The front end of a website is the part that users interact with. Everything that you see when you’re navigating around the Internet, from fonts and colors to dropdown menus and sliders, is a combo of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript being controlled by your computer’s browser.
Front-end developers are responsible for a website’s user-facing code and the architecture of its immersive user experiences. In order to execute those objectives, front-end devs must be adept at three main languages: HTML, CSS, and Javascript programming.Front-end developers also require to muster some frameworks like vue, angular etc which ensure great-looking content no matter the device, and libraries like jQuery and LESS, which package code into a more useful, time-saving form. A lot of front-end developer job listings also call for experience with Ajax, a widely used technique for using Javascript that lets pages dynamically load by downloading server data in the background(asynchronous).
** Front End Developer Skills**
- HTML/CSS You won’t find a single front end developer job listing that doesn’t call for (or assume) proficiency in these two languages.Lets have a look on what they are: HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language used to create web pages. A markup language is your way of making notes in a digital document that can be distinguished from regular text. It’s the most basic building block you’ll need for developing websites.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the language used to present the
document you create with HTML. Where HTML comes first and creates
the foundation for your page, CSS comes along next and is used to
create the page’s layout, color, fonts, and…well, the style!
Both of these languages are absolutely essential to being a front
end developer. Simply put, no HTML/CSS, no web development.
- ** JAVASCRIPT/JQUERY** Another MAJOR tool in your front end developer toolbox is going to be JavaScript (JS). Where HTML is a markup language and CSS is a style sheet language, JS is the first language I’ve mentioned that’s a bonafide programming language. What’s the difference? Where HTML and CSS determine the presentation of a page, JS determines the function. jQuery is a collection of plugins and extensions that make it faster and easier to use JS on your website. jQuery takes common tasks that require multiple lines of JS code and compresses them into a format that can be executed with a single line. This will be a big help when you’re coding with JS. Unless, of course, you don’t like saving time. ;)
- CSS AND JAVASCRIPT FRAMEWORKS CSS and JavaScript frameworks are collections of CSS or JS files that do a bunch of the work for you by providing common functionality (think logging into a website or searching a blog). Instead of starting with an EMPTY text document you start with a code file that has lots of awesome JS already in it.
Frameworks have their strengths and weaknesses—don’t we all!—and
it’s important to choose the best framework for the type of
website you’re building. For example, some JS frameworks are
great for building complex user interfaces, while others excel at
displaying all of your site’s content.
You should note that it is possible to use frameworks together.
isn't this awesome??
- VERSION CONTROL/GIT Version control is the process of tracking and controlling changes to your source code so that If something goes wrong along the way you won't start over from the beginning . Version control software—like open source stalwart Git—is a tool you’ll use to track those changes so you can go back to a previous version of your work and find out what went wrong without tearing the whole thing down.
As you might imagine, this a skill that you (and your prospective
clients and employers) will be very happy to have.
- TESTING/DEBUGGING Bugs are a reality of the development process. In order to keep things moving you’ll need to test your code for bugs along the way, so the ability to test and debug makes the list of essential skills for front end developers.
There are a couple of different testing methods for web
development. Functional testing looks at a particular piece of
functionality on your site (like a form or database) and makes
sure it does everything you’ve coded it to do.
Unit testing is another method. It tests the smallest bit of code
that’s responsible for one thing on your site and examines it
individually for correct operation.
Testing is a big part of the front end development process, but
fortunately, it’s another area where there are frameworks to help
you. Programs like Mocha and Jasmine are designed to speed up and
simplify your testing process.
- CSS PREPROCESSING CSS on its own, while essential, can sometimes be limiting. One of these limitations is that fact that you can’t define variables, functions, or perform arithmetic operations. This is a problem when a project grows in scale and code base, as you’ll soon find yourself wasting a lot of time writing repetitive code to make changes. Like CSS (and JS) frameworks, CSS preprocessing is another means of making your life as a developer easier and more flexible.
Using a CSS preprocessor like Sass, LESS, or Stylus, you’re able
to write code in the preprocessor's language (allowing you to do
things that might be a huge pain with plain old CSS). The
preprocessor then converts that code to CSS so it will work on
your website.
- RESPONSIVE DESIGN These days we use any number of computers, phones, and tablets to look at web pages. Ever notice how these pages adjust themselves to the device you’re using without you doing anything on your end? This is due to responsive design. Understanding responsive design principles and how to implement them on the coding side is key to front end development.
One cool thing to keep in mind regarding responsive design is
that it’s an intrinsic part of CSS frameworks like the
aforementioned Bootstrap. These skills are all interconnected and
so as you learn one you’ll often be making progress in the others
at the same time.
- ** BROWSER DEVELOPER TOOLS** Users will ultimately be interfacing with your websites through a web browser. The way your site is rendered by these browsers is going to be a big part of whether your work is successful or not.
Similarly to the testing and debugging mentioned above, all
modern web browsers come equipped with developer tools. These
tools allow you to test and fine tune your pages in the browser
itself, in ways specific to how the browser is interpreting your
code.
Specifics will vary from browser to browser, but browser
developer tools generally consist of an inspector and a
JavaScript console. The inspector allows you to see what the
runtime HTML on your page looks like, what CSS is associated with
each element on the page, and also allows you to edit your HTML
and CSS and see the changes live as they happen. The JS console
allows you to view any errors that occur as the browser tries to
execute your JS code.
Other skills are:** BUILDING AND AUTOMATION TOOLS/WEB PERFORMANCE
and COMMAND LINE**
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