Roadmap to Web Development

~ Adyant Gupta

What is Web Development?

Web Development is the process of building a website and deploying it on the world wide web. Web development refers to the creating, building, and maintaining of websites. It includes aspects such as web design, web publishing, web programming, and database management.

The two major components of a website are frontend and backend.

Frontend

It is the front end developer’s job to take the vision and design concept from the client and implement it through code.

Front end developers also have to make sure the website looks good on all devices (phones, tablets, and computer screens).

The three main languages you need to know frontend well are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. From there you can focus on frameworks, libraries, and other useful tools.

Backend

It is also referred to as the ‘server-side’ of the website where back-end developers are the experts who build and maintain the mechanisms that process data and perform actions on websites and along with it stores and arranges data.

In simple words, when you visit an e-commerce website, let’s say Flipkart — the attractive layout and design of the website you see on your device are actually created by Frontend Developers but when you log in to your account, add the required items in the cart, do the payment and checkout — all these server-side functionalities comes under Backend Development.

The back-end of the website is built with tools like Django, NodeJS.

Databases, in the context of a website, are the brains that make websites dynamic. Any time you request something from a website — whether you’re searching for a product in an online store or searching for hotel locations within a specific state — the database is responsible for accepting that query, fetching the data, and returning it to the website. Databases can also accept new and edited data when users of a website or application interact with them. The client can change information in a database from the browser, whether a user is posting articles to a CMS, uploading photos to a social media profile, or updating their customer information. The most common database are MongoDB and MySQL.

How do the Frontend and Backend interact with each other?

The answer is simple — through an Application Programming Interface i.e. an API. It is a set of defined rules that enable different applications to communicate with each other.

An API can be compared to something like a business contract. When one party gets into an agreement with another party, a contract is drawn. Similarly, an API is like a contract between the front end and the backend. Just like a contract is drawn-up before the two parties interact, an API is designed before the frontend and the backend. APIs are designed to expose a predefined set of capabilities of the backend systems in order to inform the frontend applications about them.

Conclusion

Backend Development refers to the server-side development. Backend developer skills include Development Languages, Database and cache, Server, API (REST & SOAP), etc. A backend web developer should understand the goals of the website and come up with effective solutions. The languages that a front-end developer should be familiar with are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Frontend development service can’t be offered independently but Backend web development service can be offered independently.