What is Web Development?

Web development is one of the fastest growing professions of the early twenty-first century. The term "web developer" is used ubiquitously in the technology industry, but not surprisingly - for those who are not already part of the development community - it's not always clear what web development is or what a web developer does. To answer these questions effectively, we must first explore the domain of the websites themselves: How does a website recognize when a user visits the site and performs the function necessary to display the appropriate page for the site? 'user?

The Inner Workings of a Modern Website

Although each website is built slightly differently, there are some fundamental components that handle all interactions between a user and the site:

Client: Local computer (desktop / laptop) or device (phone / tablet) with which the user interacts to access the website.

Server: The remote computer that "physically hosts" all the files (and therefore the code) that make up the website.

Database: A sub-component of the remote server, the database is a large series of data tables used to store all the dynamic information generated or used on the website. For example, the account information of a logged-in user would be stored in the database.

Once our three basic components have been identified, we can briefly review how a website recognizes a visitor and ultimately displays the appropriate page to display. The following diagram provides a rough illustration of the process.

As an example, let’s imagine Mubi wishes to visit google.com.

Mubi begins by entering the URL of the website (google.com) in the browser of her local computer (the client).

Mubi's computer generates a request that is sent to the server computer, which then accepts it.

The server executes (or executes) the main code, usually by retrieving data (or querying) the database.

The database returns the requested data to the server.

The server takes the data and executes the front-end code to produce a response.

This response is returned to the client where it is then displayed (or rendered) on the client computer as a standard web page.

The end result is that Mubi now consults the Google homepage as planned, all in milliseconds in most cases.

Where the Web Developer Fits In

Now that we have explored the fundamental process of viewing a web page to a user, we can delve into the details and discover where Web development comes in and how it is applied to allow this magical ping pong process to unfold. As a broad definition, the primary purpose of a web developer is to create a functional website that performs a set of specific functions defined. The achievement of this objective is broken down into three main phases.

Phase 1: Planning During this preliminary phase, a web developer will work closely with the client and other developers to plan the structure and basic concepts of the site. This first phase is an ideal time to decide how the different pages and components of the site relate to each other (also called site map). Although the site map can take many forms, it must effectively indicate how a user will navigate the site. During the planning phase, it is also essential to determine how the customer will also interact with the site. If the customer posts blogs or adds products to the online store component, it is the planning stage that must specify exactly how these tasks will be performed.

Phase 2: The design phase is when the look and feel of the site is determined. This includes everything from color palette and fonts to page width and static image placement. If the planning phase determines what the user will do with the site, the design phase determines where and how. Typically, a mockup for each page or component of the site is created in Photoshop by a designer or a multidisciplinary developer. This layout must generally include all the visual elements expected on the last page and is therefore representative of what the customer wants to see when visiting the website. Throughout the design process, it is essential to consider the target audience and demographics of the website. The design must closely match the appropriate user base to which the site is marketed and the intended use of the site.

For example, Google is aimed at all audiences and focuses on the speed and efficiency of search results, which is the minimalist design used by Google, including a visual appearance composed almost exclusively of text. Netflix, meanwhile, is focused on audio and visual content and is therefore focused on a very colorful full-screen design to showcase the multitude of broadcasts available on the platform.

Phase 3: Development phase is of course the most crucial for the web developers involved in the project and where most of the time and energy will be spent on producing the final product. For most modern websites, the development process is divided into three architectural components that the web developer will mix throughout the process.

Application Logic: Often referred to as a template component, it represents the majority of the back-end code that a developer will write for the site to work as intended. This logic is also where a developer must understand and use the connection between the site and the database that powers it.

Present: Commonly referred to as the view component, this is the master created during the design phase that allows the developer to recreate the appearance of the master image using the basic elements of HTML and CSS, so the end. The result is a web page that looks identical to the model.

Connection: Also known as the controller component, this code defines the connections between the back-end business logic that handles the tedious work of the site and the front-end pages that users will have access to: it connects the back-end and front-end interfaces to code together.

Learn Which Web Development Disciplines is Right for You

What is exciting about web development as a domain is the multitude of disciplines that a newcomer can focus on, depending on their skills and desires. While the heart of web development is generally considered from the point of view of coding, coding training is therefore expected, but there are many disciplines in the field of web development with slightly different priorities.

Graphic / Visual Designer: The visual designer is often well trained in the arts. It uses Photoshop and other tools to create layouts of complete pages or websites that will please the customer and appeal to the public. In some development workshops, these positions are "code-free," while in many others, visual designers should convert visual models into exploitable front-end codes.

Front-End Developer: Developer focused on the appearance of the site (the presentation layer described above) and using almost exclusively HTML, CSS and JavaScript languages.

Back-End Developer: A back-end developer writes all the code needed for the core logic of the website: capturing data from the database and explaining how it is used and displayed to the user through the front. The languages ​​commonly used for back-end development are varied, but some of the most popular ones are Ruby on Rails, Python, PHP and Node.js.

Full Stack Developer: A highly-prized job, and rightly so, the full stack developer is an adept of the development process, able to contribute to code and functional solutions at every step of the process, from planning to coding design of both sides.