Web development is an exciting and rewarding field that offers a wide range of opportunities for those who are interested in creating websites and web applications. If you’re looking to become a web developer, it’s important to have a roadmap that will guide you through the process of learning the necessary skills and technologies.
The 2023 web development roadmap is a comprehensive guide that will help you become a master of browser-based technologies. It covers everything from HTML and CSS to JavaScript, REST, Bootstrap, PHP, and Java.
The first stop on the 2023 web development roadmap is to learn HTML. HTML is the language of the web browser. With HTML, you structure the data you wish to display on a web page with any of the 145 available tags. HTML is fun to work with because edits and changes are immediately visible when you refresh the browser. It’s encouraging to see your hard work immediately turn into visual feedback in Firefox, Edge or Chrome.
Cascading style sheets (CSS) format the content on the page, add color, configure fonts and make webpages more readable by adding padding to images or extra space between sections. Anyone with a creative bent will love working with CSS, as you can also use stylesheets to create interesting two-dimensional artwork and add simple animations to otherwise boring, static text.
JavaScript is the de facto programming language of the web browser. Developers who are new to web technologies use JavaScript to perform basic tasks such as form validation, image rollovers, and simple animations. As programmers advance further on the web developer roadmap, they’ll find themselves using JavaScript to perform more advanced tasks, including building single-page applications and creating complex animations.
Modern websites must be designed to render properly on a range of devices, from desktop monitors to tablets to handheld devices and cell phones. This is the essence of responsive web design. There are many responsive web frameworks on the market, including Skeleton and Foundation, but the vast majority of the market uses Bootstrap. All web developers should become familiar with Bootstrap and how its 12-column grid system enables developers to render content differently on devices with varying screen sizes.
To simplify the creation of multi-faceted, browser-based, often single-page applications, numerous powerful progressive web app frameworks and libraries have emerged, including React, Vue, and Angular. A developer doesn’t need to learn all of these frameworks. Knowledge of one, along with the role these technologies play in the web development space, and an understanding of the types of web development difficulties they address, is sufficient.
WebAssembly enables developers to take code written in a powerful language like Java, Rust, Go or C++ and embed it in a web browser. This brings high-performance computing to the web browser. A web developer doesn’t need to know how to write WebAssembly code. However, a developer must know the role WebAssembly plays in the world of high-performance distributed computing, plus how to connect a JavaScript call to a method in a WebAssembly binary file.
Through RESTful APIs, the web developer can access a bevy of externally hosted online services. That’s the last stop on the web development roadmap, because it opens up a new world of possibilities. The web application then becomes an integrated part of a worldwide network of SaaS-based functions and online services.
If you’re interested in becoming a web developer, the 2023 web development roadmap is an excellent place to start. It will guide you through the process of learning the necessary skills and technologies, and help you become a master of browser-based technologies.
