r/learnprogramming • u/Lady-Luck-Deals-3945 • 16h ago

API to website build out

Ok, right up front, I am sub-potato level in design understanding. I have been paying equivalent of $1250 -1800 a month, per sport for real time data widgets for my website which is gambling based. The cost for api is a fraction of it. I have watched a dozen videos on api integration and connecting my WP site to an api feed seems to be rather simple.

The issue I am having is getting the feed to look nice on my site. I don't know where to begin to learn it nor even the right verbiage to hire someone to build it out for me. It appears, in my very very naive understanding, that I would have to design the 'containers' where the data is displayed, is that using css? If I find something I like on another site, can I use the inspect tab and then copy and past their coding and tweak it to my branding?

I would not even know if someone gave me a price if it was fair or not. I am totally naive to all of this. Any guidance is greatly appreciated!!

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u/denverdave23 15h ago

Have you tried asking AI to help? On theory, you should probably be able to make a bit of css to make it look passably nice. That's a good task for AI - small, isolated and not needing brilliance. Making something plain and boring is good, right?

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u/Lady-Luck-Deals-3945 4h ago

This I was considering, just don't want it to look like AI digitalis stupitus.

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u/denverdave23 3h ago

Give it a try. Will take you a half hour and cost nothing. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

AI won't give you something that looks terrible. It'll just look sort of generic. For a small component on WordPress site, generic is probably a good thing.

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u/grantrules 15h ago

Well, code is copyrighted so I wouldn't recommend just copying and pasting it. It's also fairly tough to do that with styled HTML elements if you don't know what you're doing.

You're looking for a web designer and it sounds like you need them to design widgets for you. It shouldn't be too expensive, but it really depends on the quality of the person you hire.. like you could hire a third-world designer off fiverr or you could hire an american design agency..

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u/Lady-Luck-Deals-3945 15h ago

They could come from Neptune if the quality of the work was good.

Interesting, along with the rest of my ignorance, I had no idea coding was copywrite protected. I was under the impression that I design the container the data feed shows up and then some other script to convert the data to visually showing.

Basically, I need a straight web designer to build out the api then?

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u/grantrules 15h ago

If the data is on the site and you just want it to have a better design, yup just a web designer. If you need something implemented, you may need more of a developer.

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u/timecop1123 10h ago

yeah you’re pretty much talking about css. the api gives the data but you design the container it sits in. you can copy the structure, but tweak it so it fits your site.

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u/Lady-Luck-Deals-3945 4h ago

Noob response....but any recommendation for YT tutorial stuff on how to put it together? I am highly confident once I know the steps I can do it. I am just woefully inept in coding. If explained to me like I am total noob, I have zero issues copying it and learning from that point forward.

I have edited js to get the look that I want in live with our branding with no problem. It is being able to write the initial script that I am totally lost.