Web Development can be split into many areas and a typical and basic web development hierarchy might consist of;
- Client Side Coding
- CSS
- XHTML (in accordance to modern web design standards, XHTML’s use is replacing the older HTML)
- Javascript
- Server Side Coding
- PHP and MySQL
- ASP and MSSQL
- ASP.NET and MSSQL
- CGI and/or Perl
- Java, e.g. J2EE or WebObjects
- Ruby, e.g. Ruby on Rails
- ColdFusion
- In practice, many web developers will also have interdiscipinary skills / roles, including:
- Graphic design / web design
- Information architecture and copywriting/copyediting with web usability, accessibility and search engine optimisation in mind
- Project management, QA and other aspects common to IT development in general
The above list is a simple website development hierarchy and can be extended to include all client side and server side aspects. It is still important to remember that web development is generally split up into client side coding covering aspects such as the layout and design, then server side coding, which covers the website’s functionality and back end systems.
Looking at these items from an “umbrella approach”, client side coding such as XHTML is executed and stored on a local client (in a web browser) whereas server side code is not available to a client and is executed on a web server which generates the appropriate XHTML which is then sent to the client. As the nature of client side coding allows you to alter the HTML on a local client and refresh the pages with updated content (locally), web designers must bear in mind the importance and relavence to security with their server side scripts. If a server side script accepts content from a locally modified client side script, the web development of that page shows poor sanitization with relation to security.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.
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