7 Things Every Web Developer Should Learn

Web technologies keep growing and result in thousands of fresh websites added every day. The number of active users has already reached 7.5 billion in 2020 and is expected to go beyond. It seems like everything is going very well for Internet technologies, but businesses face the challenge – how to create a noticeable website? With billions of active sites floating in the digital space, Web Development trends need creative approaches for boosting visibility, as well as an online presence. So, web development won’t surrender its top rating position and being an in-demand skill.

What do you need to be a successful Web Developer and make a big buck in the fast-changing industry of web technologies? If at the beginning of time, there were lots of self-taught web developers, now the web has matured and became more demanding. Today, web developers not only need to complete formal training but also to constantly expand skills with technology online classes, immersive boot camp training, certificate programs, etc.

Today employers most willingly pick web developers for hire who can multitask. They want to see a specialist with multiple programming language skills like JavaScript, Angular, HTML5, CSS, and so on. Since cloud technologies are very popular, a web developer is expected to know MongoDB, have solid knowledge in JavaScript engine Node.js, and much more. This information is just a tiny portion of many things needed for successful web development processes. Let’s talk about some essentials that every web developer has to know.

#1. HTML5 and Web Development

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is one of the oldest programming languages created back in 1990 by British physicist. Even though lots of webpages get generated in such frameworks like Angular or React, still, it’s important to know and understand HTML. For example, HTML5 is crucial for problem-solving tasks where HTML tags are utilized (title, headers, span, div, etc.).

What do you need to get your hands on generating web pages? Find HTML editors and keep your HTML codes in good order. Such editors are also useful for detecting buggy codes when you create new tags or close them automatically. It can reduce the time you spend typing. Also, a handy feature most editors have now is in allowing us to preview a particular web page to see how it looks like once added to the browser. HTML editors, you can utilize HTML-Kit, KompoZer, Komodo Edit, Notepad++, Bluefish, CodeLobster.

#2. CSS Technology Provides Beauty For Websites’ Layouts

CSS means “Cascading Style Sheet” considered as an essential and even irreplaceable language. The primary purpose of CSS is to make a web page more attractive by providing specifications to a layout. Learn such handy frameworks – Tailwind CSS, Materialize, Bootstrap, etc. Also, Flexbox and Grid are widely utilized for layouts modes.

#3. JavaScript is For Web Development Evolution

Another “old” technology yet still an essential tool is JavaScript. The purpose of Java is to control elements of any web site and their behavior. Some say that without Java web technology would never make it to the point it stands now. However, Java is one of the most complicated programming languages to master.  Since it is related to HTML and CSS, good advice here is to study and practice these two first before moving to Java.

Java is a must and crucial for both frontend and backend web developers. It can create the entire web app from start to finish. With Java you can implement most complex features for any website, such as interactive maps, animated 2D/3D graphics, scrolling video jukeboxes, animate images, multimedia, etc., and turn your static page with blocks of information to something much more dynamic. No doubt that Java is a powerful force.

JavaSript transitioned from a frontend programming language to a full-stack programming language that can write backend code now. Do it faster with a platform called Node.js. This framework has it all for implementing and executing almost any program written in JavaScript. Also, there is such a thing as WebAssembly which will let you run everything for your browser as fast as C or C++.

#4. PHP Is a Bridge For Connecting Databases And Content

PHP, or a Hypertext Preprocessor, created back in 1994, it is still used by those developers who are looking for ways of building a simple but dynamic website. Many experts call it the ideal language for machine learning. PHP makes this process fast and with less effort. PHP is so popular that today nearly 80% of web pages utilize it. Why is it so popular? PHP is appreciated for flexibility.

Main distinct features of PHP:

• Compatible with HTML;
• Compatible with Sybase, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Informix.
• You can compile it with an Apache module (also with MySQL).
• Provides support for POP3, LDAP, and IMAP protocols.

#5. Python Is Nearly Ideal

Python is utilized for building server-side web apps. Lots of developers prefer to write apps with Python combining it with JavaScript. Python is so luring to people because it has a simple syntax. Also, it is appreciated for providing a wide range of frameworks like Bottle, Pyramid, Django, TurboGears, Flask, etc. 

This language has a strong ecosystem after all. For example, such a gigantic social media platform like Instagram utilizes Python and receives a billion visitors daily.  Spotify and Google also use Python for building architecture. This language is still a top pick and frequently utilized for conducting analyses of large-scale datasets. It is also utilized to generate datasets in order to research markets and average market prices.

#6. jQuery Turns Web Development Into Fun Experience

jQuery is a JavaScript library used by large corporations like Google, Netflix, IBM, Microsoft. This library contains such features, as HTML/DOM manipulation, CSS manipulation, HTML event methods, effects and animations, AJAX, and Utilities, HTML document traversing.

It exists in two categories: compressed and uncompressed (versions available for downloading). An uncompressed version of jQuery is mainly used for debugging and for production processes. Since the file size is small, it saves bandwidth, as well as boosts after all performance. jQuery makes the JavaScript processes running on websites less complicated. Basically, jQuery makes such processes as AJAX calls or DOM manipulation more simple.

Some major features why jQuery is effective:

• Makes it easy to manipulate the DOM to make a web app more interactive;
• Provides detailed documentation which is all a developer needs;
• Provides thousands of plugins for free and improves the user experience;
• Provides cross-browser support by running code on various web browsers without facing dependency issues.

#7. MongoDB and web development

After Web developers recognized MongoDB’s efficient qualities, it became popular for building web and mobile apps. It is created with C++ and also powered by JavaScript as well. MongoDB is known and became popular for being relatively simple and easily programmable. MongoDB has the following built-in features: support of JSON format and full-text search, map-reduce functionality, and auto sharding. Some main capabilities of MongoDB:

• Supports not only C,  C++, and C# but also .NET, Erlang, Javascript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Scala (via Casbah), Haskell.
• Easily installable.
• Creates indexes on records that are attributed to MongoDB where it ordered and sorted quickly.
• Utilizes wide area networks with mirror and turns them into easily scalable.
• Provides sharding. It happens when loading storage space or processing power increases.
• Retrieves data and provides support to rich queries.
• Replaces specific fields or the whole document through update command.
• Supports the Map/Reduce framework in order to perform the batch data processing.
• Supports files with GridFS specification.

When MongoDB needs to be utilized? While working on creating modern MVC style applications or restful APIs. Also, when you need to retrieve full responses from documents, where data is stored, to join or manipulate this fetched data without making additional queries. This makes the process of managing data more flexible to web developers and allows them to store data in a schemaless structure. Every time there is a need for fast and flexible storage for data while generating web and mobile applications, MongoDB will communicate with the data backend extensively.

Ready to start the journey of becoming a web developer? Taking classes with technology online courses is a good way to go. If you are new to this field and not sure where to start, there is a useful and smash-hit online course on Grinfer “The Complete Web Developer Course 2.0” offered for only $19.99. This course was created on Grinfer by Rob Percival, the best-selling instructor, who founded Codestars.

After completing the course, you’ll create and utilize free hosting, learn HTML coding, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, CMSs. You will also learn WordPress, MySQL Databases, PHP Coding, and much more with lots of practice and hands-on exercises.

A bonus includes obtaining such useful materials like e-books showing where to start earning with web development techniques. Also, lifetime access will be provided with all updates available for this course.

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