Full stack web development or full stack development is building a complete application, both the front-end and the back-end. The front-end is developed in such a way that the user is comfortable with the interface and is totally understandable. It is attractive and contains precise information (short description). It is also called the client-side part of web development. The back end deals with the coding and styling of the document. It includes codes, links, etc. It is also called the server-side part of web development. Apart from the ability to develop complete web applications and websites, full-stack web development also includes working on databases and debugging web applications and websites.
Front-end: Front-end is the interface that the users directly interact with. It makes the visible part of the website or the web application and is directly involved in the user experience. The front-end part of the web applications or websites is built using a few programming languages. They include:
- HTML: HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is the most popular and widely used simple markup language. Hypertext is the link given between the web pages. HTML is used to define the text document in a tag to define the structure of the web pages.
- CSS: CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It is a styling language which simplifies the process of creating web pages in a presentable approach. It is used to style the web pages. Even better, CSS can be used independent of HTML that makes up each web page.
- JavaScript: JavaScript is the most popular scripting language used to create interactive websites for the users. It enhances the functionality of the websites, helps play games without much lag and runs web-based applications smoothly.
Frameworks and libraries:
- AngularJS: AngularJS is an open-source front-end framework for JavaScript. It is mainly used to develop single-page web applications (SPAs). It is one of the continuously growing and expanding frameworks. It provides better features to develop web applications. AngularJS changes the static behavior of HTML to dynamic. Since it is an open-source project, it can be freely used and changed by anyone. HTML attributes are extended with directives, and data is bound to HTML using AngularJS.
- ReactJS: ReactJS is an open-source, component-based, efficient, flexible, and declarative library used for building user interfaces in JavaScript. It is a front-end library used only for the view layer of the application. It is maintained by Facebook.
- Bootstrap: Bootstrap is an open-source tool collection framework used to create responsive websites and web applications for free. It makes the most popular HTML, CSS, and JavaScript frameworks used to develop responsive mobile-first websites.
- jQuery: jQuery is an open-source library that simplifies the interactions between an HTML or CSS document (more precisely, the Document Object Model) and Javascript. It simplifies HTML document traversing and manipulation, browser event handling, Document Object Model (DOM) animations, Ajax interactions, and cross-browser JavaScript development.
- SASS: SASS stands for Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets. It is a reliable, mature, and robust extension language used in CSS. It extends the functionality of a pre-existing CSS script of a website that includes everything from variables, inheritance, and nesting with not much effort.
Other libraries and frameworks for the front-end include Semantic-UI, Foundation, Materialize, Backbone.js, Express.js, Ember.js.
Developers work with text editors to use shortcuts and its facilities like Visual Studio, Atom, Sublime, etc. The grid system is used to make the UI responsive. Git and its commands like init, add, commit are used for version control and to work with the team. Tools like NPM and yarn, SASS CSS preprocessor, browser DevTools (chrome DevTools) are used in front-end development. HTTP, JSON, GraphQL APIs are used to fetch data using Axios. Designing skills are mandated for the layout to be better.
Bank-end: The back-end is the server-side of web applications or websites. The primary focus is on how the websites work. It manages the database through queries and APIs with respect to client-side commands. These websites consist of three parts: front-end, back-end, and database. The back-end part of the web development is built using a few languages, libraries, and frameworks. They are:
- PHP: PHP or PHP:Hypertext Preprocessor is a widely used open-source server-side scripting language for web development. PHP code can be embedded into HTML.
- C++: C++ is one of the most popular and widely used programming languages. It is a general purpose programming language and is commonly used for competitive coding. It is also used to develop back-end web applications or websites.
- Java: Java is one of the most popular programming languages and it is widely used. It is highly scalable and its components are easily available.
- Python: Python is a very popular and widely-used programming language. It is easy to learn and work with. It is quick and integrates the systems more efficiently.
- JavaScript: JavaScript is used to develop web applications and websites. It is used for both front-end and back-end development.
- NodeJS: NodeJS is an open-source, cross-platform runtime environment used to execute JavaScript code outside the browser. It is not a framework or a programming language. NodeJS is used to build back-end services like web applications and mobile applications. Popular companies such as Paypal, Uber, Netflix, Walmart and others use it on a wider base.
Frameworks:
- Express
- Django
- Rails
- Laravel
- Spring
Scripting and programming languages:
The back-end part of web development deals with structuring the data in an efficient way. It handles request-response of APIs for storing and retrieving data. Data security is given high priority.
JavaScript is an important part of all stacks because it is a dominant technology on the web. Some popular stacks are:
- Mean stack: MongoDB, Express, AngularJS, Node.js
- Django stack: Django, python, MySQL
- Rails/Ruby: Ruby, PHP, MySQL
- Lamp stack: Linus, Apache, MySQL, PHP
The Full Stack Web Development courses offered by Great Learning will help you learn full stack web development for free. You will be able to style and design web applications and websites in a very sophisticated and attractive way. This free course will help you learn full stack web development from its basics like its syntax, attributes to advanced features like building an entire application that includes front-end, back-end development, and database management. It will help front-end developers to style their web pages in a better way, back-end developers to build a nice application or website and also help students to work with their projects. You will earn a certificate for the Full Stack Web Development course after the successful completion. You can learn full stack web development in your free time. Happy learning!
