Additional information
by Mark J. Price (Author), Stephen Wood (Foreword by)
Start from zero and learn web development by building a real survey website with AI as your coding partner, guiding you through each concept, exercise, and deployment step in a practical, beginner-friendly way
Key Features:
- Learn with AI chatbots as a 24/7 tutor while you code and ask questions anytime
- Master frontend and backend basics, then build a full survey website with Django
- Set up modern tools like OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, and Docker for real-world workflows
Book Description:
Web Dev with an AI Sidekick is a beginner-friendly guide that turns learning into a conversation. Instead of passively reading lessons, you actively work with an AI that explains concepts, generates examples, answers your questions, and helps you fix mistakes as you go. It feels like having a personal tutor available whenever you need support.
You start from the very basics and build real skills step by step. Learn how web pages are structured with HTML, styled with CSS, and then made interactive with JavaScript and TypeScript. Understand how data is stored and queried with SQL, how backend logic works with Python, and how full websites are built using Django. You also explore simple command-line tasks with Bash to strengthen your development workflow.
As your confidence grows, you bring everything together by building a complete survey creation app with analytics. You design surveys, collect responses, display results in tables and charts, and understand how testing, debugging, and deployment work in practice.
Throughout the journey, you also learn how to use AI responsibly by writing clear prompts, reviewing results carefully, and verifying outputs with documentation.
By the end, you will have a deployed website and the confidence to continue learning on your own.
What You Will Learn:
- Optimize your chatbot to act as your web development learning mentor
- Structure, style, add images, and animate content with HTML, SVG, and CSS
- Add web page interactivity with JavaScript and TypeScript
- Store and query data using practical SQL exercises
- Build backend features in Python and Django step by step
- Collaborate with an AI coding expert: Codex, Claude Code, or Copilot
- Create surveys, gather responses, and show results in charts
- Test, debug, and deploy your app with AI support
Who this book is for:
This book is for complete beginners who are curious about web development and excited about AI. It is ideal for students starting coding, career changers entering tech, self-taught learners who feel overwhelmed, creatives who want to build interactive projects, and hobbyists or entrepreneurs with a web app idea. No prior experience is required: if you can open a browser and follow instructions, you are ready to start.
Table of Contents
- Introduction to Web Development with an AI Sidekick
- HTML - Structuring Your Web Pages
- CSS - Styling Your Web Pages
- SVG - Drawing Scalable Graphics
- JavaScript - Making Web Pages Interactive
- TypeScript - Safer JavaScript
- SQL - Managing Data
- Python - Programming on the Backend
- Django - Web Development on the Backend
- Bash/Shell - Command-Line Skills for Developers
- Setting Up Your Project Environment
- Unit, Integration, and End-to-End Testing
- Specifying and Building the Initial Project
- Adding Project Features Using Spec-Driven Development
- Deploying to Public Servers
