Web development, in general, refers to the tasks associated with developing websites for hosting through internet. It also includes maintaining those websites once created. Other aspects that come under web development include web publishing, web designing, web programming and database management. To sum it up, it is the creation of an application or a software that works over the internet. Web development can be done by a single person as well as a team or a group of people. For multinational companies, there are usually teams put together to perform the tasks concerning web development.
Programming languages
Wherever web development is concerned, programming languages automatically come into the play. Although there are numerous programming languages present in the market, there are some which are preferred more by the web developers than the other. The most commonly used are:
- JavaScript
- HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
Types of web development
There are three types of web development. They are front end development, back end development and full stack development.
- Front end development:
Front end development is concerned with the client facing side of web development. This means that it usually has to do with the portion or side of the website that the users will interact with. Indirectly, it deals with user interface part of the website. This type of web development is responsible with how the website looks and feels from the user’s perspective. It pays a great deal of attention towards the aesthetic side of web developing. For the above mentioned reasons, there are special kinds of developers for this type known as web designers. Front end developers need a strong base of understanding certain programming languages like JavaScript, HTML, CSS, etc.
Jobs for front end developers:
- Front end engineer
- HTML developer
- Front end accessibility expert
- Front end web designer
- Back end development:
While front end developers are concerned with how the website looks, back end development is concerned with the proper functioning and working of the website. It keeps in check whether everything under the hood is in proper condition or not. It is responsible for everything consisting of database interactions, server, user authentication, internet, hosting configuration, network and business logic.
The primary responsibility of the back end developers is to maintain and overlook the functionality of the website which also consists of its speed and responsiveness. To achieve this goal, the back end developers need to know how to build servers with modern framework and to manage databases and data on a web server. They might use side languages like Python and tools like Oracle to make their work easier and faster.
- Full stack development:
Full stack developers are the most in demand developers. It is because they withhold the knowledge of both, front end as well as back end developers. They are generalists who know both types of development and can manage and adapt as per the changes are required by the firm or the company. There are people around the world who are slowly training themselves to understand both the types of development as the statistics have suggested that the changes of hiring a full stack developer is much more than a front end or a back end developer. Full stack developers are the fourth most in-demand job in the tech industry.
Platforms for web development
In today’s world. No matter how small a business or a start up is, having a website is of utmost importance. It can increase sales much more than compared to social media platforms. In the new age od digitalization, the businessmen and entrepreneurs are looking forward to expand their business by connecting to the crowds via online methods. Besides the sales, websites are also being used by them to share personal experiences and information with others to develop a touch of personalization with the customers. Some of the website development platforms are as follows:
- Jimdo
- Weebly
- Wix
- WordPress