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Web development
Web Design & Development Guide
Web development
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Web development is a broad term for any activities related to
developing a
web
site for the
World Wide Web or an intranet. This can include
e-commerce
business development,
web
design,
web content development, client-side/server-side coding, and
web
server configuration. However, among web professionals, "web
development" usually refers only to the non-design aspects of building
web sites, e.g. writing
markup and coding. Web development can range from developing the
simplest static single page of plain text to the most complex web-based
internet applications, electronic businesses, or social network
services.
For larger businesses and organizations, web development teams can consist of
hundreds of people. Smaller organizations may only require a single permanent or
contracting webmaster, or secondary assignment to related job positions such as
a graphic designer and/or Information systems technician. Web development may be a collaborative
effort between departments rather than the domain of a designated department.
Web development as an industry
Since the mid-1990s, web development has been one of the fastest growing
industries in the world. In 1995 there were fewer than 10,000 web development
companies in the United States alone and in 2005 there are over 30,000 such
companies.[1]
The web development industry is expected to grow over 20% by 2010. The growth of
this industry is being pushed by large businesses wishing to sell products and
services to their customers and to automate business workflow, as well as the growth of many small web design and development
companies.
In addition, cost of Web site development and hosting has dropped
dramatically during this time. Instead of costing tens of thousands of dollars,
as was the case for early websites, one can now develop a simple web site for
less than a thousand dollars, depending on the complexity and amount of content.
Smaller Web site development companies are now able to make web design
accessible to both smaller companies and individuals further fueling the growth
of the web development industry. As far as web development tools and platforms
are concerned, there are many systems available to the public free of charge to
aid in development. A popular example is the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP),
which is usually distributed free of charge. This fact alone has manifested into
many people around the globe setting up new Web sites daily and thus
contributing to increase in web development popularity. Another contributing
factor has been the rise of easy to use WYSIWYG web development software, most prominently
Microsoft FrontPage or
Adobe Dreamweaver. Using such software, virtually anyone can develop a Web
page in a matter of minutes. Knowledge of HyperText Markup Language (HTML),
or other programming languages is not required, but recommended for professional
results.
The next generation of web development tools uses the strong growth in
LAMP and Microsoft .NET technologies to provide the Web as a way to run applications
online. Web developers now help to deliver applications as Web services which
were traditionally only available as applications on a desk based computer.
Instead of running executable
code on a local
computer, users are interacting with online applications to create new content.
This has created new methods in communication and allowed for many opportunities
to decentralize information and media distribution. Users are now able to
interact with applications from many locations, instead of being tied to a
specific workstation for their application environment.
Examples of dramatic transformation in communication and commerce led by web
development include e-commerce. Online auction sites such as
eBay have changed the way consumers consume and purchase goods and services.
Online resellers such as Amazon.com and Buy.com (among many, many others) have
transformed the shopping and bargain hunting experience for many consumers.
Another good example of transformative communication led by web development is
the blog. Web
applications such as
WordPress
and
b2evolution have created easily implemented blog environments for individual
Web sites. Open source content systems such as
Typo3,
Xoops,
Joomla, and
Drupal have
extended web development into new modes of interaction and communication.
Typical Areas
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.
Security
Web development takes into account a lot of things, such as data entry error
checking through forms, as well as sanitization of the data that is entered in
those fields. Malicious practices such as
SQL
injection can be executed through users with ill intent yet only primitive
knowledge of web development as a whole. Not only this, but scripts can be
exploited to grant unauthorized access to the hacker to gain information such as
email addresses, passwords and protected content.
Some of this is dependent on the server environment (most commonly Apache or
Microsoft IIS) on which the scripting language, such as PHP, Ruby or ASP is
running, and therefore is not necessarily down to the web developer themselves
to maintain. However, stringent testing of web applications before public
release is encouraged to prevent such exploits from occurring.
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