Front-end developments are always changing, what is working today may not work tomorrow. This makes being a front-end development pretty challenging. But what is most challenging for being a front-end developer is also most exciting. You are always learning new techniques, so if you are an inspiring front-end developer or you are learning front-end technology, then here is what you need to know to be a front-end developer.
Let’s first see what is a front-end developer?
There are generally 2 parts for any web application: The Front End or the client side of a web application. It is everything that you see or interact in the browser, as the user of the application.
Then there is a backend or server side of a web application. When applications data is saved, updated, manipulated and sent back to the client side. For Ex : Think of any site and assume that you are watching a video on that site. The video is retrieved from the database and served you by the server, That is backend.
The front end is everything that shows you in the browser which allows you to interact in the browser with the video you are watching with the help of buttons, to make the video full screen, pause or rewind or share with your friends and relatives.
As a web developer, you are likely required to have some knowledge of a front end and backend of an application, as they interact with each other. However many companies split these roles into 2: The Front End Developer and The Backend Developer.
Backend Developers require to know about different languages like Java, Python, Ruby, and PHP etc. to build the behind the scenes functionality of a website. Such as storing and retrieving user data or securely accepting and storing information about credit cards.
A front-end developer is a generic term used for someone who develops the user-facing parts of websites and applications using HTML, CSS and JAVA script.
Nearly every business uses a website or an application to communicate with its customers. The world needs the skilled front-end developer. So to be a front-end developer you need to learn many different technologies. But the main technologies are HTML, CSS, and JavaScripts.
HTML or Hypertext Markup Language is a foundation to every web page. Without it, any web page on a internet is only a simple wall of text. With HTML you provide an information to a web browser about how a content is structured by defining its different parts.
For Ex: you surround the content of your web pages within different HTML tags to tell the browser about which parts are headings, sidebars, footers or main area of the site. One of the goals of HTML is to provide good semantic markup i.e. it provides the information about what kind of Content does an HTML tag contains? You use HTML to define elements that are links, list items, paragraphs, checkbox or radio buttons, and so on. It not only styles your web pages using CSS but search engines use this information to understand your pages.
CSS or Cascading Style Sheets is a design language with a lot of power. CSS helps us to describe the presentation of web pages. We use CSS to define how HTML should look in the layout. For ex : We can use CSS to tell the browser that we want a web page to display a certain number of rows or columns or how much space should be between them?
We use CSS to change the color or font size of a button, make it wide or taller or bigger or smaller, or place it in the left or right or in the middle of the web page and so on.
Part of writing CSS means making sure that the website designs are consistent across different devices. We use CSS for making web pages responsive. It seems that they look good and function like on any screen size or device.
CSS seems easy at first, but it can quickly become challenging. The nuances of styling and formatting are tough and you got thousands of options at your disposal. You may need to consider a kind of different references and resources to get things right. It requires a lot of practice.
JavaScript is the first programming language that you learn as a front-end developer. It is a continuously evolving language. This is used in nearly every working place, on the front end, back end on the mobile and even on the desktop devices.
Like everything else, it can be challenging but fun to learn. Generally, front-end developers write JavaScript for the browser. Using a DOM, or Document Object Model. The Document Object Model is like a representation of your web application that allows the JavaScript and browser to communicate. Each HTML element on your web page is represented by a DOM and you can use JavaScript’s to manipulate those DOM elements.
For Ex: Assume that there is a text on your web page that says “Save”. you use HTML tags to define it as a button, while with CSS you can define how that button should look like? Finally, with JavaScript, you write a code that triggers that web page or web application to do something when every time the button is clicked.
Like play video or submit a comment on social media for post etc. If you are serious about becoming a front-end developer then JavaScript is the most important language that you want to master.
There are following front-end tools like :
Text editor, browser development tools, Version control which you would use on a daily basis as a front-end developer.
The text editor is the place where you spend most of your time. It is where you write a code for a given site or web application.
Git is a popular version control system which helps you to track and save changes for your project. So that you can easily manage different versions and features. You can also revert to previous versions of your project. You can also work on a single code base as a part of a theme.
Github is a specific service that allows you to shift your code online as well as make fork or copies of other existing code bases.
Few more technologies that are common for front-end developers to learn are :
Sass/CSS preprocessors, JavaScript libraries, JS Frameworks, Command line, Module coding /Building tools, WordPress, Image Editors, Wireframe tools etc.
Once you have a good understanding of CSS you can learn CSS. It is known as CSS preprocessor. Basically, it adds important features to CSS for making writing, organizing and manipulating CSS easier.
JQuery is still widely used. It lets you add complex JavaScript interaction, to your web page.
Twitter Bootstrap is a design framework that provides a variety of design templates for common websites and web applications. Also provides typography buttons and navigation menus etc.
Knowledge of terminal will be helpful to you for succeeding, no matter which kind of a developer you want to become – Front end or Backend
WordPress:- 25% of the web is WordPress. It is CMS that is a free and open source. Photoshop is used for editing images for the web pages.
Now you must be wondering how do I learn this? Taking one step at a time. The concept should be learned in detail. These can be learned using books, videos, apps, conferences, meetups etc.
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