Web Development, Web Design for Profits

 

Web development broadly encompasses all activities relating to the development of a website for the World Wide Web or an intranet. The intranet is “a private Internet” shared only by a single company or organization. More specifically, it is a private computer network using Internet protocols and network connectivity to share a company or organization’s information or operations with employees. However, such information sharing over intranet is not considered secure. Still, an intranet accesses websites and, therefore, is a web development activity hub.

E-commerce, business development, web design, web content development, client-side/server-side coding, web-server configuration, and more can all be considered web development activities. However, web professionals tend to think of “web development” as referring only to non-design portions of website construction such as markup and coding. Thought of along those lines, web development varies from creating one simple static page of plain text to the most complicated Internet applications.

 

Given how expansive a field it is, web development can be generally divided up into at least two categories. The first, client side coding, includes working with: cascading styles sheets (or CSS), XHTML (replacing HTML), Javascript, Flash, and Microsoft Silverlight.

 

The second, server side coding, includes working with: PHP and MySQL, ASP and MSSQL, ASP.NET and MSSQL, CGI and Perl, Java (J2EE or WebObjects), Python (Django), Ruby (Ruby on Rails), Smalltalk (Seaside), ColdFusion, and Lotus Domino.
Both client code side coding and server side coding can be further divided up. Client side coding splits up into layout and design while server side coding splits up into website functionality and back end systems.

 

There are several other notable differences between client side coding and server-side coding. Client side coding (like XHTML) is executed and stored on a local web browser. However, server side code is unavailable to a local web browser. It is executed on a web server, which generates the appropriate XHTML, and that gets sent to the web browser.

Additionally, client side serving allows HTML code alterations on a web browser in order to refresh web pages with updated content. Whereas if a server side script accepts content from a locally modified client side script, that web page’s web development is taking security risks.

 

Web development professionals are called web developers. For large businesses and organizations, web development teams might contain hundreds of web developers. A smaller organization might need only one. In some cases, web development is a collaborative interdepartmental effort rather than a single, designated department’s specialization. It depends on the business or organization’s requirements and resources.

Due to some projects crossing over into different departments and specialties, web developers sometimes fulfill multiple roles in the web development effort. This often leads to them developing interdisciplinary skills. For example, a web developer might be skilled in both web design, flash design, and graphic design.

 

Once developed, web applications are thoroughly tested before being released publicly. This ensures that there were no data entry errors, that scripts have not been exploited to grant hackers unauthorized access, and that no other security vulnerabilities have been detected and manipulated toward malign purposes.