Suppose you are a web developer and thinking about the things you should learn in 2024 to enhance your skills or planning to become a web developer in 2024 but need to know about the things, technologies, tools, frameworks, language and libraries to learn. In that case, you are in the right place. Here, you are going to find some of the basic things that a web developer would want to be aware of. I frequently get questions such as: What to learn on the web in 2024? Programming languages that are applicable to web development and the essential competencies needed. To all those queries, Yes, my readers, I am going to address all these questions in this article, and this is the first one of them.
In this article, I will present the basic things that a web developer should know. The big three of web development are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Still, several tools are very important but not mentioned or taught together as the big three.
1. HTML (HTML 5)
This is the minimum concept and knowledge anyone should know, especially if they are serious about web development. It is probably one of the oldest web technologies, as well as the first web technology that I learned quite some time back. Yet, it is still relevant to this very day. You simply cannot be a Web Developer without prior knowledge of HTML. In a technical sense, it is part of a markup language and the medium used to set out the architecture of your page.
Most individuals in the current world do not code HTML when designing a web page. However, most of the web pages you are going to encounter are produced with the help of a complex framework such as Angular and React. However, suppose you want to learn a computer language, embrace this business, understand it, debug it, and solve it. In that case, you must understand some of the important HTML tags such as div, span, title heading, and so on.
2. CSS (Bootstrap, Flexbox and Grid)
Besides HTML, if there is another indispensable web technology, then it will only be the CSS 3 or the Cascading Style Sheet. CSS is mainly employed to style your web page, which I mean to beautify. You can also use CSS to indicate the disposition of the element.
Just like HTML, currently, a couple of people write CSS classes by themselves, and many people and the team use frameworks like Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS, Materialize, etc. Like HTML, CSS is also dynamic, and you have flexbox and grid
3. JavaScript
This is the third most important thing any Web developer should learn, for it was not until the arrival of JavaScript that the Web became what it is today. During my study of JavaScript, somebody told me that life is JavaScript; it gives your webpage a life and can wake up your webpage.
You can perform actions when one or another button is clicked, the appearance of the animations and the look of the webpage can change when the mouse is used, and many others; all those things are still true, but now JavaScript Is way more than that.
4. React. js
As I have said in the previous paragraph, Web Development, most especially Frontend Development, has drastically evolved in the last decade. Now, you do not have to write the HTML and CSS to fashion your webpages, which is something I, and many other web developers in the late nineties and early 2000s, had to do.
Now, you have a framework such as React that you can use to render web pages for you automatically. That is why a web developer must study a frontend framework such as React to establish outstanding and useful applications.
5. NPM (Node Package Manager)
Now, since we have revealed the most necessary programming language for frontend development and the necessary framework, it is high time to turn to the essential tools for web development and to start with, it is NPM. If you didn’t know, now you don’t have to code for all the functions that you require.
For example, if you are designing a project to create a dynamic web page, you don’t have to sit down and write a whole framework; somebody else has done it, and you can simply import it into your project.
6. VSCode
When it comes to code, then, IDE is your most crucial weapon. As a Java coder, I always feel privileged that we are blessed to have not one but three of the best IDEs – Eclipse, NetBeans and IntelliJIDEA. For a long time, when I have been doing web development, I have believed we do not have any tools that can rival these IDEs.
Of course, you can also use them for web development. However, it is more beneficial for web developers who use Java in the backend. Microsoft VSCode has become the most powerful IDE or editor in the arena of web development and has transformed that thing.
7. Chrome Developer Tools
This is also another important tool for Web Developers, especially frontend Web Developers. Ever since the early days of my web design and development career, I used to turn to the ‘View Page Source’ option of Internet Explorer to understand what is happening on a specific web page – now that is a story of the past and a new chapter begins with Chrome entering the scene in the decade.
Currently, the ratio of Web, which is browsed with the help of Chrome, has increased up to 70%. In fact, a majority of Web Developers have no clue that Google Chrome has an integrated tool for debugging; this is known as Chrome Developer Tool. You can access this by right-clicking on your browser and going to “inspect.”
8. Postman
This is another tool that any Web Developer should know absolutely. Since the contemporary World Wide Web is a Web of APIs, you require a tool that helps you discover APIs, and there is no better tool than Postman for interacting with APIs. Here’s what you can do using the Postman:
- Send HTTP requests.
- Work with APIs.
- Examine the HTTP headers of their response.
- Do many other things.
Whether it is an internal API or APIs of Google, Facebook, Amazon, or various other payment gateways, Postman is compulsory for this exploratory purpose. It is also very helpful in practicing APIs of your own.
9. Responsive Web Design
This is a no-brainer but, again, a very important point to learn for those who are into Web development. Suppose you intend to create a website or a web application. In that case, your creation has to be responsive to your audiences and clients visiting your site through their devices.
Responsive web design enables you to provide your website in the most optimum way, considering the size of the tools being used by the users. This is a skill I have come across many front-end developers neglecting. Don’t be among them; learn Responsive web design.
10. GraphQL
As you are aware, the Web is mostly built on APIs, primarily on REST APIs, as I mentioned again. Certainly, one of the most important tasks of a web developer, depending on whether they are a backend or frontend developer, is the creation of APIS or working with them.
Thus, they indicate that one requires knowing how to engage the two. Fortunately, at least for the active development of the new APIS, an easy and accessible approach exists – REST. Still, it has some drawbacks for any decent but not only academic web application, like too many end-points to maintain and unwanted data to download and process.
Final Thoughts
Thus, one may state that the world of web development is rather dynamic, and it is critical to adhere to the updated tendencies and technologies. Collecting these things in web 2024 helps developers to develop and further evolution in the rapidly advancing context of web development.