Basic Concept Of Back-end Web Development.

1. INTRODUCTION.
2. WHAT IS BACKEND DEVELOPMENT.
3. WHO IS A BACKEND DEVELOPER.
4. FUNCTIONS OF A BACKEND DEVELOPER.
5. PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE ON BACKEND DEVELOPMENT.
6. TECHNOLOGIES AND LANGUAGES USED IN BACKEND DEVELOPMENT.
7. GETTING YOUR HANDS DIRTY.
8. CONCULUSION.

INTRODUCTION.

This medium post is specifically for new developers who are striving to understand the concept of backend web development. I have come to understand that it takes many developers who want to specialize on backend development a while to get grasp of what the really need to know in order to be inline. So with my experience so far in backend web development, i decided to write this article to help new developers, those that are struggling to get a basic understanding of what backend development is all about and what is required of them as a backend developers.

WHAT IS BACKEND DEVELOPMENT.

An app or a web service can have two broad parts: the frontend and the backend. The roles of these parts can be guessed from their names.

The backend development is the web or application development that you can’t “see”. It is the internal working of the application or website. This includes stuff like the server, the database, etc.

Consider a blog. You’re reading an article on a blog. The fonts, colors, designs, etc. constitute the frontend of that blog. However, the webpage and the content of that article were served by a server and fetched from a database. That is the backend part of the application.

WHO IS A BACKEND DEVELOPER.

A back-end developer is one who is responsible for server-side web application logic and sees to the integration of the work front-end developers do. Back-end developers usually write the web services and APIs used by front-end developers and mobile application developers.

DON’T WORRY, JUST RELAX WE WILL ALL GET THERE!.

FUNCTIONS OF A BACKEND DEVELOPER.

SOME OF THE THINGS TAKEN CARE OF BY BACKEND DEVELOPERS INCLUDE:

1. Writing server-side code.

2. Writing code to interact with a database.

3. Ensuring that the server-side code is secure and free of vulnerabilities.

4. Ensuring that the server-side code is optimized enough to handle large volumes of traffic

5. Deploying the code online so that other people can use your service.

Backend developers may work with other kinds of developers on a single project since the skill set required to complete an app or a web service is not limited to backend development.

PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE ON BACKEND DEVELOPMENT.

Before you delve into tools like(frameworks, languages and technologies),used by backend developers, there are certain things you should be comfortable with.

1. INTERNET: This can be defined as the world wide systems of computer networks. ( I call it THE NETWORK OF ALL NETWORKS), if permitted can access or get any information from any computer.

2. NETWORKS: This can be defined as the collection of computers and devices connected together often wirelessly via communication devices and transmission media.

3. DATABASES: This can be defined as the base where collected data and information are stored in a well defined, sort able and accessible manner. Examples include (a). MySQL. (b). Mongo dB etc.

4. IDE: This simply means integrated development environment. It is an enabling environment which allows you to write , edit and maintain your code.(Your instructions to the computer). Examples include (a). Visual Studio Code(VSC). (b). Sublime Text ©. Atom (d).Notepad ++ (e).NetBeans etc.

5. BROWSERS: This can be defined simply as an application software used to access a servers…Examples include (a). Chrome. (b). Mozilla Firefox ©.Opera

6. COMPUTER SERVER.

I want to define this in two ways can I ? YES OR NO?!

1. A computer server can be defined as an application software designed to process request and deliver data to another computer over the internet.

2. A computer server can be defined as an application program which manages access to a centralized resource or service in a network.

NOTE: Apache is just an application software used in building a server.!

TYPES OF SERVERS

Online servers.

Offline or local servers.

Examples include (a). XAMP (b). WAMP etc.

TECHNOLOGIES AND LANGUAGES USED IN BACKEND DEVELOPMENT.

Here’s the bit you’ve been waiting for — choosing a language/framework to learn for backend development.

1. SCRIPTING LANGUAGES: The include (a). PHP (b).JavaScript ©Ruby etc..

2. PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES: The include (a). PYTHON (b).JAVA © etc..

3. FRAMEWORKS: The include (a). LARAVEL (b).SYMPHONY ©. DJANGO (d).FLASK (e). NODE.JS etc..

4. DATABASES: The include (a). MYSQL (b).MONGO DB etc..

Once you’ve decided upon which framework and database you want to use, there are a few more things you should be comfortable with as a developer in general and a backend developer in particular:

The Include:

1. Git and GitHub for version control.

2. Using database-as-a-service platforms (e.g. Mlab for MongoDB).

3. Using server-as-a-service platforms(e.g. Heroku, Digital Ocean, Amazon Web Services).

4. Slack.

5.Stackoverflow.

6. Twitter

( I just included (4,5 6)because you need them as a developer (be it frontend, backend or designer) so as to connect directly to the right people in your channel.

Mavis Beacon Game: This will enhance your typing speed and as well make you familiarize yourself with your.

I also recommend you checking for the backend developer road map in google.

GETTING YOUR HANDS DIRTY.

One thing which applies to everyone is this: learn by doing. Do mini-projects. Make stuff. Unless you actually write code, you will not be able to grab the essence of what you’re learning. Most people make the mistake of learning a lot of theory but not doing much practical work.

Another great tip is to look at code written by other people. It exposes you to other techniques and solutions to the same problems that you are solving (or will have to solve) as a developer. GitHub is a great place to get started.

CONCLUSION.

Now that you have a rough idea of what you want to do, start learning. There are many popular blogs, tutorial series, video series, courses, etc. that you can go for. Again, different people have different ways to learn, so find what works best for you.

We have a back-end developer road map which you can follow, just go to Google and download it ,it will give you a good direction to wherever you want to reach.

That concludes this article. I hope you have gained some insight into what it means to be a backend developer and how to go about becoming one.