Web Development
A web developer is a programmer who specializes in, or is
specifically engaged in the development of World Wide Web
applications using a client–serve model. The applications
typically use HTML, CSS and JavaScript in the client, PHP, ASP.
NET (C#), Python, Node.js, Go or Java in the server, and http for
communications between client and server. A web content
management system is often used to develop and maintain
web applications.
A web developer builds and maintains websites with the client
and consumer in mind. That is, the end design must i
nclude products and services offered and show how users may
access these. For example, a customer may want a form to capture
an end user’s e-mail to request additional information, provide
a newsletter, or thank a customer for their business.
The work is typically very project-focused and involves
collaborating with a team of people who help coordinate
the client’s needs with the end product. Work may include
meeting with clients to discuss their needs and requirements for a
website or discuss how to keep their website functioning and
up-to-date.
Web developers typically
handle both server-side and front-end logic. This usually involves
implementing all the visual elements that users see and use in the web
applications or use, as well as all the web services that are necessary
to power the usage of their developing work.
Nature of employment
Web developers are found working in various types of
organizations, including large corporations and
governments, small and medium-sized companies,
or alone as freelancers. Some web developers work for one
organization as a permanent full-time employee, while others
may work as independent consultants, or as contractors for an
agency or at home personal use. Web developers typically
handle both server-side and front-end logic. This usually involves
implementing all the visual elements that users see and use in the web
applications or use, as well as all the web services that are necessary
to power the usage of their developing work. Salaries vary depending
on the type of development work, location, and level of seniority.
Type of Work
Modern web applications often contain three or more tiers,
and depending on the size of the team a developer works
on, he or she may specialize in one or more of these tiers -
or may take a more interdisciplinary role. A web developer is usually
classified as a Front-end web development or a Back-End Web
Developer. For example, in a two-person team, one developer may
focus on the technologies sent to the client such as HTML,
JavaScript, CSS, ReactJs or AngularJS and on the server-side
frameworks (such as Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, ASP, ASP.
NET, Node.js) used to deliver content and scripts to the client.
Meanwhile, the other developer might focus on the interaction
between server-side frameworks, the webserver, and a database
system. Further, depending on the size of their organization, the
aforementioned developers might work closely with a content
creator/copywriter, marketing adviser, user experience designer,
web designer, web producer, project manager, software architect,
or database administrator - or they may be responsible for such
tasks as web design and project management themselves.
Types of Web Developers
Unfortunately, the question “What does a web developer
do?” doesn’t have one simple answer. As noted above,
there are some different types of web developers, each of
which focuses on a different aspect of the creation of a website.
To understand what is a web developer it is crucial to know
that the three main types of developers are front-end, back-end,
and full-stack.
Front-end developers are responsible for the parts of a website
that people see and interact with, back-end developers are
responsible for the behind the scenes code that controls how a
website loads and runs, and full-stack developers do a bit of
everything.
Front-end Web Developer
A front-end developer is someone who takes a client or design
team’s website design and writes the code needed to
implement it on the web. A decent front-end web developer
will be fluent in at least three programming languages -
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
HTML allows them to add content to a website while splitting
it into headings, paragraphs, and tables. CSS lets a decent
developer style the content and change things like colors, sizes,
and borders. JavaScript allows the inclusion of interactive
elements, such as push buttons. We will go into more detail
about these languages later.
1. They make sure that all of the content that is needed for the website is clear, visible, and found in
the right place. In some cases front-end developers may also have content writing skills, allowing them to
create the content for the website as they go.
2. They make sure that the right colors are in the right places,
especially concerning text colors, background colors, and headers. Some of the best front-end developers
are also very good designers, allowing them to tweak things as they go.
3. They make sure that all outbound links are correctly formatted,
that all buttons work properly, and that the website is responsive
and attractive. Mobile design is usually a big part of the job, while it is also important to make sure
that a website will display correctly on all web browsers.
As you can see, the answer to the question “What is a web
developer?” certainly isn’t simple. Even front-end
developers have it tough, and this is probably the simplest
of the three types of development to learn.
Back-end Web Developer
While it may seem like front-end developers have a difficult
job making sure that a website looks great, works well, and contains the correct content, back-end
developers have it much worse. While front-end developers are responsible for
client-side programming, back-end developers have to deal with the server-side. This means that they have
to create the code and
programs which power the website’s server, databases, and
any applications that it contains. The most important thing as
a back-end developer is the ability to be able to create a
clean, efficient code that does what you want it to in
the quickest way possible.
Since website speed is a major consideration when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), it is a
large factor when developing
the back-end. To fully explain what is a web developer it is
essential to know that back-end developers use a wide range of different server-side languages to build
complicated programs.
Some of the most popular languages used include PHP, Python,
Java, and Ruby. JavaScript is also becoming increasingly
widespread as a back-end development language, while SQL is commonly used to manage and analyze data in
website databases.
Full-stack Web Developer
Full-stack developers understand both front and back-end
strategies and processes, which means that they are perfectly
positioned to oversee the entire process. In the case of small
websites that don’t have a huge development budget, a full-stack
developer will often be employed to build the entire website. In this
case, it is extremely important for them to have a complete,
in-depth understanding of both front and back-end development
and how they work.
Learning full-stack development techniques has a huge range
of benefits, including:
1. You will end up with the knowledge to be able to create
an entire website on your own. This makes you a lot more employable, increasing your job security in the
future.
2. As a full-stack developer, you will understand the connections between the front and back-ends of a
website, allowing you do build efficient and effective programs for all parts of the website.
3. Full-stack developers are often employed to oversee large
projects for big web development companies. Positions
like this are likely to be paid more than standard web
development positions, making them more attractive to developers. Full-stack defines what is a web
developer.
How to be a web developer
While a lot of people do their research,
decide on programming languages to learn, and have a good go at learning web development, the majority of
them fail due to a distinct lack of direction.
If you are serious about building a career for yourself as an experienced web developer, then you need to
make sure that you start with a clear vision of how you are going
to achieve this. The following steps should help guide you:
1. Start by deciding what sort of developer you want to become. The languages and
techniques that you learn will depend on
whether you want to focus on front or back-end development,
to begin with.
2. Choose a decent course. Next, you need to choose a course or a couple of courses that
will teach you the basics
of web development.
3. Create a learning plan. Everyone needs a bit of motivation from time to time,
otherwise, we simply don’t do the things that
we need to.
Web designer and web developer
Now, we need to digress for a moment to address an
important point that often comes up when people start
talking about web development - the web design vs web
development debate. Are they different? Are they the same thing?
The answer is no, web design and web development are not the
same, but of course, it depends on how you define ‘design’
and ‘development’.
For our article, we have assumed that it takes different knowledge
to understand what is a web designer and what is a web developer.
These professions are different and they have the following roles:
Web designer
The web designer is the person or group of people who are
responsible for the creation of the website concept.
They might decide that it needs to be a certain color, with
certain content and pages.
The web designer is the person or group of people who are
responsible for the creation of the website concept. They might
decide that it needs to be a certain color, with certain content
and pages.
Web developer
The web developer takes the designer’s concepts and creates
the code that is used to turn them into a website and
bring them to people like you and me.
It is important to realize that, although the web developer and the
designer may be the same person - there is almost always some
overlap between design and front-end development - the
roles are different.
Popular languages for web development
Now, it is very important to realize that there is a range of
different languages that are used for web development.
As noted above, front and back-end developers will need to
learn different languages, while full-stack developers will need a
working knowledge of all the major web development languages.
With this in mind, we have put together a list of some of the most
common languages for web developers to learn, along with an
explanation of what they are used for and how you can learn them.
1. HTML
HTML is an essential language if you want to understand
what is a web developer and how to become a front-end
one. To explain it fully, I need you to do something for me:
Right-click on your browser window, and select ‘view page source’.
You should be taken to a new tab containing all of the information
which goes into the creation of this webpage.
What you are seeing is mainly HTML code. It tells the website
what content to display and to some extent, how to display it. At
the top of the page, on the first line, you will see the command.
This tells your web browser to expect HTML code.
If you explore further, you will start to recognize things on the page.
You will see some commands that you understand, such as ‘link’,
‘image’, or ‘video’. These are all content commands which tell your
browser what to show, where to get the content from, and how to
show it.
HTML is a very easy language to learn, and it is usually the first one
learned by new programmers
2. CSS
CSS is the second of the essential front-end languages
and is also one that every front-end developer must be
fluent in. The CSS code is used in conjunction with HTML.
While HTML tells the webpage what content to display, CSS tells
the webpage how to display the content - it’s a ‘styling’ language.
Once you have learned CSS, you will be able to do a wide
range of things, including:
Changing colors: CSS allows you to change the color of
pretty much everything from your paragraph text to your
background to your table borders.
Changing fonts: CSS also lets you choose the fonts that you are
going to use on your website and where you are going to use
them.
Positioning elements: One of the key elements of what is a web
developer capable to do is arranging everything you see in the
website. HTML lets you add images and videos to your webpage,
but CSS lets you tell the browser how big to make them
and where to display them.
Changing text size: Are you building a website designed
for people with poor eyesight? If so, you will need to use
your knowledge of CSS coding to make your text larger.
As you can see, CSS plays a big role in web development,
especially to front-end developers. If you would like to learn CSS,
try the Introduction to HTML and CSS course,
which will teach you the basics of both HTML CSS.
Alternatively, try Interactive Coding for Beginners, which will give
you an insight into the basics of HTML, CSS, and responsive web
development.
3. Javascript
What do web developers do? Well, most web developers
take a programming language like Java or HTML
and use it to create a component of a website.
JavaScript developers are no different, except they create very
specific content. So, for JavaScript, what is a web developer exactly?
Most JavaScript developers work on the front-end of a website.
They build small snippets of JavaScript code that make your
website responsive, interactive, and attractive to your
visitors. These JavaScript snippets are often embedded in the
HTML source code for a website.
Although it has traditionally been a front-end language, and
one which is vital for any front-end developer to learn, JavaScript is
becoming increasingly popular for back-end development as well.
A lot of front-end developers are beginning to find work
as full-stack developers due to their knowledge of JavaScript,
which means that its usage and popularity is skyrocketing.
If you’re looking to learn JavaScript and are a beginner, there
are many javascript courses online. However, if you already have
some prior knowledge, you would benefit from any intermediate
or advanced JavaScript course of your choice.
4. PHP
Historically, PHP has dominated definitions of what is a web
developer. Known as the language of the internet, it is
currently used in some form on around 80% of websites in
existence. Although it is slowly decreasing in popularity, PHP is
still a great language for any back-end web developer to learn.
PHP is very easy to learn and is quite easy to use, which
makes it very popular for beginner back-end developers.
It is very popular on small websites built on platforms like
WordPress or Wix, and there are plenty of freelance work
opportunities for PHP developers.
If this sparks your interest, consider taking an online PHP
course. Note that it is very important to take an up to date
course, like the on Coursera, as older versions of the language
are quite different from the modern version (PHP7).
5. Java
The last of the languages on our list, Java, has been a major
part of what is a web developer for years. It is an old language
and is popular for a variety of different programming uses.
From a web development sense, Java is used to create responsive,
scalable web apps that are used for responsive, fast website design.
Java is an essential language for many back-end developers. It
is quite easy to learn, which makes it beginner-friendly, and it is very
easy to use. It is super scalable, which makes it popular among larger
websites like eBay and Amazon, and it is very easy to maintain.
If you would like to have a go at learning Java, have a look at
this Java course. This course will teach you the basics of how to code
with Java, what Java is used for, and how to build server-side
(back-end) programs.
