Table of Contents
What does a Web Developer do?
A web developer or a programmer is someone who takes a web design – which has been created by either a client or a design team – and turns it into a website. They accomplish this by writing lines and lines of complex code, using a variety of languages. Web developers have a difficult job, because they practically have to take what we understand, like English, and translate it into a language that the computer understands, like Python or HTML.
As you can imagine, this takes a lot of time and effort and requires a deep understanding of various programming language and their functionality. Different types of developers specialize in different areas, which means that large web projects generally collaborate between several different developers.
What Types of Web Developers are there?
To understand that you are a web developer, it is crucial to know that the three main types of developers are front-end, back-end, and full-stack. Front-end developers are mainly responsible for the parts of the website that people see and interact with. Back-end developers take care of behind-the-scenes code that controls how a website loads and runs, and full-stack developers do a little bit of everything.
Front-end Developer
A front-end developer takes the design of a website from a client or a design team and writes the code necessary to implement it on the web. A good front-end web developer would be proficient in at least three programming languages - HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If you want to create innovative websites with advanced coding and know more about web development in detail the Intellipaat Web development courses for you. Join the courses today!
Back-end Developer
While front-end developers might have a tough job making sure the website looks flawless, works properly, and contains the right content, back-end developers have a much harder time. While front-end developers are mainly responsible for client-side programming, back-end developers take care of the server-side.
Full-Stack Developer
If you are looking for an easy and quick answer to the question, “What is a web developer?” Then a full-stack developer is mostly the closest thing to the question. Full-stack developers use both front-end and back-end strategies and processes, which means they perfectly place to monitor the entire process.
Check out Simplilearn’s Full-Stack Developer Course
Popular Languages for web Development
Now, it is mainly important to realize that there are several different languages used for web development. As mentioned before, front-end and back-end developers will need to learn different languages. In contrast, full-stack developers will need to make an effort to get to know the main web development languages.
HTML
HTML is a necessary language if you want to become any front-end developer. To fully explain it, I need you to do something for me:
Right-click on your browser website and select ‘view source code.’
This should take you to a new window containing all the necessary information for creating this web page. What you see is essentially HTML code. It shows the website what content to display and to some measure how to display it. At the head of the page, on the first line, you’ll see the <! DOCTYPE html> command. This tells your browser to anticipate HTML code.
CSS
CSS is the second indispensable front-end language, and it’s also the one that any front-end web developer should master. The CSS code uses in connection with HTML. While HTML tells the web page what content to display, CSS tells the web page how to display the content – it’s a ‘style’ language.
JavaScript
Most JavaScript developers work on the front end of the website. They build little snippets of JavaScript code that make your site responsive, interactive, and attractive to your visitors. These JavaScript snippets are generally part of the website’s HTML source code.
PHP
Historically, PHP imposes on the definition of the web developer. Mostly Known as the internet language, it currently uses by more than 80% of the sites that exist. Although its popularity has gradually decreased, PHP is still an excellent language that any back-end developer should learn.
PHP is very easy to learn, and using it is also easy, making it very popular with beginning back-end developers. It stands out on small websites on platforms like WordPress or Wix, and there are plenty of freelance job opportunities for PHP developers.
Java
The last language on our list is Java, which has been an important part of the web developer over the years. It is a historical language and is popular for a variety of different uses of programming. From a web development perspective, Java is used to create responsive and scalable web applications used for responsive and fast web design.