ALL ABOUT WEB TECHNOLOGIES!
Today, the internet has turned our existence upside down. It has been one of the most transformative and fast-growing technologies in the world. Since the number of internet users have been increasing day by day, a need has risen for hosting multiple websites everyday. As a result, the demand for web developers is rapidly growing, making it is one of the most attractive and beneficial jobs in the 21st century.
Probably, you have been using Web for a while like most of us. If you have ever been curious about how Web works and what goes behind it, I guess you might be possibly interested in being a web developer. In that case, getting familiar with web technologies is essential for anyone who has chosen web development as their career path.
In this article, we will be talking about what does this web technology means and some essential web technologies that every developer should know.
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What is Web Technology?
You might have probably heard the term web technologies before. First of all, to understand a clear meaning of this term let’s see what is web?
Web stands for the World Wide Web which is commonly known as WWW. It is a collection of websites or webpages stored in web servers and connected to local computers through the internet. Most of us use these terms ‘Web’ and ‘Internet’ to mean the same thing. But, they are totally different from each other. The internet is a massive network of networks while Web is a way of accessing over the medium of the internet.
As the term explains, technology that runs on the world wide web is known as Web Technologies. As you know, the computer needs binary codes and commands to communicate with each other. In that case, Web Technology can be defined as the way of computers communicate with each other by using markup languages and multimedia software packages.
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What are the different type of Web Technologies?
In this section we will talk about some common technologies in today’s modern Web Development field. To make them easier to grasp, I have divided them into following sections. They are,
01.) Web Browsers
02.) HTML & CSS
03.) Programming Languages
04.) Frameworks
05.) Protocols
06.) API
07.) Data Formats
Now let’s see the details of each component that we listed.
01.) Web Browsers
Web browsers, which is commonly referred as browser is a software that is used to access the internet. It allow user to find and view information on the internet. Some popular web browsers are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari.
02.) HTML & CSS
Hypertext Markup Language, commonly known as HTML is a client-side language. It is used to code the frontend of a website. It gives instructions to the browser to display text, paragraphs, links, images on the web page.
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It describes the web page presentation and the way of displaying HTML elements on the screen. It allows web designers to do different changes to the website like changing animations, fonts, colors and transitions on the web page which makes it more attractive.
03.) Programming Languages
To perform specific tasks, we need to give instructions to the computer. Programming languages are the tools that we use to write these instructions.
JavaScript:
JavaScript is the world’s most popular programming language. It is a text-based programming language. We can use JavaScript on both client-side and server-side and it allows us to make web pages more interactive. Nowadays all web browsers use this language.
Python:
Python is a powerful general-purpose programming language. It is commonly used as a support language for testing, building control and management and in many other ways. Syntax which is used in python is not very complicated. It is similar to the English language and allow developers to write programs with fever lines.
PHP:
PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. It is a server scripting language. PHP is a powerful programming language which can be used in making dynamic and interactive web pages.
Ruby:
Ruby is a powerful general-purpose programming language which was introduced in min-90s. It is mostly used for building web applications and other than that it has many applications like data analysis, prototyping and proof of concepts. It is used on Rails framework, the development framework built with Ruby.
Objective C:
Objective-C is the primary programming language. It is used in software writing for OS X and iOS. It is a superset of the c programming language and provides object-oriented capabilities and a dynamic runtime.
04.) Frameworks
Framework is a collection of solutions and tools which is used to create, customize and maintain web applications, service and sites. They are built to make building and working with programming languages easier. A software framework simply automates the procedure of the most significant feature if an application that contains coding.
Based on popularity, there are two types of web frameworks. They are,
- Server-side (Backend)
- Client-side (Frontend)
Server-side (Backend) Frameworks:
Application code is stored in Server-side. A comprised of database and the server is called Backend. functions, methods and data manipulation happens in the backend and it can’t be seen by the client.
Server-side or Backend frameworks are the libraries of server-side languages that aid in building the backend configuration of any website. Here are some of the most popular backend frameworks;
Ruby on Rails:
Rails is a web development framework written in the ruby programming language. It allows you to write less code while accomplishing more than many other languages and frameworks. Some popular websites which have used Ruby on Rails are Basecamp, Ask.fm, GitHub, Twitter, Shopify and many others.
ExpressJS:
Express is flexible Node.js web application framework. Since Express framework provide some inbuilt features, using this framework building web and network application have become a lot easier. Some websites which have been written with Express.js are Countly, Segment and Yummly.
Laravel:
Laravel is an open source web framework which uses PHP language. It follows a model-view-controller design pattern with expressive, elegant syntax. Some of websites which is built with the Laravel framework are Laravel Tricks, Laravel Snippets, Laravel IO and AsgardCms.
Django:
Django is a popular frameworks written in Python. It follows MVC architecture. Popular websites written using Django are Instagram, Pinterest, Mozilla, Disqus, Open Stack and many others.
Client-side (Frontend) Frameworks:
Client is the user of an application. Client-side refers to everything in a web application that is displayed or takes place on the end user device. Desktop computers, tablets or mobile devices can be recognized as clients.
Frontend of a website is the part that users interact with. It is comprised of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Client-side or Frontend frameworks are the libraries of client-side languages that aid in building the frontend configuration of any website. Here are some of most popular backend frameworks;
React:
Usually, React doesn’t consider as a web app framework. It is considered as a JavaScript frontend library. But some developers use React as a framework. It allows us to create reusable UI components. When developing single-page or mobile applications, we can use react as a base. Dropbox, BBC, Facebook, Flipboard and Netflix are some of the most popular websites which have used React.
Angular:
Angular is a popular front-end JavaScript framework. It is used to develop dynamic web application. Although Angular 1.X is used in JavaScript, later releases adapted with a super set of JavaScript called TypeScript. Forbes, Overleaf and Google products like Google Voice, Google Transparency Report, Google Open Source, Firebase are built using Angular.
(source: madewithangular.com )
Vue.js:
Vue.js is a framework for JavaScript. It is used to build web interfaces and one-page applications. Some big companies like Facebook and Google still do not support this Vue.js. But It is rapidly developing as other big names are starting to capitalize in Vue. Some of websites which is built with Laravel framework are Fundbox, Onsen Labs and Clash of Stats.
(Source: madewithvuejs.com)
Ember:
Ember is a productive, battle-tested JavaScript framework for building modern web applications. Usually Netflix, Microsoft and Google use this framework. This framework includes everything you need to build rich UIs that work on any device. Envoy, 9teams, The Dyrt and Ally are some websites which have used Ember framework.
(Source: builtwithember.io)
05.) Protocols
A protocol is a set of rules and guidelines for communicating data.
TCP/IP:
TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and it is used to interconnect network devices. It can be considered as a standard Internet Communication Protocol which allows computers to communicate with each other from long distance.
HTTP :
Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which is also known as HTTP is a protocol which allows to fetch resources such as HTML documents. HTTP is the foundation of the World Wide Web and it is used to lead web pages using hypertext links.
DDP:
DDP stands for Datagram Delivery Protocol. It is a new protocol created in connection with Meteor. By using WebSockets, DDP creates a consistent connection between the client and the server. It enables website updates in real-time without refreshing the browser. This protocol is well suited fir applications that do not require reliable delivery of data.
06.) API
An API which stands for Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary. It allows the interaction of two applications. Specifications for routines, data structures, object classes and variables can be included in an API.
07.) Data Formats
Data is a collection of information processed or stored by a computer. When it is needed, data should exchange between two devices on the web. Data should be packaged properly in order to transmit a source to another destination. Therefore, a Data format can be referred as the structure of how data is stored.
XML:
XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. It is a simple text-based format which is used to represent structured information. XML tags identify the data and used to store and organize the data, rather than specifying how to display it like HMTL tags, which are used to display the data.
JSON:
JSON refers to JavaScript Object Notation which is used to store and exchange data. JSON is text and we can convert any JavaScript object into JSON and send JSON into the server. We can also convert any received JSON from the server into JavaScript objects. Its syntax resembles JavaScript, which makes it quite easy to read and understand.
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Above mentioned technologies can be considered as top 7 web technologies used in these days. Web development comes with huge set of rules and technologies. Here I have only mentioned about some basic technologies which are commonly used by developers. I hope this article helped you to enhance your knowledge about web technologies.
Developers are always looking forward to discover new technologies which will brighten the future of the web development. So, don’t ever stop seeking for new technologies. If you are a programmer, this is a perfect time to work in web development field. Remember, You were made for this. Good luck my dear developers!!!
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REFERENCES
Blog post : 9 Web Technologies Every Web Developer Must Know in 2021
Web Article : 14 Technologies Every Web Developer Should Be Able To Explain
Web Article : Web Technologies : A Journey From HTML to Web 3.0
Web Article : A detailed comparison of 10 popular Web Development Framework
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