Undoubtedly, front-end development is a creative side of web development. By now you would have checked the roadmap given above, so we will discuss the skills and technologies you should familiarize yourself with to become a front-end web developer.

HTML, CSS, Sass, LeSS, JavaScript & TypeScript

To become a front-end web developer the first step is to understand the basics of the web, what a server is, how different applications will communicate with each other. After knowing networks, clients, servers and databases, you can move on to the actual basis of web development, i.e., coding.

The coding languages that are used to build a client-side source code consist of HTML, CSS, Sass, LeSS, JavaScript and TypeScript.

 is the foundation of every website. It is the standard markup language to display web pages in a web browser. HTML is easy to learn and use. Using HTML, you can create a basic website. HTML is the code that describes the page content that is later executed by the browser. You can use HTML to add text, images, videos, audio, forms, layout and so much more into the web page.

 or CSS is a styling language for HTML. While HTML informs the browser about content, CSS describes the way to format that content. Some of the basics of CSS you will come across are CSS positioning, grid, box model, flexbox, and responsive design.

 is a preprocessor stylesheet language compiled to CSS. Sass is an extension to CSS and is compatible with all versions of it. Sass offers features that don’t exist in CSS, like mixins, functions, variables, nested rules, partials, modules and so on. It helps in organizing large stylesheets while making it easier to share design across projects.

 is a pre-processor backward-compatible language compiled into CSS. It is influenced by Sass and facilitates reusable, manageable, and customizable style sheets. LeSS looks similar to CSS, so learning it will be easier. It has only added a few conveniences to CSS, i.e, variables, nesting, nested at-rules & bubbling, operations, escaping, calc() exception, functions, and much more.

 or JS is a lightweight and rendered programming and scripting language, developed for network-centric applications. It’s used in both front-end and back-end development. It helps in creating appealing, fast and dynamic websites. While using JS, you can implement elements like interactive animations and maps. A few basics of Javascript you need to learn are its syntax, DOM manipulation, the concept of closure, scope, async-await, hoisting, shadow DOM, event bubbling & prototype and fetching APIs.

 is an open-source programming language that is a superset of JavaScript. It is purely object-oriented and offers optional static typing, interfaces, and classes that are later compiled into JavaScript for execution. TypeScript allows IDEs to provide a richer environment for identifying common errors while writing the code.

Web Frameworks is a package of files and folders including standardized code, used as a template to start the development of a website or web app. It makes the integration and development of front-end programming easier. With the variety of frameworks to choose from it can be difficult to opt for what’s ideal for your requirements. So here’s a list of CSS and JavaScript frameworks that you should consider adding to your skillset.

Version control is the practice of managing and tracking changes made in the source code of a web application. A version control system is a software tool that helps developers to communicate and manage changes done in code over time while providing information like who made what changes. A separate branch is created for each contributor who modifies the code but changes are not merged into the source code until it has been analyzed. The version control system enhances the project speed with collaboration, leverages productivity, reduces possibilities of conflicts & errors and helps to recover code in case of an accidental situation.

Some of the top-rated version control systems that you can learn are:

Developing a good front-end is hard and scaling it for different teams to work together on a complex product is harder. That’s why the idea of 

 architecture came into view. It is a design approach where front-end apps are divided into micro, independent and individual apps that work loosely together. The concept of micro-frontend is practically inspired by microservices. The source code for each micro-frontend is smaller than the monolithic front-end. This smaller codebase made it easier and simpler for developers to work simultaneously. Just like microservices, it also allows independent deployment which as a result reduces the chances of errors and risks to breakdown the entire system. And having micro-frontend as a skill will also be beneficial for your career as a front-end developer.

 front-end development is a technique where functionality, usability and GUI of a web application or software are tested. The core aim of front-end testing is to analyze the overall operations & functions to ensure that the user interface of the application is working as expected. Types of front-end testing include the following tests:

: Individual sets of codes are tested for their functionality.

: Image comparison is done to recognise the difference between old and new code.

: The compliance of the system is evaluated with business requirements for the acceptability for project delivery.

: The responsiveness, stability and speed are tested to provide excellence in the performance of the application.

: Individual modules of the application are logically coupled and tested in a group to expose errors in the interaction between these modules.

: It is done to ensure that the application can be accessed by everyone. It helps to make the app accessible to those with certain disabilities.

: It ensures that the app is behaving as expected.

: It is done to enable users to have a similar experience of the web app on different browsers.

Top Skills A Front-End Developer Should Have

Creating any project is a daunting task in itself, but modern technology can make the development process less painful. Thanks to them, you can concentrate on your business goals.

To make it easier for you to choose between these technologies, we review them in detail from time to time in our blog posts. Our goal is to help you make the right decision about what to use in which case.

, we decided to take a look at the next (pun intended) JS framework. Let's see what the Next.js vs React battle can bring us!

JavaScript Definitive Guide For Entrepreneurs and Product Owners

nsight into this technology and help you learn even more about various front-end frameworks.

 and Babel and integrates with React for developing single-page apps. This makes server-side rendering very easy. As per 

"With Next.js, server rendering React applications has never been easier, no matter where your data is coming from."

Apart from that, Next.js supports static export, pre-rendering and has many more nice features like automatic building size optimization, faster developer compilation, and a preview mode.

In my opinion, the current version of Next.js is something that React has been missing for a long time.

It has all the functionality you need to create a ready-to-go application. Plus, the documentation is great, and it's getting more and more popular with front-end developers.

Next.js is doing really well, but that doesn't mean you should always use this framework.

 was originally created by Facebook, and today has become one of the most popular front-end libraries. 

React is one of the most used JavaScript frameworks. Several years ago, React took the JS world by storm and became its undisputed leader. React recommends using a 

React is trying to set industry standards. For instance, Redux is considered the best library for enterprise-grade React applications. At the same time, you need to think about the following: Redux can seriously hinder development productivity. Redux makes your job more difficult when you introduce a new feature, and you have to change too many things throughout your application. So we are again faced with the same dilemma: should I choose a simpler library?

You will need to create your own workflow using React. This is a more complicated path than just using what other JavaScript frameworks give you: a lot of ready-made tools built into the framework.

Also note that React is considered more as a library (a tool that can be used in any project, like a hammer) and less as a framework (a whole architectural design, which says what kind of hammers should be used and where), hence the need for the creation of your own workflow and one of those workflows evolved into a framework named... Next.js.

When choosing any software library or framework, developer experience is usually taken into account. When I talk about developer experience, I mean how developers actually complete a task. Developers tend to favor libraries or frameworks that are fun and easy to use. This is the main reason we have leading libraries and frameworks today.

In the React world, Next.js has become a popular framework for "getting to the point." As I know, React fans take Next.js and really enjoy working with it in their projects.

Next.js is built on top of React to make development easier. Next.js takes a little getting used to, but even developers new to the front-end world can get started relatively quickly. So, it comes out that there is definitely a different experience building a project with Next.js and React.

This post compares the experiences of Next.js and React developers. We've already gone through some background, so let's go deeper into the details, discussing what it is like to initially launch a project, learn these technologies, find talents, use documentation, and do advanced steps with Next.js and React.

Next.js vs React: Speed of Coding & Easiness of Coding

If you want to create pages for a React project, you must create a component and then add it to the router.

If you want to create pages for the Next.js project, you simply add the page to the pages folder and the required header component link. This makes your life easier because you write less code, and the project is easy to follow.

If you're just getting started with React, then Create React App is a great way to learn it. The CRA also gives you a head start if you want to use React to build a Single Page Application (SPA).

Since Create React App is only responsible for creating the front-end assembly, you can use it with a server of your choice, such as Node. You should also be aware that CRA uses Babel and Webpack under the hood, but don't worry, no knowledge is required about them.

In other words, Create React App is a tool that saves you the hassle of setting up and customizing your development environment. All you have to do is run one command that will set up the tools you need to run your React project. So instead of wasting time on customization, you can immediately focus on building your application.

Apps built with Next.js are incredibly fast thanks to static sites and server-side rendering. They are effective by default thanks to a host of performance optimization features such as Image Optimization introduced in Next 10.

So, if you choose Next.js, you can benefit from automatic server rendering and code splitting (which will improve performance). Besides, SSR (Server Side Rendering) will greatly improve the performance of your application.

Talking about React, there are things that rule it out of the debate. Out of the box it only supports client-side rendering, which is not enough if you want to build a high-performance application.

Next.js takes advantage of React to help developers build single-page apps.

All of these features will help you create a workable and ready-to-go application.

React is easily extensible and can include features like routing as well as state management patterns with libraries like Redux. React is minimal but can be customized for just about any project.

To conclude, here I'll leave the right to choose the winner to your project's requirements.

This is obvious but often overlooked. While the trendy home page of some frameworks might catch your eye, you still need additional courses, books, tutorials, and articles beyond the boring and dry documentation to get you started.

In any software project, good documentation can really help you easily use the tools, figure out which libraries to use, etc. There are fantastic docs options available for both React and Next.js.

Next.js has a "learn-by-doing" documentation set that walks you through things like routing and component creation. React also has a similar setup, with several tutorials that explain the basics.

To learn more about React at a high level, check out the official React 

. And in order to get to know Next.js close, we suggest reading the official Next.js 

There are other personal reasons why you might choose a popular, widely used framework. What happens if you run into a problem, and the communities really don't have anyone to turn to for help? Since you are the docs yourself, the chances are good that you will be wasting a lot of time.

With React, you can rely on a great community of developers who have created some blog posts, YouTube videos. You can also find content on Stack Overflow and even in the React docs themselves. It took years of development as the library matured.

With Next.js, there are fewer formal tutorials and more questions and conversations from GitHub. The Next.js team members themselves are very accessible in the open-source world.

There are many key contributors in the React community who are available as well. In both React and Next.js, an active community provides a very positive developer experience.

As a rule, we estimate the approximate quantity of developers with the help of data from 

NEXT or React

A web developer is a person who takes web design and required functionalities — as per the client or product team — and turns it into a website.

A Web Developer holds an important position in a company as he/she has to use a language from the client and convert it into a language that a computer understands i.e. HTML.

As you can imagine, web development requires a lot of effort and time along with an intricate understanding of how various components of web development work to stay ahead of your competitors.

Here are a few reasons to think of building a career in web development:

As you start learning the key skills to cement your place in the tech industry, it is important for you to begin small and then build on it. Web development is a perfect skill that you must acquire when you are starting your journey to become a coder. From deploying a server to tweaking with the design to improve UI/UX, everything helps you to learn things that will help further in your career.

The best part of being a web developer is that there is no need to be tied to one particular area. This field comes with loads of transferable skills needed for other disciplines.

For instance, web developers can easily switch to mobile development. Due to similarity in the interfaces, creating mobile applications can access a different ecosystem. With all the web development skills under your arsenal, you can easily make this happen.

Becoming a developer is not the final goal for students, you want to be leading a team and become a project manager. You would surely prefer to be good enough for managing a whole project and a team. To do this successfully, you must be equipped with project management skills first. Taking up and delivering a couple of web development can help you learn these much-needed skills. Various operations involving design, development, testing and client management, will help you acquire skills that are important to become a project manager.

Seeing the progressive development in web technology, it’s a pretty good place to be. The companies are constantly looking out for new talent that gives the aspiring developers a chance to find their perfect role.

Not only this, as a web developer — you will have better creative control and real ownership of the projects. This will help you develop the skills that are required for your professional growth. Exciting, isn’t it?

As we head towards an even more tech-driven future, the development skills are progressively in demand. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Internet of Things (IoT), quantum computing, etc. are changing the tech world. And this even comes down to their relationship with the websites. Let’s see how.

Artificial Intelligence sounds intimidating at first, but we are finding it in action every day. NLP, autonomous systems, pattern recognition, chatbot interactivity — the list is endless and we could keep going.

ADI tools are springing up that can fairly automate the process of designing websites. Artificial design intelligence (ADI) can put together the important building blocks of a website and offer options for customized software to the developers. Going forward in the future, it can have a big impact on how websites are created.

How Machine Learning will impact the way we interact with the web?

The term ‘Big Data’ has been in buzz for a couple of years now. Web developers need to understand how to harness the data to drive deliverable improvements and better client interactions.

Merging the power of ML on the websites can help enhance business productivity by collecting, assessing, and sharing insights. This, in turn, helps in empowering the business goals, possibilities as well as the bottom line.

In a very short span, IoT has drastically modified things. You talk to Siri or Alexa to get the updates about everything at your comfort, you manage your thermostat and many more. Though they are not yet brought into a website, it’s only the beginning right now!

Web development is constantly evolving with advancements in technology. Though we may not be able to see this on a daily basis, it’s easy for us to look back and see how things have been transformed.

But seeing the fast-paced nature of this industry and, of course, the competition, it’s important to stay updated with the latest technology and tools to always stay at your best.

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