It is impossible to imagine daily life without the internet. In order to create the various websites the internet offers, web development is of great importance. This branch of profession, therefore, promises good income and in addition, the design of a homepage and other Internet services is a very interesting area of activity. If you want to become active in this field yourself, you have to learn how to create your own pages in the field of web development. However, different languages are used for this purpose, which you can combine in different ways. If you want to attend a course for web development, it is therefore important that you first educate yourself on which languages you should learn for web development.
What is web development?
Before we turn to the individual languages, let's briefly clarify what web development actually is. This term generally refers to the creation of a website, for example, your own homepage. However, there are several ways to do this. You can develop simple static websites. These use only markup and design languages, but no programming language. Therefore, they are quite easy to create, but they exploit the many possibilities that the Internet offers only to a limited extent. Therefore, at least for commercial projects, static pages are used only very rarely.
Most current Internet offerings, on the other hand, are dynamic pages. This means that the web developer uses a programming language to adapt the content to the user's requirements and interactions. However, there are also different possibilities for this, which we will present in the following.
Different languages are used for all these areas. However, in many areas it is possible or sometimes even necessary to combine them. Therefore, it is important that you learn about the individual languages and choose a course for web development that teaches you exactly what you need.
The basics of creating web pages
You create static web pages with the languages HTML and CSS. Even if you want to create dynamic pages, these two languages are the basis. Regardless of which programming language you want to use later, the program code must design HTML pages or create specifications for the design using CSS. For this, it is necessary to know at least the basics of these two languages. If you want to learn web development, you must therefore always deal with HTML and CSS at the beginning.
HTML
The basis of all web pages is HTML. The language is used to determine the structures of the web page. For example, you can specify which areas are headings or ordinary paragraphs. You can also create tables and lists, and make various specifications in the header of the document that are not visible on the page. With HTML alone, you can create a full-fledged web page. However, this is a static page whose contents do not change. In addition, you can not make any design specifications with HTML, so a pure HTML page does not look very appealing.
CSS
CSS is now used for the design. This is also not a programming language, but a so-called stylesheet language. With CSS you can make all layout specifications for your page. This starts with colors, fonts, font sizes, and backgrounds, and leads to the positioning of the elements within the page.
Dynamic websites: frontend and backend
In the field of web development there is a division between frontend and backend. In smaller companies, sometimes the same developer is responsible for this. In larger companies, however, there is usually a clear division of tasks in this area. Therefore, you should specialize in one of these two areas in web programming.
Frontend refers to the areas of a website that you can directly see or interact with. Front-end web development allows you to integrate various functions into your page. For this purpose, a programming language is used, usually JavaScript.
Backend web development is primarily used to manage the content and functionality of a page with databases. When a visitor accesses the page, it is dynamically created at that moment based on the contents of the database. Designing the programs necessary for this task is part of the backend web developer's scope of work. The classic programming language for backend programming is PHP.
JavaScript
JavaScript is a programming language that was developed specifically for frontend web development. It is possible to integrate small program modules into the code of a web page. The browser then executes these programs. In this way, it is possible to design dynamic pages that adapt their content to the interaction with the user.
JavaScript is often used to influence the display of a page. For example, you can use it to change colors and shapes. You can also show or hide various elements and thus change the content of the page. However, all content must already be present when the page is loaded. With JavaScript it is not possible to load new content from a database.
PHP
PHP is a programming language created specifically for backend programming. A PHP interpreter, which you need to run a corresponding program, is available on almost every web server. This makes implementation quite easy. PHP is specifically designed for these tasks and offers many features for both creating web pages and working with databases.
Frameworks for other programming languages
In addition to the languages created specifically for web development, there is also the possibility of using a framework. This is a program that contains many ready-made functions for the design of a website. Sometimes this framework itself is designed for one of the mentioned web languages. Vue.js, for example, works with JavaScript. The framework offers you suitable functions for this, which facilitate and accelerate the development.
There are also frameworks for other programming languages. This is very practical if you already have some knowledge in this area. For example, the Flask framework allows you to create websites with Python. In order to use it, you must first learn Python. However, if you already know this programming language, it is quite easy to use Python for web development with the help of such a framework. There are frontend frameworks like React, Angular or Vue.js. In addition, various backend frameworks are available, such as Laravel, Django, Symfony, or the aforementioned framework, Flask.
Web development course: What are the possibilities?
If you want to start learning web development, there is still the question of how best to go about it. Many people wonder if this requires a degree or training, or if they can learn web development on their own.
One possibility are tutorials that are available free of charge on the Internet. For example, the web development course from Mozilla is quite well known. Such freely available websites are already an important help, so you can learn the most important basics yourself. However, it is very difficult to learn web development this way. The contents of such free offers are often not too well prepared and you only learn the essential basics.
In one of our previous articles, we already introduced you to the options available when you want to learn programming: there are online courses, apps, books, and many other alternatives. What was said here also applies to the web developer course. If you do a distance learning or on-site course, there is a high cost involved. Moreover, in doing so, the knowledge transfer is not always efficient. Apps and online courses are not only cheaper, but you benefit from interactive possibilities for knowledge transfer, and you can also use every free minute with your smartphone to participate in the course for web development.
Learn web development with Code Pirate.
At Code Pirate, we believe that learning web development via an app is very efficient. That's why we're in the process of creating a course on the subject. This one will deal with front-end web development that is, the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript languages. We expect to publish the first part on 13/03/2022.
The web development course consists of clear descriptive texts and many practical exercises. With our knowledge tests you can check whether you have understood the content correctly. If you want to have your work recognized, you can also take a certificate test. Just try it out and download the Code Pirate app!
Your Code Pirate Team
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