Full-stack development has increasingly grown more popular and for good reason. A full-stack web developer is one who can work on both the front-end and back-end components of an application. Front-end usually refers to the part of an application the user interacts with and sees. The back-end handles all the logic, configuration, and everything the user essentially doesn’t see. If you opt in to the full-stack development world, it won’t mean you’ll master everything right away, but you’ll have a good idea of what it means to be able to work on both sides when building an application of your own.
Now, in 2020, full-stack web development is needed more than ever. Here’s the scoop:
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Developing websites means you'll be working with multiple languages, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Almost every program, whether online or in-person, teaches you how to develop websites starting with HTML and CSS. This is perhaps because they're the ultimate building blocks of the web.
In simpler terms, HTML enables you to add content to a website, and CSS allows you to style the content. Once you've learned about these languages, you'll also learn to incorporate JavaScript as this is one of the most popular languages used in both full-stack (front-end and back-end) development.
As a full-stack developer, you'll need to understand some fundamental topics such as language features, asynchronous control flow, structuring your code, and modularizing parts of it with elements like browserify and gulp.
Databases and Web Storage
When learning to build web applications, you'll want to eventually store data in a specific place to access it later. When getting familiar with full-stack development, you should have a good understanding of elements associated with databases and storage.
For example, you'll want to comprehend the benefits of relational data, understand how to use web storage to store sessions or cookies, and know how to connect a database with the appropriate back-end language you've chosen. To design and develop dynamic websites, it's crucial to understand how database-driven websites accumulate and access data. This will help you gain the primary skills to help navigate the more challenging projects and become familiar with the fundamentals of full-stack development.
HTTP & Rest
The HTTP application protocol enables both servers and clients to remain in a continual connection. When creating a request using a Javascript code, for example, it will be sent to the back-end code. This sort of communication is only made possible by HTTP.
When the data of HTTP is not encrypted, it constructs a setting that may be deemed unsafe for the users. Thankfully, in 2020 we now have HTTPS, which is a more secure version and considered to be SSL certified, meaning it's encrypted using Secured Socket Layer.
When diving into matters of HTTP, you'll also become familiar with REST and why it's a crucial element to the HTTP protocol and web applications. Make sure you become familiar with this concept to fully master another integral component of full-stack development.
Application Architecture
Once you've gotten the hang of HTML/CSS, storage, and HTTP, then comes the more challenging part. If you decide to create a complex web application, you'll need to know code structure, how to separate your files, where to host larger media files, and where you can perform specific computational tasks.
When it comes to a more complicated project, you have the choice to work on the application by yourself by gradually separating each task, or working with a team to develop the application. Either way, learning how to perfect web application architecture is undoubtedly an efficient way to stay ahead of the game.
Learn Full-Stack Web Development
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