With the web constantly changing, web developers should always be up-to-date on what web technologies are important.
Here is a list of web technologies to learn about and ones you should know about if you are currently studying web development or other programming languages.
1. Web Frameworks
Web frameworks are web-based programming frameworks that are used to create web applications or websites.
Apache Cordova
Apache Cordova is an open-source mobile application development framework that allows HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and SVG code to be used for cross-platform applications.
Some popular apps built with Apache Cordova are WhatsApp, UberEATS, Walmart, Instagram, Snapchat among many others. With over 800 million downloads it’s definitely worth learning.
PhoneGap
PhoneGap is another cross-platform web-based mobile application development framework. It is built on web standards and provides web APIs to access device functions including the camera, accelerometer, contacts, etc.
Similar to Cordova, it allows web developers to create apps that are able to run on iOS, Android, Windows Mobile among other platforms.
Many web developers find PhoneGap more convenient because it uses web technologies instead of learning new ones as Apache Cordova does.
Angular
Angular is one of the most popular frameworks for web applications. It is used by Google in many of its web applications such as YouTube.
The main advantage of this particular web framework is that you can develop “rich client-side applications” with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.
Other frameworks that can do this are React and Aurelia. This web framework also allows web developers to use web standards which makes it easier to adopt web development technologies.
React
React is another web application framework that is not as popular as Angular but does have a strong following. It has even been called the “Vue of Google” because both were developed by former employees of Google (Google Adwords for Vue, YouTube for React).
The main difference between these two web frameworks is that, unlike Vue, React uses declarative rendering instead of just HTML-like templates as found in other web frameworks such as Angular and Polymer.
Instead, it has the Virtual DOM that updates and renders components based on state changes. Like Angular, it also allows web developers to use web standards for web application development.
Electron
Electron is an open-source framework that uses web technologies to create native applications for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux among other platforms.
Some popular web applications built with this framework are Visual Studio Code, Atom, WhatsApp Web, Slack among others.
Polymer
Polymer is a web framework based on web components that allow web developers to build web applications using Google’s Material Design.
With the popularity of Material Design, it has become increasingly more important for web developers to learn how to make web apps with Material Design which this particular framework makes very easy.
It’s also based on web standards so many web frameworks can be used with it. Some web frameworks that can be used with Polymer are Angular, React, Vue and Aurelia.
Vue
Vue is an open-source project that aims to offer a simple, flexible, and powerful component-driven frontend.
Vue was created by Evan You in 2013. Vue is unique because it focuses on the idea of “progressive enhancement” – both for experienced developers and for novice ones.
Django
Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.
It was created by highly talented programmers like Jacob Kaplan-Moss. Django is simple, easy to learn, and powerful which makes it possible for novice programmers to work with it.
Aurelia
Aurelia is an open-source web application framework that is based on industry standards. It has become very popular because it simplifies the process of developing apps by providing many robust features.
2. Browsers
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser by Google. It has web standards-based rendering which is important for web developers because it makes coding web applications easier. There are also many web-based apps that can be used with it such as YouTube, Google Docs, Microsoft Word among others.
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a web browser by Mozilla and the developer of web standards such as HTML5.
It’s not as popular as Google Chrome but it’s still a web browser worth learning about because of its web standards-based rendering.
Also, its web-based tools are more powerful than what can be found on other web browsers like internet explorer which means less time spent outside of web development coding applications.
Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge is a web browser by Microsoft and the successor to internet explorer.
It has web standards-based rendering which is important for web developers because it makes coding web applications easier.
There are also many web-based apps that can be used with it such as OneNote, Bing Maps, and Groove Music among others.
Safari
Safari is a web browser by Apple. It has web standards-based rendering which is important for web developers because it makes coding web applications easier.
There are also many web-based apps that can be used with it such as iCloud, Aperture, iMovie among others.
3. HTML & CSS
HTML and CSS are web development languages that web developers use to create web applications. Let’s learn more about these web technologies.
HTML specifies the document structure such as headings, paragraphs, tables, and lists while CSS specifies how webpages should look such as font colors, font sizes, background colors among other things.
Together they’re the two most important web technologies in web development and make it easy for web developers to create web applications like this website or Facebook.
4. Programming Languages
JavaScript
JavaScript is a web programming language. It’s not directly related to web development but it’s still important because web developers will need to use web frameworks like Angular or React in order to code web applications.
Also, web-based apps don’t use any other web languages meaning that JavaScript is the only web language used in web development so it has become very popular among web developers though Python, Java, and C++ are also worth learning about in addition to Javascript.
SQL
SQL stands for structured query language and is used in databases to create queries among other things. It can be used with databases such as MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL among others.
There are many benefits of learning SQL including making more money when looking for web development jobs because web developers that know SQL can be more valuable when it comes to web programming.
Python
Python is a web programming language. It’s not directly related to web development but it’s still important because web developers will need to use web frameworks like Angular or React in order to code web applications.
Ruby
Ruby is a web programming language, which has a lot of processes that are extremely powerful. That often makes web development easy and efficient.
For example, you can generate HTML code for every element on the webpage by running only one single line of code instead of having to run that line multiple times which would take more time.
Also Ruby is object-oriented which means that it uses “objects” (basically like records) to make it easier for programmers who know object-oriented programming languages like Python, C++, C# among others.
And lastly Ruby has an extensive web framework (Ruby on Rails) and web-based apps like Basecamp and Scribd.
PHP
PHP is a web programming language. Web developers often use it when they want to create web applications in order to generate web pages and web-based apps such as web forums, web stores, and web email among other web-based apps.
It’s also worth knowing because there are many web-based frameworks such as Ruby on Rails that use PHP.
The last thing that it’s worth mentioning about PHP is that it’s also object-oriented which means that it can be used with any object-oriented languages like C++, C#, Python, and Java.
Java
Java is a web programming language, which has a lot of processes that are extremely powerful. Java is object-oriented which means that it uses “objects” (basically like records) to make web development easier and more intuitive.
And lastly, Java has an extensive web framework (Java EE) and web-based apps such as Google Docs, Gmail, and G Suite among others.
Everyone who is learning web development should know how to use web frameworks like Java EE. Web developers often need web frameworks in order to create web apps since web development is more difficult than web programming.
5. Protocols
When web developers want web-based apps to communicate with web servers, they use protocols. Why are protocols one of the most important web technologies?
Protocols are a way for web developers to communicate with web servers for web applications. The web app will send a request to the webserver and this request contains a protocol that tells the web server how to respond.
HTTP
A web developer can create web applications that act like web browsers in order to read HTML files or webpages when the web browser uses HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) which is a protocol used by web browsers when they’re reading HTML files or webpages.
The web developer can then create a web-based app that runs in the web browser which will then request files from web servers using HTTP and present them to the user in order for a web application to read an HTML file or webpage when a web browser can’t do it alone.
DDP
DDP is an important web technology that web developers should learn because it helps web applications more easily communicate with web servers and web services such as Facebook, YouTube, Google Docs, and G Suite among others.
DDP (Distributed Data Protocol) solves this issue by being an open-source protocol that allows objects and data structures from any language to communicate over a network connection.
This makes DDP perfect for web developers because they can now use their favorite object-oriented languages without having to learn web development.
REST
The REST protocol is a web-based web service that web developers can use to easily communicate with web servers and web services.
When web developers want to create web apps they often need to use web-based web services in order to make data structures.
But, when web developers want to talk to these web services they have always had problems because there are many different languages with different web servers which are hard for web developers to learn.
The REST protocol solved this issue by being an open-source protocol that allows objects and data structures from any language to communicate over a network connection.
6. API
API stands for Application Programming Interface.
An API is a way that objects communicate with one another when they’re in different languages.
Web developers often use APIs when they want to create web apps in order to add features that are not available in the language that they’re using.
As an example, Facebook uses APIs to make web apps that you can use on social media.
7. Cloud Computing
Last, but not least is cloud computing which is the process of using remote servers (a cloud) in order for web developers to easily store data.
This makes it easier for web developers because they no longer have to locally install things that they need in order for a web-based app to run.
This makes it work faster and is easier for web developers who want to create large web apps without having massive space on their laptops or desktops.
8. Data Formats
Data format refers to the communal standard that a computer program or hardware system uses to understand and interpret data.
XML
When web developers need to create data structures, they use data formats like XML which is an open standard for exchanging data between different kinds of programs.
XML is called a markup language because it’s used to annotate documents with elements and attributes that are not displayed by the web browser.
It also lets two computers communicate more easily by using a language that both of them can understand.
JSON
Another useful data format developers will need to use as technology advances is the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) which provides a way for information to be written down in a way so it can be read more easily by humans and computers.
It’s easy for computers to understand because it’s based on the syntax of JavaScript.
Collections
Another type of data format that web developers will need to use is called collections which are simply lists of information.
These can be used for many things such as news feeds, search history, and bookmarks.
CSV
CSV is a text file that is often used when you want to have a list of data in a spreadsheet program.
These are not very useful because they can’t be read by computers which makes it hard for programmers to access the information in them.
JSON has replaced CSV and was designed with web applications and APIs specifically in mind.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this article discusses the most important technologies in 2021 that every developer should know.
