Building Websites – Frontend and Backend Coding
In general, there are two types of coding in website coding – frontend coding and backend coding. Frontend coding is called client-side coding (in which the code is processed by browsers) while backend coding is called server-side coding (in which the code is processed by servers). For a simple website, you can focus on frontend coding as interactions between a client and a server are limited. For a simple website, what a server does is mainly send HTML, CSS, and Javascript files to browsers. For a web application, which is more complex than a website, backend coding is usually required.
1. Frontend Coding (Client-side Coding)
Frontend coding focuses on the visualization of contents. There are three key languages.
- HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
- JavaScript
We'll explain frontend coding focusing on HTML and CSS throughout this course.
2. Backend Coding (Server-side Coding)
Backend coding languages are usually more diverse. In the case of a large web application like a social media or e-commerce platform, millions – and sometimes billions – of users are accessing the services. The backend systems for those applications need to manage a large amount of workload. To provide more stable and efficient services, backend systems utilize several software and hardware resources.
Server-side application
The main part of backend coding is for developing a server-side application. To build the application, you need programming languages, such as PHP, Python, Ruby, or Go.
Database
Most web applications also utilize databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB. To build and operate a database, you also need to learn SQL (Structured Query Language).
Webserver
The server does not mean only a physical server. To host a website, typically, you need web server software such as Apache and Nginx. If you want to be a backend engineer, you also need to have basic knowledge of web servers.
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