Web/Software Development – An Overview

There are more than 1.5 Billion websites present on the internet and the number is constantly increasing. Web development has two principal components to run both websites and/or applications flawlessly: front-end and back-end development. The front end determines the user interface and experience, while the back end refers to the server behind the app/website and database. Both are the most applied terms in the programming world.

We will learn both one by one.

Front End Development(Client Side Rendering):

Front-end development consists of user experience elements design and set up. It includes web/ app colors, text, buttons, links, navigation menus, pages, images, and graphics. If you are playing a game on your mobile device, you see many features, graphics, and functionality. A front end web developer sets up this entire look. The technologies used for this objective are HTML (HyperText Markup Language), CSS(Cascading Style Sheet ), and JavaScript.

Front end web development relies on APIs that run on background remote servers or cloud. An API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Each time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message, or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API.

HTML:

It is the fundamental programming language practiced to create web content.HTML is the core of an app/website that renders overall design and functionality. It is a blend of HyperText and Markup Language. Markup language aids in defining the text documentation within the tag, explaining the composition of web pages. On the other hand, HyperText defines the link between the pages. HTML 5.3 is the latest HyperText Markup Language version being used worldwide.

What is Site Rendering:

Site rendering means generating HTML output. It can appear on both the Client-Side (Front End) and Server Side(Back end) web development.

CSS:

CSS helps developers in creating attractive and interactive web designs flexibly. Cascade Styling Sheet comprises the website content style like color, font, and layouts. It has extensions like Sass and LESS which address web pages presentation.

It is a magical scripting language. JavaScript is an event-based language used to build dynamic elements on static HTML web pages. These elements are dropdown menus, model windows, and contact forms. There are also Javascript libraries like jQuery. Developers can access elements separate from the main HTML page.

Frameworks

Bootstrap, Angular, Ember, Backbone, and React are some of the famous front-end frameworks. These standard programming tools help developers fulfill today’s business necessities. Many languages used in front-end development depend on frameworks like Flutter using Dart, React utilizes Javascript, and Django uses Python.

Open Source

Open source is a term that originally referred to open source software (OSS). Open source software is code that is designed to be publicly accessible—anyone can see, modify, and distribute the code as they see fit

AngularJS:

It is an open-sourced Javascript framework that is utilized to develop single-page web applications. It converts static HTML to dynamic HTML and extends HTML attributes with directives.

ReactJS:

It is a flexible and efficient JavaScript library to build user interfaces. ReactJS is an open-source component-based library for the view layer of the application.

BootStrap:

Bootstrap is a popular open-source framework to create responsive websites and web applications – it is entirely free to use.

jQuery:

It is also an open-source JavaScript library used to simplify the interactions between Document Object Model (DOM) and Javascript. It also simplifies the HTML Doc traversing and manipulation, DOM animation, Ajex interactions, browser event handling, and cross-browser Javascript development.

SASS:

SASS is an addition to the programming language. This reliable CSS extension language is used to extend the existing CSS functionality, including everything from variables, inheritance, and nesting.

Flutter:

It is an open-source UI development SDK, which Google manages. Flutter is supported by Dart programming language. It forms a single code base good-looking Andriod+IOS, Desktop, and Web applications. It is easier, expressive, and with a flexible UI. Flutter recently released Flutter 2 for the desktop and web applications in beta state.

Semantic UI, Materialize are some other popular languages and frameworks.

Front End Web Developer responsibilities

Front End web developers are responsible for a number of different things. Here are some of the significant responsibilities.

• Images and Graphics
• Animations
• Content Organization
• Navigation and Layouts

Front end developer

Design websites and apps in programs like Photoshop and Fireworks. Front end developers are also responsible for creating HTML and CSS as well.

UI Designer:

UI (User Interface) or Visual Designer is responsible for creating the front-end designs. These designs decide how a user will see the application or website on the browser.

UX Designer:

UX (User Experience) work on different users’ site experiences through various platforms like mobile devices, display sizes, and web browsers. They ensure the user has the best experience through a lot of testing.

Front End Web Development Challenges:

The rapid change in the programming tools, techniques, and technologies is challenging for front-end developers. It is laborious for developers to meet the user interface specifications through the latest mobile devices and screen resolution sizes. IoT (Internet of Things) have made this process more complex and tricky to follow through.

What is a Static Website?

Front End usually delivers a static website. These static websites are useful for showcasing businesses, restaurants, portfolios, and professional profiles.

Back end Development (Server Side Rendering):

Suppose you are looking to increase the more user interaction on your website. Maybe you want to create a store where you will list the products, and the user will be able to make purchases through his user profile. You also want to integrate online payment methods like Paypal, Master/Visa card, or Credit cards. You will need a back-end supported service.

In another example, your favorite game is running on a server and database, So it runs flawlessly. The back end is also described as the server-side – this portion of your website or application is not visible to the users.

An admin or developer can only access to make changes that will be shown on the Front End. In this process, a server provides on request data to the application and a database that organized all the information. The back end doesn’t interact with the user. It is the front end that communicates with the user.

What is a Dynamic Website?

A dynamic website differs in terms of services, display, and functionality from a static website. Your new or existing sites need a lot of additional components. Its content can be changed or modified through its database.

Prominent Back End Tools

What is a Database?

Back end mostly depends on the database. A database stores your website in a manner that it can be retrieved, edited, saved, and organized easily. Several reliable enterprise-level databases like Oracle, Teradata, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, Enterprise DB, and SAP Sybase ASE are available. MySQL, NoSQL, and PostgresSQL are some other popular databases.

Applications are coded with various frameworks and languages like Ruby on Rails, Java, JavaScript, GO, C++/C/C#, Pathon, and PHP.

Back end works with software stacks that include operating systems, web servers, frameworks, languages, and programming APIs.

NET, MEAN, and LAMP are some of the popular stacks. Each stack contains a required specific language.

Popular Back End Languages Overview

PHP:

PHP(Hypertext Preprocessor) is server-side scripting language designed for web development.

C++:

C++ is a widely-used general-purpose programming language for competitive web programming.

Java:

It comprises highly scalable and readily available programming languages and platforms.

Javascript programming language is used in both front-end and back-end web development.

Python:

Python programming language aids in increasing workflow and systems integration efficiency.

NodeJS:

NodeJs is neither a framework nor a web development programming language. It is a cross-platform runtime environment for a Javascript code execution outside the browser. It is mainly used to build mobile or web app back-end services like API. NodeJS is also an open-source platform.

The web browser works as an interpreter in this entire process. Essential responsibilities of back-end web developers are the following.

• Code Building
• Debugging and Troubleshooting Web Applications
• Utilization of the Web Development Frameworks
• Management of the Database

What is Full Stack Development

Developers who have proficiency in both front and back-end web development are named Full Stack Developers. Most developers begin as one kill specialists but time and experience increase their skills.

In short front end is a browser, while the back end is a server or cloud. If you want to work on user experience enhancement and how the applications and sites look, you can start as a front-end developer.

On the other hand, if you are interested in writing algorithms, creating services and API’s and cloud work, the back end will be the best choice. A Full Stack Developer is a combo of both front end and back-end web developers.

Conclusion:

Software development industry is one of the fastest growing industries today and software developers are in demand everywhere in the world. The future of software engineering implies that programming will penetrate almost all business areas as well as in daily lives. At the same time, operations are increasingly moving towards being mobile-based. Thus, if you have a great new digital product concept, your next step is to search for high-quality app development services.

Whilst learning software development is not a piece of cake the digital age we currently live in democratizes the accessibility and availability to learn software/web development. Youtube is one of the most helpful tool in enhancing web development skil ls. Complete tutorials and courses are available in the form of playlists by the world’s best professionals.