What should I learn to become a web-developer?
Someone emailed me recently and asked me what he should learn if he wanted to become a web developer. This article will answer these following questions:
How do I learn Web-Designing?
How Do I Become a Web Developer?
What should I learn to become a web-developer?
What does a Web developer have to know?
Know The Basics:
Whether you’ve just decided to learn web-designing or you’ve been designing pages for years, you must be aware of the building blocks of the Web:
What is WWW and How it works?
The World Wide Web is a network of computers all over the world and is most often called as WWW or Web. All these computers communicate with each other using a common communication standard HTTP (Hyper Text Markup Language).
Web-Pages, Web Servers and Web Clients?
Web Pages are the files stored on computers called Web Servers and the computers reading those files are called Web Clients.
Lets understand this with an example:
The page you are reading right now is stored on a computer placed in USA and that computer is called a Web Server and the computer you are using to read this page is called a Web Client. These two computers are sharing this Web Page with a standard protocol called HTTP (Hyper Text Markup Protocol). Web Clients view these web pages with an application or program called web-browser and there are a lot of web browsers available for e.g. Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer.
Now the question would be how a browser reads or fetches these web pages. When you enter a web address (e.g. www.domain.com/index.htm) in the address bar of your browser, the browser sends a standard HTTP request containing the web address. If the page is found in the WWW (the network of web servers) you will see that page on your computer otherwise you will get a standard error message from browser like "Page Not Found".
How does a browser displays the web-pages with different formatting and images?
All web pages contain instructions to format the text & display the images. The most common language used to instruct the browser is HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). This is done by HTML tags which we will learn the next articles.
Where To Start?
Every web-developer should know the following languages and Technologies:
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
HTML is the language of the Web and every web-developer should have the basic understanding of this language.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
Styles defines how HTML elements will be displayed, you can set the layout and format an HTML page with the styles and in today’s world CSS is the most popular standard to create amazing web pages. Styles can be defined with in an HTML file or it can be a separate file.
XHTML (Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language)
XHTML stands for Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language and is now the latest HTML standard from W3C.
Now what is W3C?
The W3C is the international standards body. It was established in 1994 to lead the web to its full potential by developing common standards. Most Web Developers look to the W3C for standards and new technology. This is where the XHTML recommendation came from, and the various XML standards and languages. However, if you go to the W3C Web site (http://www.w3.org/), you may find a lot of information about web standards and current technologies.
Client-Side Scripting
Client side scripting is all about programming the behavior of an Internet Browser, this is to deliver more dynamic web site content and a very good example of this is JavaScript.
Server-Side Scripting
Server side scripting is all about programming the behavior of an Internet Server. This is used to dynamically insert, update or remove any content on a web-page, respond to the user queries and dealing with databases. ASP, ASP.net and PHP are the most common and important examples of server side scripting.
Databases (MySQL or MSSQL)
SQL stands for Structured Query Language and is the most common standard for accessing databases such as SQL Server, MS Access, Sybase and others. Every web-developer should know SQL as its the most important standard to communicate with Databases.
Keep yourself ready for the future
The functionality of websites are changing drastically, earlier we just had static web pages and then we have dynamic websites which interact with databases and display the content dynamically. Now technologies like Flash, Silver light, jQuery and others are taking over the web-building technologies, so the idea is to keep yourself up-to-date and lets see what future has to offer next.
You will find free tutorials here on almost all technologies so keep informed, subscribe to RSS feed to get latest updates in RSS reader or Email or Download the toolbar and access everything from your browser.
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Good article. To be a web developer is not that difficult for those persons who know the basics of internet technologies.
Nice article! I am getting the directions to become a good web developer.. Thank you for your help.
In todays day and age of web standards CSS is a must in my opinion!!
Although the other are good to know as well CSS for me is the most important….
daniels last blog post..CSS 3 Rounded Corners Are Gold !!!!!
Excellent Website Mohit.
I am learning PHP these days. Is this right direction to go. Apart from PHP should I learn CSS and javascript too. But I was looking for part time opportunities around mumbai and these are far and few in between. I work in a Mumbai MNC as an SAP-ABAP programmer . I have a laptop and I can work from home part time or also commute in mumbai I am eager to work on web apps . Can you please guide me ??
@Azeem: Thanks for the feedback. In today’s marketplace one has to be a master of all trades. I would highly recommend you to learn CSS and xHTML with PHP as every web-project requires CSS and xHTML skills now a days.
Even if you are a developer you must have the understanding how the code will shape up in the front end.
Let me know if you need any help with CSS, xHTML etc..
Could anybody tell me what programming languages i should learn to become a web-desiner. I didn’t have any programming skills before , but recently i have started myself with learning HTML. It’s been always my dream to creat my own webiste. What i would like from you to know is just a good guidance(advice) from the person who is wel-quilified and knows what is saying about , for example to give me a direction for learning the main and basic programming languages to become a good web-designer. I don’t what to learn more or extra programming languages if they are not destinied for creating web-sites.I want to focuse only on web-designer programming languages which will lead in the future to becoming a professional one- web-creater and/or web-designer. Thank you a lot!
Can you explain it by numeration, i.e 1) should be learnt HTML 2)….. and after it….???
If you respond this queistions to my e-amil, i would be glad and thankful to. Fara83532@yahoo.com
Great post. I acquired most of my web development skills from W3Schools. They have great little ways to try out the different things you just learned on their website.
Jasons last blog post..Web Design Trick: Javascript Column Heights
Thanks Jason !
Three days before, the result of my researches led me to the web-site indicated by you, and tonight i opened up the website if smb responded to and saw your post which made me happier and more sure about what i am doing is right.
Thanks!