Web Development

Building Up a Site

Web Development

There are a broad range of subjects that relate to the websites development and internet applications (such as Google docs), all of which are blanketed under the heading of Web Development. Not to be mistaken with Web Design, which defines the website's look, web development provides the code which powers e-commerce shopping carts, content management systems, social network services, web based e-mail, as well as many other applications. All in all, web development can be divided into two main categories: Client-side development and Server-side development. While the technologies used differ greatly between the two, most web development experts should and do know how to create code for both as the line that divides them is very blurry as the two sides often overlap.

Since the middle 90's, with the internet appearance, and till today, web development is becoming very common in the industry of the net. By using online applications, web development allowes to share information and media distribution, and makes the interaction between users easier. Today, surfers are able to communicate by these web development applications, from different locations and not being tied to a specific environment.

Technologies and Languages in Web Development

The internet is full of acronyms, many of which a web development expert must be intimately knowledgeable with. PHP, CSS, HTML, XML, AJAX, CGI, SQL, XSLT, ASP, HTTP, IIS, FTP, these are just some of the technologies that must be familiar to any casual surfer, not to mention non-acronyms like (dot) NET and Apache. Each of them provides a very important piece to the internet puzzle even as many overlap, as in the case of Apache and IIS. A successful web development means to know the pros and cons of each side, as well as deciding on what should be used for any given project. To make sense of this hodgepodge of letters one must first understand what each does and where it applies to the big picture that is a web site. On the most basic level of web development, a web page is simply a combination of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) tags viewed through a web browser. HTML defines what and where text and images appear on a web page, and the browser is responsible for displaying the HTML code correctly. CSS defines how a page is styled and, recently, layed out. PHP is responsible for creating HTML, and Apache is responsible for receiving requests for pages, executing the PHP, and serving HTML to the browser. As mentioned above, many of the technologies overlap: XML/XSL vs HTML/CSS, PHP vs ASP; and some technologies, like AJAX, combine others in order to give users a much better surfing experience. Web development process contains writing the code in all of these different languages so that you, the user, will be able to read the news, watch the videos, and catch up on your friend's blog or write your own.

Web Server Configuration by Web Developments

Besides writing the code that powers web sites, a web development also contains the set up and maintain of a web server. A web server is responsible for retrieving requests for pages and serving them back to the client. However, given a PHP or ASP page a web server must first execute the code that appears in the page before serving it back. This can also apply to images and other media, but first the server must be reconfigured. Actually, by a web development, a web server can be configured to receive a request for a page that doesn't actually exist and then redirect the user to one that does, and do so in a way that is transparent to the client (for example, a custom 404 page).A well web development process can combine custom configurations to the web server with building dynamic PHP or ASP pages to create very robust sites which were not possible to create just 5 short years ago.

Security and Web Development

Being added to all the elements which mentioned above is the security issue. Web development also takes into account the security, for instance; checking the error of data entry and cleaning the data which is entered. Furtheremore, web development is able to block an unauthorized access, such as hackers, which asking to gain information of email addresses, passwords and contents. However, using the web development applications before the public release, will prevent many exploits and problems.