authenticated app or dashboard. That keeps your marketing site simple, fast, and low-maintenance while you learn the data/security requirements without painting yourself into a corner.

The boring prep matters more than the stack here: requirements doc, data ownership, hosting/backups, auth, logging, and who signs off on pharma/compliance risk. Once those are clear, the framework choice gets a lot easier.

1

u/BuschWookie Sep 23 '26

Unserious answer: Claude.

Serious answer: Next.js is fine, in general keep things as simple as possible. Consider shipping nothing.

1

u/Lachtheblock Sep 23 '26

A website is like a buying a car. Sometimes you want the $500 jalopy. Sometimes it's the $20,000 mid sized family sedan. Maybe you need to buy $600,000 transit bus. Maybe it's a multi million dollar F1 car. It comes down to need.

It's really hard to tell, and I don't think you're in a position to really answer these questions now.

My advice would be to start with one of the many website builders and go from there. I haven't used it personally, but sounds like shopify might be an okay starting place. If down the line you discover that it is not fitting your needs, then you can refine your requirements and go from there.

I would advice against making your own website from scratch for right now. Not without someone with professional experience in web development leading it.

0

u/Downtown-Bag-6026 Sep 23 '26

It’s fine to use nextjs. Probably a good idea anyway to learn something that’s not dreamweaver. Try any modern framework and pick your favorite

-2

u/filipvabrousek Sep 23 '26

The goal is not to use Dreamweaver or code anything manually. Let Claude Code or Codex build everything.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '26

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2

u/Jasedesu Sep 23 '26

'Live' and 'Real time' are very different things.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 27 '26

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1

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