Web Developer Tutorial for Beginners
Introducing web development! You’re about to embark on a journey to build amazing and impressive interactive websites and applications. Whether you’re a complete beginner or you’re trying to dust off some old skills, we’ll teach you the fundamental technologies of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You’ll be on your way to sharing your visions and creating an online presence for yourself or your business. Web development is dynamic and meaningful work, and this is the beginning of that journey!
Are you ready to make the commitment? Click here to download our complete web developer course syllabus.
An Overview of Web Development
The process of creating and managing websites and web applications is known as web development. It’s a huge field and can broadly be categorized into two areas: front-end and back-end.
Front-End Development
Front-end development is from the user’s perspective, and is what a user can view and interact with. It is what’s on your browser. The major languages and technologies include:
HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
The building blocks of all web pages. Headings, paragraphs, images, and other content are all provided via HTML. HTML can be thought of as a website’s framework.
3 Main Functions of HTML
Providing Structure: HTML provides the structure of a webpage because it takes the content of a webpage and organizes it into a logical hierarchy.
- It uses elements like <div>, <header>, <nav>, <main>, <article>, and <footer> to separate the content on a webpage into sections.
- This structure is important because it provides hierarchy for readability, accessibility, and search engine optimization (SEO).
Presenting Content: Any and all content that you see on a webpage is contained via HTML. The content can be text, images, audio, video, and so on.
- HTML is used to define the content and properties of the content, for example, the <a> tag is used to create hyperlinks and the <ul> and are used to create lists.
Allowing Interactivity: Although HTML is a static language, it is often combined with other technologies, like CSS and JavaScript, to create dynamic, interactive websites.
- While HTML provides the website elements (buttons, form fields, etc.) that JavaScript will manipulate, CSS is specifically used to shape the HTML elements and make them visually interesting.
Here is a sample of basic HTML code and a breakdown of what each part does:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang=”en”>
<head>
<meta charset=”UTF-8″>
<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0″>
<title>My First Webpage</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome to my website!</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph of text. HTML is used to create the structure of this page.</p>
<a href=”https://www.example.com”>Visit an example website</a>
<img src=”https://via.placeholder.com/150″ alt=”A 150×150 pixel placeholder image”>
<ul>
<li>Item One</li>
<li>Item Two</li>
<li>Item Three</li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>
Recommended: HTML Course Online.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
Styles the rudimentary HTML elements. CSS affects overall layout, colors, font, and appearance of the website. It’s the “skin” or “clothes” of the website.
The Role of CSS
If you use the analogy of a house when thinking about a web page, the HTML is like the foundation, walls, and rooms of the house – it makes up the raw structure of the page. CSS is like the interior design – paint colors, furniture layout, wallpaper, and even the lighting. Without CSS, the webpage looks like a generic document in black and white.
- Styling: This is where you can change the way the HTML looks. You can dictate the font family, size, and weight, change the color of the text and background, and even add borders, shadows, or gradients.
- Layout: This is where you choose how things are placed on the page. For example, create multiple columns for content, align items, or set spacing.
- CSS along with modern browser capabilities allow you to create very complicated, responsive designs that can adapt to all screen sizes, like the ones used on a mobile phone or tablet.
- Separation of Concerns: One important principle of web development is to separate the content (HTML) from the presentation (CSS) of the web page, which helps make a website easier to maintain and update.
- For example, if you wanted to change the font for an entire website, you can simply change it in one CSS file and the entire website will be updated – compared to changing the font tag for every single HTML page.
Here’s a simple HTML file and a corresponding CSS file to demonstrate how they work together.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang=”en”>
<head>
<meta charset=”UTF-8″>
<title>CSS Example</title>
<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”style.css”>
</head>
<body>
<h1>The Power of CSS</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph that will be styled by our CSS file.</p>
</body>
</html>
The <link rel=”stylesheet” href=”style.css”> tag in the HTML file’s <head> section is what connects the HTML to the CSS file.
body {
font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
background-color: #f0f0f0;
}
h1 {
color: #0056b3;
text-align: center;
}
p {
font-size: 18px;
line-height: 1.6;
color: #333;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
padding: 10px;
}
In the CSS file, body, h1, and p are all selectors that select a certain HTML element. The code inside the brace {}, is called the declaration block, which has the properties (color, font-size, etc) with their values. This CSS code styles an HTML document and will set a specific font, background color, and style the text of the heading and paragraph.
Recommended: CSS Course Online.
JavaScript
A programming language that makes web pages interactive and behave dynamically. It can be used for animations, validating forms, and making interactive maps.
The Role of JavaScript in Web Develo
The main purpose of JavaScript is to enable a web page to respond to user actions without reloading the whole page. JavaScript interacts directly with the HTML and CSS of a page in real-time. This enables:
- Dynamic Content: JavaScript can update sections of a page with new data from a server like new notifications or stock prices, while maintaining the context of the user’s interactions with the page, without a disruptive refresh.
- User Interaction: JavaScript allows web pages to respond to events such as clicks, mouse movements or keystrokes. These events can be used for simple purposes like validating form input, complex case like dropdown menus, and image slideshows.
- Animations: Animating elements of a webpage is another area that JavaScript excels at. JavaScript is able to create robust and complex visual effects and animations to enhance user experiences.
- Web Applications: There are web applications that run on singular HTML pages. These “single-page applications (SPAs)” like Gmail, Google Maps, etc., use JavaScript as the core technology to make them function without relying on sending the user to a new web page.
Here’s a simple HTML file with an embedded JavaScript script that when a button is clicked will change the text of a paragraph.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang=”en”>
<head>
<meta charset=”UTF-8″>
<title>JavaScript Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Click the Button!</h1>
<p id=”demo”>This is the original text.</p>
<button onclick=”changeText()”>Change Text</button>
<script>
function changeText() {
// Selects the HTML element with the ID “demo”
const paragraph = document.getElementById(“demo”);
// Changes the inner HTML (the text) of that element
paragraph.innerHTML = “The text has been changed by JavaScript!”;
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
In this example, the <script> tag contains the JavaScript code. The changeText() function is a block of code that runs when the button is clicked. The document.getElementById(“demo”) part is a common JavaScript command that selects an HTML element by its unique id. The next line, paragraph.innerHTML = “…”, then manipulates the content of that selected element. Clicking the button executes the JavaScript, instantly changing the text on the page.
Recommended: JavaScript Course Online.
Back-End Development
Back-end development refers to the server-side logic plus database management. While this is not visible to the user, it is the “engine” that runs behind the scenes. Key principles are:
Server-Side Languages
Server-side languages manage requests from the front-end, communicate with the database, and send data back as required. Some of the examples of server-side languages are Node.js, Python, PHP, and Ruby.
Primary Responsibilities of Server-side Languages:
- Database Interaction: They connect to databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB) to store, retrieve, update, and delete data. It is important if you want user-specific content such as profiles, posts, product listings in e-commerce sites, etc.
- Dynamic Content Creation: Server-side languages can create content dynamically (as opposed to static HTML for all users). When you login to a social media platform, the server-side language queries the database, retrieves your personal info, and then creates your personal profile page.
- User Authentication and Security: They authenticate users through login credential verification and user session management. Server-side languages perform important security functions: cleaning user input to prevent certain attacks and encrypting sensitive user data.
- Business Logic: They contain the true business logic of the app. For an e-commerce app, this could include calculating shipping costs, processing payments, and inventory management.
Examples of Server-Side Programming Languages
There are a multitude of programming languages available for server-side development, with many unique capabilities and applications. Just a few examples of widely-used server-side languages include:
- Python: Known for its simplicity and readability, Python has been used for many web development frameworks, including Django and Flask.
- PHP: Historically one of the most popular server-side languages, PHP has powered a significant percentage of the web, including most WordPress websites.
- Node.js (JavaScript): While not a language itself, Node.js is a runtime environment where JavaScript, a front-end language, can be used on the server-side. Known for speed and scaling.
- Ruby: The language of the popular web framework Ruby on Rails; Ruby has been praised for its developer-friendly syntax.
- Java: Used to build large-scale, enterprise applications that typically leverage application frameworks like Spring.
The server-side language is working behind-the-scenes to fulfill a user’s request. The server-side language will process the request, communicate with the database, if required, and generate an HTML file (web page). The web server sends that HTML file back along with the CSS file and the JavaScript file, and the browser will render the combined files into a fully-formed webpage.
Recommended: Python Course Online.
Databases
Data is managed, arranged, and stored in databases. Although there are many varieties of databases, SQL and NoSQL are the two most widely used. MongoDB is a NoSQL database, whereas MySQL and PostgreSQL are SQL databases.
Functions of Databases
- Storing your Data: Databases help store large amounts of persistent data in an organized way. The data could include login credentials, blog posts, product information, comments, and transaction history, to name a few examples.
- Dynamic Content: Whenever a user initiates an action on the website (i.e., log in, buy something, or submit a form), action occurs on the server-side with the server-side language interacting with the database to save or retrieve information. This makes it possible for the website to display unique content or specific content for each user.
- Scalability: Databases are also built to handle your growing amount of data and your increasing amounts of users. A sophisticated database will allow your website to scale as it gathers users and content you will need to consider eventually.
- Data Integrity: Databases manage integrity rallies to ensure that the data stays together and respected country and cannot be corrupted while creating the potential of erroneous problems such as duplicate entries, etc.
In short, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript help present content on the client-side. While databases work behind the scenes on the server-side by controlling back-end logic by providing a reliable and robust location to store and retrieve the information that make web elements dynamic.
Recommended: MongoDB Course Online.
APIs (Application Programming interfaces)
APIs are designed to allow one software application to interact with another software application. An API is used to get data from the front end, deliver data to the back end, and also bring data back to the front end with an-ended request.
How APIs Function in Web Development
Use this analogy of a restaurant to think of an API.
You (the client) want a specific dish. You don’t go back to the kitchen to retrieve it yourself; you tell the waiter.
- The waiter (the API) takes your order to the kitchen.
- The kitchen (the server or database) where the cook prepare the dish.
- The waiter (the API) takes the completed dish and brings it back to you.
The same principle applies when you interact with a web application that leverages an API. Your browser will send a request to the API, then the API will get the appropriate data from the server and return the requested information to you in a format you can use and interpret, typically a JSON or XML response.
Importance of APIs
APIs are fundamental to building modern, dynamic web applications for a few key reasons:
- Integration: APIs allow developers to integrate data and services from external systems to their applications without needing to build everything in-house from scratch.
- For instance, a travel website can use a weather API to display the weather in the user’s city or a payment API to allow users to process payments through their application in a secure way.
- Modularization: APIs facilitate the separation of an application’s components. It allows a front-end team to build a user interface, while a back-end team builds the database and server logic, all while communicating through an API.
- Reduced Workload: APIs give developers pre-built functions that save a great deal of time and effort. Instead of writing the code to connect to a database or figure out complex logic, a developer can simply make a request to an API endpoint.
Types of APIs
There are many forms of APIs, but the most well known in web development are:
- Web APIs: This type of API is the most common API for web development. They expose data over the internet, using standard protocols, like HTTP. The most popular architectural style for web APIs is REST (Representational State Transfer).
- Library APIs: These are wrapping an API as part of a programming library. An example is the JavaScript DOM API, which allows developers to modify the HTML structure of a web page.
Recommended: API Course Online.
Full Stack Development
Full-stack development encompasses the process of building applications, or websites, from the front-end and back-end. A full-stack developer is a specialist that understands and works with all layers of the web application – the interface user interacts with, the server, the database, and the API logic.
The Two Stacks: Front End and Back End
A full-stack developer’s knowledge sits across two verticals, the front-end, and the back-end, also referred to as the stack.
The Front End
The front-end, sometimes called the client-side, is everything the user can see and interact with in their browsers. This is the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) part of the application that utilizes languages and frameworks that operate in the browser.
- HTML (HyperText Markup Language): The HTML produces the structure of the page and content.
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): CSS styles the HTML and can control color, font, layout, etc.
- JavaScript: JavaScript is a true programming language that can drive interactivity and provide dynamic behavior such as button clicks, animations, and fetching data without refreshing the page.
- Front-End Frameworks: front-end frameworks (i.e. React, Angular, and Vue.js) are JavaScript applications that can scale development for complex user interfaces.
As a summary, the goal of a front-end developer is to create an appealing design, responsive screen sizes, and intuitive functionality.
Recommended: Java Full Stack Course Development Course.
The Back End
The back end (or server-side) of an application is unseen by the user but functions as the engine for the application. The back end makes all of the magic happen by implementing server logic, communicating with a database and being configured to operate under a set of business rules.
- Server-Side Language: Server-side programming language are alanguages like Python, Node.js (JavaScript), PHP, Ruby and Java. These languages process incoming requests from your front end.
- Database: The database (like MySQL, PostgreSQL or MongoDB) is the storage place for the data, and the back end works with the database to organize the user’s data, data related to products and other data the application uses.
- API (Application Programming Interface): The back end creates APIs that the front end uses to communicate with the back end. APIs provide structured data formats (most typically using JSON) to provide and request resources by sending and receiving data, or perhaps just informational responses through the API implementation.
- Server: The back end is hosted on a machine known as the server where the back-end code and its database are running.
The back end engineer is responsible for ensuring that the logic of the application makes sense, is secure and performs as expected.
Recommended: MySQL Course Online.
Why Full-Stack Development Is Important
Full-stack development is highly valued in the IT industry for many reasons.
- Flexibility: Full-stack developers are able to build the front end and back end of a project, making them great team members on smaller teams or startups, where one person may be wearing multiple hats
- Big Picture: Full-stack developers understand how the entire application works all at once, from the minute a user clicks a button to returning data from the database. This holistic understanding allows the full-stack developer to see potential problems before they arise and solve for them
- Stronger Developer Collaboration: By having both front and back-end knowledge and understanding the needs of both teams, the full-stack developer can serve as a bridge between both teams improving communication and workflow
- Faster Development Cycle: One developer building both sides of a feature can be a much faster development cycle when there is less need for hand off from team to team.
Ultimately full-stack development is about having the knowledge and skills to build a complete web application from scratch to finish. This makes this type of developer a much more flexible and valuable resource.
Explore: All Trending Software Training Courses.
Conclusion
You’ve learned about the basic building blocks—HTML for structure, CSS for styling, JavaScript for interactivity, plus the languages, databases, and APIs that power the back end. But this is just the beginning. The best way to put the material into practice and sharpen your skills is to build projects—by building projects, you will solidify your understanding, and refine the skills that employers are looking for.
Are you ready to turn your knowledge into a career? Our complete web developer course in Chennai will take you step-by-step through the process of building real-world applications. Sign up today to start your professional career!