Introduction to Full-Stack Web Development

3 min readNov 7, 2020

Web development has become one of the most innovative and important areas of the IT industry. This article aims to demonstrate the principles, concepts, and technologies surrounding full-stack web development.

What is a “Full-Stack” Web Developer?

A full-stack web developer is a person who can develop both client and server software, also knows how to

Program a browser (like using JavaScript, jQuery, Angular, or Vue)
Program a server (like using PHP, ASP, Python, or Node)
Program a database (like using SQL, SQLite, or MongoDB)

According to that, the client-side is called Front-end, and the server-side is called Back-end.

Front-end (client-side)

The “front-end” of a website refers to the technology involved in the visual rendering of data in the client’s web browser.

Eg :HTML,CSS, Bootstrap, JSON, XML, JQuery, Javascript ,Angular,React

There are many elements that come together to make this happen including, but not necessarily limited to:

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
DOM (Document Object Model)
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
JavaScript/JQuery (or other client-side API/Framework)
Mobile Device Design Optimization

Back-end (server-side)

The “back-end” of a website refers to the server, server-side scripts, databases, and machine configuration settings.

1.Server-Side Scripting Languages

There are many popular back end scripting languages which helps to provide dynamic content to websites. Some of them are PHP, Python, Nodejs, ExpressJs, Ruby, Perl

2.Databases & Data Storage

Another key component to the back-end is the storage and retrieval of data. There are markup style formats like XML and JSON that allow you to store and organize data in text files. Some of them are SQL, MySQL, PostgresSQL, and MongoDB.

Popular Stacks

LAMP stack: JavaScript — Linux — Apache — MySQL — PHP
LEMP stack: JavaScript — Linux — Nginx — MySQL — PHP
WAMP stack: Windows—Apache — MySQL — PHP
JAM stack: JavaScript — Apis— Markup
Django stack: JavaScript — Python — Django — MySQL
Ruby on Rails: JavaScript — Ruby — SQLite — Rails
MEAN stack: MongoDB — ExpressJs — AngularJS — Node.js
MERN stack: MongoDB — ExpressJs — ReactJS — Node.js

Advantages

The advantage of being a full stack web developer is:

You can master all the techniques involved in a development project
You can make a prototype very rapidly
You can switch between front and back end development based on requirements
You can better understand all aspects of new and upcoming technologies