What are the basics of back-end web development?
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Back-end web development is the process of creating and managing the server-side logic, data, and functionality of a website. It involves programming languages, frameworks, databases, and APIs that work behind the scenes to deliver dynamic and interactive web experiences. In this article, you will learn about the basics of back-end web development, such as:
The back-end of a website is the part that users do not see or interact with directly. It consists of the server, which is a computer that hosts the website and runs the back-end code, and the database, which is a collection of data that the website uses and modifies. The back-end code is written in a programming language, such as Python, Ruby, PHP, or Java, and it handles tasks such as authentication, authorization, data processing, business logic, and communication with other services.
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Zohaib Aslam
Co-Founder & Business Consultant @ Speecto | Driving Business Growth
Back-end web development is the unseen but crucial segment of web creation, focusing on servers, databases, and application logic. Key elements include: 1. Server Management: Setting up and maintaining the site's server. 2. Database Interaction: Creating and handling databases to store and retrieve data. 3. Application Logic: Coding the functions that drive the site's core operations. Mastery of server-side languages like Python, Java, and frameworks such as Express.js is vital. API knowledge is essential for enabling different software parts to interact. Back-end devs also use tools like Git for version control, ensuring smooth workflow and collaboration. This infrastructure allows users to enjoy seamless website experiences.
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Semy C A
Passionate Software Engineer | Coding Wizard | Transforming Ideas into Code
The back-end of a website or web application is often referred to as the server-side. It encompasses all the components and processes that make the front-end work, but it remains hidden from the user's view. The back-end code is written in a programming language, such as Python, Ruby, PHP, or Java, and it handles tasks such as Authentication and authorization,Data processing,Business logic and Communication with other services
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Back-end frameworks are tools that simplify and speed up the development of back-end applications. They provide common features and functionalities, such as routing, templating, security, testing, and database integration, that developers can use without reinventing the wheel. Some popular back-end frameworks are Django and Flask for Python, Ruby on Rails and Sinatra for Ruby, Laravel and Symfony for PHP, and Spring and Express for Java and JavaScript respectively.
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Semy C A
Passionate Software Engineer | Coding Wizard | Transforming Ideas into Code
Back-end frameworks are software libraries and tools that provide a structured foundation for building web applications. They offer pre-defined functions, components, and architectural patterns to streamline development. For example, Ruby on Rails is a popular framework for Ruby, Django for Python, and Express.js for Node.js. These frameworks simplify tasks like routing, database interactions, and handling HTTP requests.
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Zach Berger
Full Stack Developer | Recent Boot Camp Graduate | Eager Lifelong Learner
Back-end frameworks are the toolkits of web development. Like a Swiss Army knife, they come packed with utilities to handle the web's complexities. They provide structure for building web applications by offering libraries for database access, templating frameworks, and session management, and they promote code reuse. Examples include Express for Node.js, Django for Python, and Rails for Ruby.
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Databases are systems that store, organize, and manipulate data for web applications. They can be relational or non-relational, depending on how they structure and query the data. Relational databases use tables, rows, and columns to store data, and SQL (Structured Query Language) to access and manipulate it. Examples of relational databases are MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle. Non-relational databases use collections, documents, and key-value pairs to store data, and various query languages to access and manipulate it. Examples of non-relational databases are MongoDB, Redis, and Cassandra.
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Josef Wilhelm
I create apps. In weeks, not months. 500k+ downloads. 30+ Flutter apps.
Don't overthink which database to use. Learn basic SQL first. Then have a look at NoSQL, which will make a lot of sense if you know a Object oriented programming language. Then create something for yourself with whatever database you like. Don't overthink.
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Semy C A
Passionate Software Engineer | Coding Wizard | Transforming Ideas into Code
Databases are critical for storing and managing data in web applications. They come in two main types: relational and NoSQL databases. Relational databases, such as MySQL and PostgreSQL, use tables to store structured data with predefined schemas. NoSQL databases like MongoDB are more flexible, allowing for schema-less data storage. Databases are essential for tasks like user profiles, product information, and content management.
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APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are sets of rules and protocols that define how different applications or services can communicate and exchange data. They act as intermediaries between the back-end and the front-end of a website, or between different back-end services. APIs can use different formats and standards, such as REST (Representational State Transfer), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), or GraphQL (Graph Query Language), to specify how requests and responses are structured and transmitted.
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Sadegh Hosseini
Freelance Web Developer | Senior Full Stack Developer ( PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, MariaDB, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap ) | WordPress Developer ( Plugin, Theme, Website )
I will explain it with a simple real-world example: You have a WordPress website and you have some users on your website. you can create an Android app with the help of API and your website users don't have to register on your mobile app again to use your services because the database is the same and users are already registered on the database.
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Semy C A
Passionate Software Engineer | Coding Wizard | Transforming Ideas into Code
APIs are a set of rules and protocols that allow different software components to communicate with each other. In the context of back-end development, they enable the front-end of a web application to interact with the back-end. RESTful APIs and GraphQL are common approaches for building web APIs. They define how data can be requested, updated, and manipulated. APIs are the bridge between the front-end and back-end, facilitating data exchange and functionality.
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To become a back-end web developer, you need to master some essential skills, such as programming languages like Python, Ruby, PHP, or Java; frameworks like Django, Ruby on Rails, Laravel, or Spring; databases using either SQL or NoSQL languages; APIs using either REST, SOAP, or GraphQL standards; testing frameworks such as pytest, RSpec, PHPUnit, or JUnit; and deployment platforms like Heroku, AWS, or Google Cloud. Additionally, you need to understand the syntax and data structures of the programming language you choose; leverage the features and functionalities of the framework you use; perform CRUD operations on the data; use tools such as Postman, Swagger, or Insomnia to test and debug APIs; use tools such as Travis CI, Jenkins, or GitHub Actions to automate and integrate tests; and use Git, Docker, or Kubernetes to manage and update deployments.
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Alex Osmichenko
I make successful digital strategies. CEO | Empowering with WordPress 💻🔑
Back-end skill is not only knowing the programming language, but to know programming patterns and be able to deliver the right business logic.
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Nick Romanishyn
Software Developer @ OTC FLOW | Problem solver I React, TypeScript, Mendix
User sessions are the heartbeat of personalized web experiences. In my projects, sessions are more than just storing data; they're about creating a narrative for each user's journey. Sessions begin with a login, like opening a book, and each page turned is a new interaction, storing preferences, roles, or cart items. When the user logs out, it's like closing the book, but the story - their session data - remains, ready to be continued.
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Back-end web development is not without its challenges, such as security, performance, scalability, and maintenance. To ensure that your back-end code and data are secure, you must implement encryption, hashing, authentication, authorization, and other security measures. To ensure that your back-end code and data are optimized for speed, efficiency, and reliability, you must implement caching, indexing, load balancing, and other performance measures. Additionally, to ensure that your back-end code and data can handle increasing amounts of traffic, requests, and data, you must implement clustering, sharding, microservices, and other scalability measures. Lastly, to ensure that your back-end code and data are easy to update, debug, and refactor you must follow coding standards, best practices, and documentation guidelines.
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Hemalatha Chockalingam
Associate Manager at Accenture | Adobe Certified AEM Sites Architect | Google Project Management Certified
In todays thriving digital world, we can have multiple solutions to build the required backend system to achieve a cetain business use case. But we should always keep this point in mind that we should choose the back end solution either it is a web server/ database/ API, it should be aligning with the compliance & policies of the business, secured and performance optimized.
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Zach Berger
Full Stack Developer | Recent Boot Camp Graduate | Eager Lifelong Learner
The back-end faces challenges like scalability (serving increasing numbers of users), security (protecting against threats), and data integrity (ensuring accuracy and consistency). Crafting code that’s robust and efficient, while foreseeing potential failures, requires a mix of technical know-how and strategic foresight.
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Bhavika Patel
Co-Founder @ HK Infosoft | Technology Executive & Entrepreneur | Web Development | Project Management | Web & Mobile App Development
Back end development is the HEART of any website/software/Application. So perfect functioning of heart is very important for any project. Here I am sharing my experience Sometimes it's crucial and complex to manage the back end development. But with the proper planning, strategy and with the extra care for security, efficiency and for the performance we can manage well. While working with any part of back end make sure to follow perfect coding standard with perfect commenting in code, documentation guidelines as well easy to update and debug. This will makes overall current as well future enhancement/development easy.
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Shashwath S.
SDE @ Amazon | Polyglot | Enhancing customer experiences based on metrics generated by Alexa skills |
Backend web development involves working with server-side technologies and databases to handle data processing and logic for web applications. Key components include server technologies (Node.js, Python, Ruby, Java, PHP), database management, and the creation of APIs for frontend-backend communication. Developers must also handle authentication, security, performance optimization, and scalability considerations. Testing, logging, monitoring, and documentation are essential for maintaining and troubleshooting backend systems, and deploying code effectively is crucial for production. Collaboration, version control, and CI/CD practices further enhance the development process.
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