How is AI to create a website or App?

1,016 Views | 9 Replies | Last: 7 days ago by Pinochet
diamondag
How long do you want to ignore this user?
I always hear you can use AI to create a website or even better to create a app

In the app situation like a particular AI program that you download how do we find these AI sites?

The only AI I come across is the AI search help in Safari

I would like to make an app actually a few
IrishAg
How long do you want to ignore this user?
diamondag said:

I always hear you can use AI to create a website or even better to create a app

In the app situation like a particular AI program that you download how do we find these AI sites?

The only AI I come across is the AI search help in Safari

I would like to make an app actually a few

I would say you need some knowledge about how to get there. To get the concept, using AI to build an web or device application is like having a team of developers under you that can utilize. But, just like real developers you need someone to guide them on:
  • Goals of the app (persistent data, user information, interaction with that data)
  • How it's going to be used (user interaction)
  • What should be the focus of the design
  • How is it going to be maintained long term
  • What technology stacks should be used
And that's just to start. I'm technically inclined, but have never built a full stack web app (persistent data, or easiest way to think of it is a site you can interact with and go to a computer and those interactions are still there), it took me less than an hour to get something up and running (lots of back and forth having AI fix the errors) in my home lab that was fully interactive. So while less than an hour, I do understand how web applications work and the technology stacks that are used to build them and could direct the AI to do it.

You could probably just randomly make something pretty easily and have it up and running with most of the large AI companies, but if is anything that has data you want to secure I wouldn't trust it publicly as any AI (like a lot of humans) will take the path of least resistant with no regard if there's huge known security hole.

Long story long, you can probably build it without any technical skills, but the more you understand the better you'll be able to guide the application build to what you want it to be.
Rex Racer
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
It's possible, and I have done so, but I've been building apps for more than 25 years. You need to think like a developer and be specific what you are asking it.

Here's an example system prompt, and an example user prompt for building a simple app that can create, read, update, delete, and search a database table, for example.

System Prompt:
You are an expert at ASP.NET Core 9.0 Blazor development. You are also an expert in WCAG 2.1 level AA Accessibility standards, and secure development, including the OWASP Top Ten and mitigating other vulnerabilities. You are also an expert at MS SQL Server.

User Prompt:
Please help me build an ASP.NET Core 9.0 Blazor application that allows the end user to search, create, read, update, or delete records from a MS SQL database table. The database server is: <servername>. The database name is: TestDBName. The tables I want to update are: [dbo].[TestTable] and [dbo].[TestTable2]. For the search use the following fields (field1, field2, field3). Please build the application to mitigate the OWASP Top 10 and other known vulnerabilities. Use the latest NuGet packages. Use responsive web design and build it to WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standards. On the web pages, include a header with the title "<your page title>". For colors, use MyCompanyName branding such as #700500, #ffffff, and #e1e1e1. In the header, include a logo image file named MyLogo-Inline.svg, and have it floated to the left side of the header. Give me the file structure of the project first and then proceed with the source code. The TestTable table has this structure:
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TestTable](
[Name] varchar NOT NULL,
[Department] varchar NOT NULL,
[Manager_DN] varchar NOT NULL,
[ID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
[ID] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON, OPTIMIZE_FOR_SEQUENTIAL_KEY = OFF) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

The TestTable2 table has this structure:
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TestTable2](
[Step] varchar NOT NULL,
[Approver_DN] varchar NOT NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

----End User Prompt-----

It can only get more complicated from there, depending on what you want to do. I have built several really complex apps using this method and MS Visual Studio Pro. It's great for pumping out something quick, even if you have to tweak it some. I personally use Claude Sonnet 4 as my LLM. I use an in-house AI tool that let's us pick whichever LLM we want to use.
OldArmy07
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Try out Lovable, Windsurf, or if you want to be more involved in the code, Github Copilot in VSCode.

Comments above are right on that building something that looks good and actually having it be sustainable and secure when hosted are two different things.

Lovable and Windsurf are going to be more oriented towards an AI-first approach where the goal is to not look at the code an just prompt it in english to build and iterate until it looks and acts the way you want it to.

I've not deployed anything to production that was built wholly by AI, but I use it as a tool to build quick prototypes to convey intent, get buy-in, and then hand it off to folks on my team smarter than me to build it in a sustainable way.
EMY92
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I did this one week ago.

I work for a SAS company and have a full stack team that I'm in charge of, but I am not a developer or really a techie. We've been trying to get everyone in the company familiar with using AI so we have days where the entire company vibe codes.

I decided to create an Android app that I could side load onto one of my phones.
  • I had to download NodeJS
  • VS Code - I've seen this used by developers, but I had never touched it
  • Expo
I was using ChatGPT, but as noted above, Cursor would have made the process much easier, especially since Cursor has our companies coding standards built in.

By the end, I was learning VS and could spot problems without ChatGPT's help. I was hoping for a short day, but it turned into a very long day trying to get the app to work the way I wanted, then to successfully create an APK that would build.

In short, one of my developers could have created a better app than I did using AI and done it in 30 minutes (not counting Expo build time).
Pman17
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Check out Framer

https://www.framer.com/

I too am making a website, but with Figma. Does anyone know if I can export a Figma site to self host?
Mega Lops
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Pman17 said:

Does anyone know if I can export a Figma site to self host?

Bro, you just described MS FrontPage

fig96
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Pman17 said:

Check out Framer

https://www.framer.com/

I too am making a website, but with Figma. Does anyone know if I can export a Figma site to self host?

Not to self host, but Figma Make lets you export from design to code (believe you have to be on a paid plan). But you'd still need to actually host it somewhere.

And Framer is great for building websites but not so much for an application.

Source: I'm a product designer, currently working on a designing and building a few apps
rynning
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Agree with all the above. I've been paying $20/month for Cursor AI Pro and have been astounded with how good it is.

I've been rewriting my fairly large monolithic PHP/MySQL system. I wrote a REST API "by hand" a couple of years ago with Node.js and Mongo, and now I'm using Cursor to write the entire front end in React. (i.e.,100% Javascript)

It has three modes: Plan where you give context and describe as many requirements as possible, and it will summarize all it will do and even ask clarifying questions, Ask where you can ask questions about anything, and Agent where it writes code either executing a plan or based on single prompts.

I would say my speed is at least 20 times faster than without it. In one example, I asked it to create a graphical simulation based on the response from an API call. I spent about 5 minutes writing the requirements, and it got it right the first time. The same simulation took me days with the old system.

My only caution is that it's very easy to get lazy and not inspect what it's actually doing, but that's entirely my fault...
Pinochet
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Mega Lops said:

Pman17 said:

Does anyone know if I can export a Figma site to self host?

Bro, you just described MS FrontPage



I think I have the original laser disc if you need that to install it.
Refresh
Page 1 of 1
 
×
subscribe Verify your student status
See Subscription Benefits
Trial only available to users who have never subscribed or participated in a previous trial.