Front End Web Development

What’s the difference between Front-End Website Development & Back-End Development

Front-end web development and back-end web development are required in today’s websites. You’d be surprised if any top websites did not have developers working on the front-end and back-end development. Nowadays, websites need to be functional and offer visitors a rich experience.

Web Development

Front End Web Development is the part of the website that you can see and interact with. It usually consists of two parts: web design and front-end web development. The web design is generally done with Photoshop or a similar graphics tool. Simultaneously, the development part is the coding using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or jQuery. Overall the purpose of web design and front-end development is to make a website intuitive and attract customers.

Aliases for Front-End Web Development

Front-end web development or client-side development has several aliases. For example, htmler, web designer, coder, website builder, and frontend developer. Their functions generally remain the same. Also, people might perceive it as “making things pretty.” While it is a good comment since they make things look good, many other technologies that might be usually overlooked fall within this field. Here are a few examples:

Technologies Front End Web Developers may use

Markup

• (X)HTML, the page’s structure, is the foundation of websites, essential for search optimization, and vital to place the document with the right hooks for the Classes and the IDs that will provide the style and interaction the reader will ultimately use.

Style

• Using CSS, they can give a page its unique visual flair and a clear, user-friendly view to allow readers, who never linger on pages, to help read or skim the contents.

Cross Browser

• Cross-Platform, Cross-Device Functionality – They must ensure that the pages are compatible with all browsers. This is to make their pages accessible to everyone and not limited to a certain number of people. They want to make it accessible regardless of their platform, browser, or device.

Accessibility

• This is to provide your content and pages with as many access points as possible, especially for people with disabilities. For example, you might build your site to be used without a mouse or a standard keyboard for people with motor-related disabilities, but the same can be said about those who access a site with their phone.

Programming

• Primarily JavaScript, PHP, or any other popular web language developed for frontend or backend purposes.

Performance

• Your markup, styles, and JavaScript should be scalable and agile to build even faster sites. This way, it will load faster. Having a slower site can make people impatient and not want to return. You want to make your site as quickly as possible to avoid the potential loss of a visitor.

Research

• This is a very important, if not the most crucial, part. Technology is constantly evolving, so staying up to date with everything is an excellent idea.

Applications Require Front-End Design

The back end is responsible for calculations, business logic, database interaction, and performance. Most of the code required for application work will be done on the back end. The backend code is run on the server instead of the client (PC, desktop, or mobile device). This means that backend developers need to understand programming languages and databases, but they must also have an understanding of server architecture. They will even need to know front-end design aspects.

Much like front-end development, backend development has a human aspect to it. If an application is slow, crashes often, or constantly throws errors at users, it’s likely because of backend problems. Since most of the code for an application is written on the back end, it should be easy to understand and work with. Most backend languages like Ruby and Python have standardized styles and idioms, making reading and writing code more efficient and enjoyable. The technical skills required to be a backend web developer commonly include the following:

Ruby

A programming language created to be fun and efficient. Ruby syntax is easy to read, even for people who don’t know Ruby. Overall, Ruby was thrust into the mainstream thanks to Rails, a framework (built with Ruby) for building web applications. Also, Ruby on Rails is considered one of the most popular web development tools for small businesses and startups. Companies like Twitter, Hulu, and Github all started or still use Ruby on Rails in some capacity. Ruby can code business logic, calculate data and distribute servers for better performance.

Python

Much like Ruby, Python is known in part for its readability. Django’s popular web development framework also makes Python popular for building web applications. Dropbox was built with and still uses Python to run much of its server-side code. Python can be used for everything Ruby can. To use Python or Ruby depends on your skillset, the communities you’re exposed to, and your development team.

SQL

It’s a universal database query language. SQL interacts with databases, which are a part of every backend web application. No matter what language or framework you choose to build your web application, you will likely use SQL or some abstraction to interact with the database.

Final Thoughts on Front-End Web Development

Pretty much, the front end and back end are that. The front end takes care of the front, which everybody sees and interacts with. Meanwhile, the back end takes care of the back, which is the part of the site that people don’t see. Full-stack development refers to both of these areas.