Web development is the process of creating an interactive website or web application. This process includes using applications, programming languages and frameworks that design, prototype, develop and make the site live.
These can be accessed on different devices such as desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. The range of a website or application can be from a simple static site to a complex web-based application, e-commerce platform and social network site.
Overview of Web Development Technologies
Web development refers to the tools, languages, frameworks and libraries used by web developers to create web applications. Here are some of the key technologies used in web development:
HTML: HyperText Markup Language is the foundation, providing structure and content for a website.
CSS: Cascading Style Sheet is used to add style, design and layout to a website including fonts, colors and spacing.
JavaScript: A scripting language that enables interactive features, animations and client-side functionality.
Server-side Scripting Language: PHP, Python, Ruby and others are used to create dynamic webpages that can interact with databases, handle form submissions and perform other tasks in the backend.
Frameworks: Popular Frameworks such as React, Angular, Vue and Express.js provide a structured approach to web development and make it easier to build web applications.
Content Management Systems (CMS): WordPress and other similar platforms allow users to create and manage content on their websites.
Web Servers: Apache and Nginx are some of the popular web servers that host websites and serve content to web browsers.
Databases: MySQL, MongoDB and PostgreSQL are some databases management used to store, retrieve and manage a database in web development.
Version Control: Git is a popular version control system to manage changes to code.
Cloud Services: AWS, Google Cloud services, and Microsoft Azure provides cloud infrastructure that enables developers to build, deploy and scale-up web applications.
Basic Examples of HTML, CSS and JavaScript
Here are some examples of basic HTML, CSS and JavaScript:
HTML:
<!-- Basic website structure -->
<DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="stylesheet.css">
<title>The Basic Website</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome to the basic website</h1>
<p>This is the first paragraph of the website</p>
<img src="/assets/jan-kohl-uDvpWXLd_7I-unsplash.jpg" alt="jan-kohl">
</body>
</html>
CSS
/* Styling of the HTML structure with CSS*/
body{
background-color: teal;
}
h1{
color: white;
text-align: center;
}
p{
font-family: verdana;
font-size: 20;
}
JavaScript
// Adding a dynamic function to the site
// asking the user for their name and displaying it in an alert prompt
let name = prompt('Enter your name:');
alert('Hello ${name}, and welcome to web dev');
Accessibility Overview
Accessibility in web development refers to the process of designing and building websites that can be used by people with disabilities. This includes individuals who are visual, auditory impaired and have limited mobility. An accessible website means that all or most users can access and interact with the content and functionality in a meaningful way.
Techniques and best practices:
1. Providing alternative text for images and other non-text elements to ensure that visually impaired user can understand the content.
2. Creating well-organized content using semantic markup such as headings, lists, section dividers and other elements to help users navigate through the content with ease.
3. Using color ratios that meet the standards of WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) to ensure that visually impaired user can understand the content.
4. Providing transcripts for audio and video content to ensure that users with hearing impairments can understand the content.
5. Designing forms and other interactive elements to be keyboard accessible, so that users with mobility challenges can navigate and interact with the site without the use of a mouse.
6. Providing the ability to resize text and images so that users can customize the site to their needs.
Conclusion
These are some of the features of web development and we have merely scratched the surface. Next up we will look at these in a little more detail including Responsive Design.
Thank you for taking the time to read... 😃