Back-end and Front-end, two terms that refer to developers, usually web developers, and who have specific skills. What makes you apt to call yourself with one term or another? Let’s see it.
Content
- Server-side programming or back-end development
- The database or the DBMS
- Server programming languages
- Client-side programming or front-end development
- Client-side programming languages
- markup languages
- Programming languages
Server-side programming or back-end development
It is known as server-side programming or back-end development as work that is done using only server-specific languages or software.
As I have commented in the previous points, the server, that is, the software that performs this function (for example, Apache server), is capable of interpreting programming languages such as PHP, reading directives or special configurations, or reading or storing information that persists over time on the computer using databases (MySQL for example).
The database or the DBMS
Databases are software that allows us to store information with structure and order, so that we can maintain that information as we deem necessary. Database software is commonly known as DBMS (database management system). MySQL is one of the most used free DBMS available on the internet. PostgreSQL or MariaDB are other widely used DBMS.
The programming language that allows us to manipulate all the structured information of a DBMS is SQL.
Server programming languages
Among the server programming languages we find ASP, PHP, Java (JSP, Servlets), Python, Ruby or JavaScript. With server-side programming languages we can manipulate the data of a client request (such as the web url) and manipulate and build a result file just like we can write a text file in WORD.
All these server-side programming languages are capable of communicating with a DBMS like MySQL, manipulating its stored data with the purpose of, for example, displaying the latest news from a website.
The files resulting from interpreting the back-end programming languages will be, for the most part, in web development, web pages, that is, files with languages understandable to the client (the browser) and which are known as dynamic pages.
The files resulting from interpreting the back-end programming languages will be mostly web pages.
Client-side programming or front-end development
Front-end development is how the development that is done with client-side languages is known in the professional world. Designers, developers and programmers are usually responsible for front-end development.
Front-end development is done through the use of client-side programming languages like CSS, HTML, and Javascript. These well-used languages are capable of manipulating every graphic element that makes up a web page.
The use of client-side languages is essential for displaying even the most basic information to the user, and with modern, increasingly powerful web browsers, this task is simplified, while the possibilities are increased. All the aspects that a current website can take are guidelines that the browser interprets (some better than others) and that are carried out totally and exclusively on the client side.
Client-side programming languages
Client-side programming languages could be divided into two:
- markup languages
- sequential, procedural, or object-oriented programming languages.
markup languages
Markup languages are those in which elements or attributes of these elements are indicated by words or labels written with a certain standard (rules). HTML or CSS are the most representative of this group. Both languages are based on nomenclatures that allow graphic elements to be represented. These combined elements of lesser or greater complexity represent the structure of the html document that we finally see in our browser as a web.
Programming languages
Programming languages are, for example, ActionScript used in Flash (now almost out of use for web development) and Javascript. These languages allow you to display advanced animations or actions that are impossible with markup languages, such as loading content dynamically from the client side. Client-side programming languages are often used to achieve functionality that browsers, through markup languages, do not allow or are incompatible with.
These languages allow you to display advanced animations or actions that are impossible with markup languages, such as loading content dynamically from the client side.
When we use Javascript we must always do so in moderation. You should know that client-side programming languages like Javascript easily overload our websites. By contrast, markup languages are often much more efficient. The ideal will always be to combine both so that we reduce the burden of processing javascript.
Browsers in their continuous evolution are improving, update after update, the execution speed of Javascript and CSS, while CSS increasingly incorporates more features that were previously unimaginable, only possible with javascript.