These days, there are several approaches to learning web development. You can attend specific courses or follow a college curriculum, for example. The former is the fastest way, and the latter is more profound. Yet, if you are disciplined enough, you can handle the learning yourself! All you need to know is what technologies you should master, and we are here to help you with it!
’13 tools’ may not sound quite attractive, especially if web development is the new extracurricular class you didn’t expect to take the greater part of your time.
Yet, you don’t have to know and use all of them at once. Depending on the projects you need to work on, the tech stack gets modified.
And even if you are stuck with a particular tool and have to spend much more time than you’ve spared, you can delegate the assignments from your main curriculum to online essay writer and focus on development.
So, let’s go through the 13 tools and frameworks knowing which will be enough to develop nearly any web application you may need!
Code Editor
Obviously, you’re going to need a code editor. There are basically two leaders in this area: Visual Studio Code and WebStorm. The first one is extremely flexible and customizable due to the great number of extensions available for free. The second one, on the other side, offers numerous in-built features that simplify coding to a great extent.
Git and GitHub
Building a website requires great effort, trying various approaches with the trial-and-error method, and diligence. The second aspect translates to storing different solutions without letting the data get scattered around folders and keeping it neat. To manage your code locally and make sure you do not lose essential data, Git is a must.
Let’s take, for instance, your term paper. You submit an interim draft to your teacher after receiving it from one of the best research paper writing services and get feedback.
After that, you pass the feedback on to the writer who addresses the comments and provides you with a new version. This may repeat several times and, suddenly, your teacher says that there was a part of the paper you shouldn’t have deleted.
Now, you need to find that piece of text by going through numerous drafts, but using a version control manager like Git would make it easier. Sure, students don’t usually store their academic papers using Git or GitHub – the latter is not meant for this.
But this is how it works with the code, too. Sometimes, you realize that the current code doesn’t work at all and you need to go back to the version you had a week ago. A couple of commands can sort it out for you and even store the code that doesn’t work very well separately. Finally, you may go back to it and come up with a better solution.
HTML & CSS
The former provides the structure and content of a web page, while the latter is used to apply styles and organize the layout of your web page. As you develop your skills, you won’t write a lot of pure HTML and CSS, yet, without this knowledge, web programming isn’t possible.
React
React.js allows developers to create reusable UI components and efficiently update and render the user interface based on changes in data. The only downside is the client-side rendering of the websites is written using pure React. This means that:
- There is no web page until a user requests it to be loaded
- Google bots can’t crawl such sites and, thus, can’t index the pages
- Clim chances of getting your website to the top Google results
- React should be used not for landings but for admin panels and other types of websites whose popularity doesn’t depend on SEO and marketing
Despite the description above, React.js is a powerful library that makes web development much easier in comparison to Vanilla Javascript. Besides, its’ ‘sister’ for mobile apps – React Native – opens up even more opportunities, so knowing it is a must!
Next
The React library serves as the basis for Next.js. This combination provides developers with modern solutions to server-side rendering, which, in turn, helps with search engine optimization. That way you don’t have to create landing pages using Vanilla JS, which can feel like a torture sometimes.
Node
Now, you’re going to need the server side to make your application flexible and able to interact with the users. As an alternative, you can use Python, which is much simpler than other backend languages and frameworks. Yet, if you have already mastered the basics of Javascript, Node won’t be the problem. Finally, you will get to stay within the JS ecosystem by using it for backend development.
Typescript
In order to reduce the number of possible errors thrown during production, you must use Typescript. It can make the process of development more complicated until you get to know most of the possible use cases for this and that functionality. Yet, as a result, the user experience will be much better.
The thing is, when developing a website using pure JavaScript, missing out on some flaws is quite easy even for experienced developers. When working with a framework, there are fewer chances to miss a bug. However, when combining a framework and Typescript, most of the bugs will be prevented by the latter.
The language is built on JavaScript but has rigid rules regarding controlling the types of data used in the app. Normally, when you do not consider that no data will come from the server, it leads to a page with error messages. With Typescript, you won’t be able to even create a build folder without preventing those errors.
4 Most Widespread Libraries
Bootstrap
Forget about creating custom solutions for basic interface tasks like creating tables, tooltips, or using custom CSS classes. Bootstrap has got it covered! Numerous layouts and components are available for free. The library has great documentation with a number of examples and options. So, do use it to accelerate your pace!
Yup
Sooner or later, you will need a form to interact with the users, and you will have to prevent them from writing and sending some gibberish to you.
For that, you need to validate your form, and Yup makes form validation as easy as a pie. A number of patterns and ways to analyze the data entered by users save you a lot of time. You also don’t have to write custom JS code or, leave alone, use HTML-level validation.
Axios & TanStack Query
Performing API requests manually is a relic of the past. Instead, handling them using the Axios library is the most convenient way to fetch and post data as well as configure the requests.
In combination with TanStack Query, developers get to handle the connection with the server and data retrieval without extra memory usage and odd code.
Formerly known as React Query, TanStack transformed into a library customized for several frameworks:
- Svelte
- Solid
- Vue
- React
It also has a number of other utilities to make website management effort-free!
Some Extra Tools
Finally, you’re going to need some helpers to optimize images, download mockups, create and modify icons, and so on:
- Squoosh
- SVGOMG
- Figma
- Regex 101 or Regexr
- Icomoon
- Scheme Color
Also, don’t forget about the broader scope of web development beyond the mentioned tools. It involves working with databases, server management, and deployment strategies. It also concerns such concepts as security, performance optimization, and accessibility.
By continuously expanding your knowledge and exploring these areas, you can become a well-rounded developer capable of handling diverse projects and challenges. However, for the start, the tools mentioned above will be more than enough!