Web development is the field of creating content for the web.
There are two main components of web development:
Front-end development involves creating the visual component of the website, the part the user interacts with. This is known as the client.
This involves HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Front-end developers must write code for browsers to interpret and display, so there is less flexibility in how you can arrange your code as it must be in a format that browsers can understand.
More advanced software developers utilise tools known as frameworks which simplify and speed up the creation of user interfaces. Examples include React, Vue.js and Angular.
In this module, we will stick to using vanilla, unmodified HTML, CSS and JS.
Back-end development involves creating the functional component of the website, the software systems that run in the background that enable it to provide a service. This is known as the server, as the code usually runs on a remote server in the cloud.
Back-end software systems are usually made with Python, JavaScript, Java, C# and more. There is much more variety in how you can create a back-end system as the implementation can be entirely decided by you.
Server-side code is typically the main difficulty of making a website, as it determines the actual functionality it has. The client or front-end is simply there to display information and allow the user to input actions.
In order to practice HTML, CSS and JS we will make an online code sandbox.
- Go to codesandbox.io.
- Sign up with your school account or GitHub
- Create a vanilla HTML + CSS sandbox