Web development - Introduction

Web development in general term is process of developing a web site for the World Wide Web or an internet that includes web design, web content development, client-side/server-side scripting, and web server configuration.

Web development - Introduction

Web development - Introduction

     

Web development in general term is process of developing a web site for the World Wide Web or an internet that includes web design, web content development, client-side/server-side scripting, and web server configuration. But the website development has been so popular and so enlarge that it is considered a separate procedure and among web developers, the development procedure is considered only to developing codes, writing markup, client-side/server-side scripting, and configuring web server.

A website can range from developing the simplest static single page of plain text to the most complex web-based internet applications such as e-commerce, e-businesses, social network services, giant database driven sites, online transaction sites and many more.

Usually developing and administrating a site is a teamwork task, but if the site is very simple and small, it can be handled by a single person from designing, developing to administrating. But on the other hand, if any website is gigantic and based on several technologies, it can’t be developed by a single person, it needs hundreds of professionals of different areas to thousands number of professionals depending upon the complexity.

In general, web development can be divided into following areas:


Client Side Coding

Here, the client side coding refers to the code scripted for the end-client that reflects on the clients’ terminal. This type of coding is known as Front-end script. It is written in various scripts including Ajax, Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, JavaScript, JavaFx, Microsoft’s Silverlight, and HTML. There is no need to add any additional software on the server but the end-user’s browser must assess the scripting language in which they are written.


Server Side Coding

Server Side Coding, on the other hand is the script that does not visually seen on the clients’ terminal but it supports the whole program and software. It is stored on the server and there is a need of software support on the server. If there is no software installed on the server, the server-side script cannot run and it will also not support the client-side script. Server-side coding is known as back-end script which is written in many languages that include ASP, ColdFusion, CGI and/or Perl, C Server Scripts, Java, Lotus Domino, PHP, Python, Django, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Smalltalk Seaside, AIDA/Web, SSJS Server-Side JavaScript, Websphere, .NET and many more.

Client Side and Server Side Coding

The combo of client side and server side coding means the need of both scripts in an application. Without the mutual support of each other, the application cannot run properly. Usually medium to large and dynamic websites are created using both scripts. Google Web Toolkit, Pyjamas and Tersus are among the readymade software development kit (SDK) that offers to write code in both client side and server side. Some other combinations are – Ruby & Python with MySQL, LAPR (Linux/Apache/PostgreSQL/Ruby on Rails) set.


Database Technology

Data is the flesh of any application, which is accessed from the server and is stored in a table created during server-side scripting. The data of the programs are managed by any database management system (DBMS) or relational database management system (RDBMS). Some of the popular DBMS/RDBMS are: Apache Derby, DB2, Firebird, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite and many others.

Besides these components of programming and coding, some other components are also essential for a complete website that include Graphic design/web design, Information architecture and copywriting/copyediting with web usability, accessibility and search engine optimization (SEO), Project management, Quality Analysis, software testing, web administration and many other aspects.


Security Measure

Security is also one of the crucial aspects of web development and it is the duty of the developers to maintain the security of data from coding to running the site without any chances of hacking, fetching, or malicious attack on the site. During development, the programmers need to check out the security aspect by error checking through forms, filtering output, and encryption in database driven application.


Web Contents


If coding is the body of the website, web contents are the soul. Without web contents, a website is not more than a dead body. To be an average website, web contents are extremely essential. Textual information, graphics and images, audio and videos and other digital assets come under web contents. A website can contain at least one type of web content or the combination of various assets.