Building websites: Front-end vs Back-end
What you need to know
The advent of websites has certainly brought about the ease of sorting, organization, and accessibility of data and information on the World Wide Web, and are no-doubt digital assets. There’s a lot that contributes to the internet’s response when you click on a link or domain address of a website on your browser. The workings of engaging a website can be likened to a relatable scenario of you walking into your favorite fast-food joint down the street to grab a bite, where as a customer you are to walk in through the front door, greeted and guided to sit by energetic waiters who are ready to serve your every need and preferred food choice made by cooks at the other end of the food joint you can’t see but are assured to have the needed skills and instruments to cook. The “fast food joint” in this case study represents the website you just clicked, “down the street” represents your browser, the “front door” represents the front-end of the website, and “cooks” represents the back-end of the website. Now I can’t promise that reading this article will turn you into an instant website-building guru but I can assure you that after reading this, you would have more insights about what it takes to be one.
What is Front-end?
A typical example of the Front-end part of a website
Front-end refers to that part of the webpage that is visible to the end-user, it is often referred to as the “client side”. Front-end focuses on creating and coding elements and features of a website that will be seen and experienced by the user. Some examples of elements they code into websites that the end-users see or experience whilst engaging with a website are;
· Layouts
· Images
· Animation
· Graphics
· Text colors
· Navigation menu
· Buttons
· Links
Front-end developers are responsible for programming into a website; the design, interactive behavior, structure, and content of everything seen when you click on a website on your browser. The front-end developers are able to achieve designing unique and aesthetic web pages through the help of UI/UX designers. UI/UX short for User interface and User experience is an integral part of web development largely for originality and user-centered satisfaction. Front-end developers are also tasked with ensuring the responsiveness of a website i.e. the website must appear correctly on all devices irrespective of the size of the device. Examples of front-end programming languages are;
· HTML: the Hyper-text markup language (HTML) is the language that describes the structure of a web page, it consists of a series of elements that tell the browser how to display the content. If you would like to groom your skills then you can click here.
· CSS: the Cascading style sheet (CSS) as hinted in the name itself is for styling, styling an HTML document. The language describes how HTML elements are to be displayed and can control the layout of multiple web pages all at once. If you would like to learn more about CSS then you can click here
· JavaScript: a common mistake most people make is confusing JavaScript as JAVA, let it be known that they are not the same thing. JavaScript which is the world’s most popular and most used programming language is used to create interactive content such as apps and browsers. If you would like to know more about JavaScript then you can click here
Front-end developers also employ the usage of frameworks such as Bootstrap, Foundation, Angular JavaScript, React JavaScript, Django, and jQuery for website building.
What is Back-end?
Thanks to the back-end we can answer questions like “How is the front-end of a website possible?”, “what happens when my webpage is loading?” “Where does all that data go?” The back end refers to the “server side” of the website. It is the part of the website that you cannot see or interact with.
The back-end is responsible for how things work on a website by ensuring the storing and organization of data, how efficiently a back-end developer can perform his or her task determines the functionality of the website. The back end is in constant communication with the front-end, sending and receiving information to be displayed on the web page
With reference to the case study discussed earlier, just as “cooks” (back-end) would typically require a set of cooking tools in order achieve making a quality meal for the customer, so also does the back-end developer require tools such as languages in order to ensure the functionality of the website. Examples of such tools are;
· PHP: the Hypertext preprocessor is an open-source scripting language and a widely used tool for making interactively dynamic web pages. PHP can also send and receive cookies and can add, delete or modify data in your database. PHP is compatible with various platforms such as; windows, Mac OS X, UNIX, Linux, etc.
· Python: one of the most attractive features of this server-side programming is how developers can write fewer lines of programming with it. Another feature of this language is how it can be easily executed as soon as it is written due to how it runs on an Interpreter system. Python is compatible with various platforms such as; Linux, Raspberry Pi, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.
· JAVA: JAVA is an object-oriented language. JAVA is compatible with various platforms such as; UNIX, Windows, and Mac OS. It is important to note that JAVA unlike many other programming languages is platform-independent due to how its byte code is distributed over the web and interpreted by the virtual machine on whichever platform it’s being run on.
· RUBY: this programming is an open-source object-oriented programming language that is capable of supporting multiple programming models. RUBY is great for executing tasks like data processing, building desktop applications, static websites, and also serves as a web crawling tool. It is compatible with platforms like; Windows, Max OS, and UNIX.
· API: the Application Programming Interface provides a way whereby two or more computer programs can communicate with each other. Web APIs provide a processing interaction between the web server and the web browser. For example, when you are visiting a website on your phone, your web browser connects to the internet and sends data to a server, the server then retrieved and interprets that data to perform the necessary actions and send it back to your phone.
Front-end or Back-end?
Deciding between the two vital forces behind web building can be understandably confusing for newbie website developers owing to the fact that these two forces are mutually inclusive. Some developers decide to learn the two rather than choose one, these types of developers are called Full-stack developers and can do both front-end and back-end, meaning that can develop both client and server software respectively. It is worth noting that both aspects of web building require training, time, and dedication which often leads to a lifelong learning process on continually doing better and providing a better quality of service.
The simple truth is, whether or not you decide to pick one or do both of them, it does not matter because either way, you’d still be regarded and respected as a developer with an avenue and expertise to create on an ever-growing technological platform.
Thanks for reading!