10 Things Every Modern Web Developer Must Know

Web development is divided into two parts—front-end development and back-end development. A modern developer must be aware of the tools and technologies required for developing a website for both of these web development aspects.

Most of the web developers you will meet have tremendous experience in front end development, which spans over implementing web designs using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript so that users can interact with the website.

Backend development, on the other hand, involves writing APIs, creating libraries—anything that does not require creating code for user-interface.

When it comes to web application development, both the types are important, as where one brings customer engagement and other supports the technology stack.

If you are one of those web developers willing to build a career in web application development or a client seeking good web app developer, here are the 10 things you must look for in the developers.

10 Skills that Every Web Developer Must Have

For new web developers and companies seeking web development services, we have combed 10 essential skills that every good web developer must possess. However, these skills are subject to change in line with emerging technologies, the launch of new devices and varying screens and resolutions.

1. HTML & CSS

Any web developer would agree with the complexity of creating web applications using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Although, both HTML & CSS are considered easy to use.

However, using the language to create user-interfaces that are interactive and intuitive require great working knowledge and implementation technique.

HTML5 and CSS3 are the latest versions that are used to create unique and engaging experiences for the website users.

Front-end developers have a great opportunity here to earn good wages if only they can identify the users’ preferences and business requirements of their customers and develop an intuitive website.

2. JavaScript

JavaScript is a level higher than HTML and CSS. This front-end programming language enables the developers to add various interactive elements to the web applications.

Using JavaScript, web application developers can build interactive films, online games, and maps. It is a lightweight scripting language and so widely used by web application developers to build web elements and other hosts of environments, including node.js and Apache CouchDB.

JavaScript has modern browsers that provide full support to ECMAScript 5.1, although older browsers support ECMAScript 3.

You can also check out JavaScript library jQuery, which has a large collection of plugins and extensions that enable web developers to use ready-made web applications to their web app development project.

3. JSON APIs

JSON is known as JavaScript Object Notation which determines how the service and the web interact, and so has been separately accounted.

This open standard data-interchange format makes it easier for the developers to read and write and machines to parse and generate.

It is highly required today’s service-oriented web development environment and developers must be aware of how to use the existing JSON APIs and how to create one of their own.

The two key benefits of the language are that it can be combined with various programming languages such as Java, C++, Python, and Lisp and the second is that its documents are relatively lightweight and so used as an alternative to XML.

4. Frameworks

There are numerous programming languages, and all use a multitude of frameworks that web developers can use to create interactive websites.

It is the framework that determines what type of program you can build and how elements can relate and communicate with each other.

Some of the most popular backend web development frameworks are Express, Django, Laravel, Spring, and Rails.  Frontend JavaScript frameworks are that are loved by developers and widely used by the companies are Angular, Vue.js, and Ember.

Good knowledge of framework will also help you to get hired by a reputed web application development company.

5. Git

Git is used by the web development community for source code management. It is free, open-source, and has a small learning curve.

It is designed to handle small and large projects with ease because of features such as multiple workflow areas, collaboration, record-keeping and data integrity.

If you are a new developer, you can begin with Git and as you grow in your career, you can move to more social and engaging code management system i.e. GitHub.

6. Product Management

Many developers may ignore product management skills as they seem to incline more towards website tools and technologies. But you need a basic understanding of users’ preferences and business requirements of the customers to meet the expectations of customers.

It is not only the project manager’s job to come with innovative, sensible ideas to create impressive websites.

Even to implement those ideas and manage agile workflows, web app developer need basic project management skills.

7. Test-driven Development 

Being a web developer no matter how confident you are of your development skills, using a TDD approach can help you write error-free codes.

In the TDD (Test-driven Development Environment), a test is written before writing code enough for production and if the test meets the standards, the code is then refactored.

Following this evolutionary approach, developers can better understand the requirements before designing, which enable them to write fully-functional code in an agile environment, while maintaining agile design techniques.

8. Caching

Creating a proper caching strategy can help developers improve users experience. One of the important factors they must consider is to create strategies that can enhance a website’s speed.

Web developers must carefully restrict the number of calls to a database or file system, which could slow down the website’s speed. By creating an effective strategy to keep as much data as possible in the memory and get the things cached at the file system so that frequent calls to the database can be restricted.

Better memory and file system caching can help in managing high traffic.

9. DevOps

DevOps bridges the gap between the roles set for IT professionals and developers. The cultural practices, tools and computing technologies that are covered by DevOps enables the mobile app development companies to create an application in a fast pace environment. 

It enables the developers to integrate a multitude of processes, right from designing, scaling, testing, migrating and optimizing the code and then deploy it in the cloud. A modern web developer must have extensive knowledge of DevOps to manage an agile workflow.

10. Community Building

Web developers always try to become a part of any web development community, which would help them to share information about the latest web development technologies.

Being a part of the community will also them to use technology to solve a problem considering different perspectives. It will also help them to create better design experience for users.

Conclusion

The modern business environment is competitive, and developers must put in an effort to keep in pace with the latest technologies to create a unique, intuitive and interactive web experience for the users. Consistent learning will also help them to overcome challenges in the course of their web development journey.

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