Core Web Development Concepts For The Beginner

Web Development……what comes to mind? When I heard this phrase for the first time I thought it was all about spiders building their homes lol, but nope! Web development is actually the process of building and maintaining web sites. Did you use Facebook today, or twitter or Instagram say thank you to the genius art of web development.

The field is divided into 2 parts, frontend and backend development. What does that mean? Frontend development focuses on developing what users see and interact with (colours, buttons, aesthetics, the ‘feeeeel’) whilst backend development is concerned with the server-side processes that support the font-end of a particular website or web app. The backend involves working with databases, server logic, API’s and the server itself.

A backend web developer typically works with server-side languages such as Python, Node.js, PHP among so many others. Server-side technologies ensure that data is processed correctly and delivered to the frontend.

Now lets dive into an important concept in web development, the request-response cycle. Every interaction with a website involves this cycle. The client (your web browser in this case) sends a request to the server and the server processes the request, often interacting with the database then the server sends a response back to the client with the requested data. And this happens every time a URL like google.com is entered in your browser!

Some primary components of backend development to keep in mind are :

Databases ; they store the data the server sends to the client, such as your bank balance from your online banking application.

Application Programming Interfaces (API’s); they allow different applications to communicate with each other, an API would enable your mobile app to interact with the backend system or your website to interact with the backend system.

Servers; These are computers or systems that store data and respond to requests from clients(browsers).

Now that you know this, what vulnerabilities do you think websites and web applications put their users at risk? And where do you think web developers come in the picture to secure them?