Full Stack Web Development: What It Is and How it Works?
Table of Contents
- jaro education
- 28, July 2024
- 6:00 pm
Introduction
In recent years, full stack web development has gained popularity in the tech industry. It asks candidates to possess the know-how of the entire app development process, including front-end and back-end. Additionally, they need strong analytical and problem-solving skills along with an awareness of the latest web development trends to stay competitive.
So, in this blog, you will learn what full stack web development is and what types of skills are required to build a career in this domain.Â
Understanding Full Stack Web Development
Full stack web development is all about developing both the front-end and back-end of apps from a single source. So, a single developer or a team of developers will be responsible for the job, not two separate teams working on both parts.
The front-end refers to that part of an application through which users directly interact and take action, such as the user interface (UI). To build this part, developers need UI/UX designing skills. The front-end is often called client side. In contrast, the back-end is all about a system’s database, server, and logical part, which works behind the front-end part. Users have no scope to interact directly with the back-end part of an app. This back-end part is often called the server side. For this part, developers need coding, database management, testing, and allied skills.Â
So, full stack developers need all the knowledge of UI development, coding, database management, testing, and other essential skills. In this way, they can build an entire application and ensure its feasibility cohesively to handle the full stack web development workflows.
Advantages of Full Stack Development
- Full stack web developers are well known for their development speed. They can efficiently handle both front-end and back-end development simultaneously. They conduct their tasks without any dependency on separate front-end or back-end developers, so they swiftly create a product without any time delay.
- Hiring full stack developers is a cost-effective solution for organisations. As they know about handling both the front-end and back-end systems, they can work independently and build an entire project. So, instead of hiring front-end and back-end developers, they prefer full stack developers. Thus, organisations can run with their budget estimation by hiring them.
- Full stack web development requires developers to be updated with advanced technologies. So, they are well-versed in responsive web design, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and blockchain technologies. Thus, they can integrate new features in the existing version of software and update it well. Also, they can design the structure of mobile apps. They even collaborate and help the UI/UX team.
Front-end Development Technologies
Here are the leading front-end development technologies that you must know about-
HTML 5
HTML 5 stands for Hypertext Markup Language 5, which is the most popular front-end development technology used in full stack web development. With the help of this technology, you can design the structure and layout of web pages, including forms, images, multimedia elements, texts, and more. Also, it has advanced features like semantic elements, geolocation API and responsive web design.
React.js
This JavaScript library is well-known for developing user interfaces with complex and interactive UI components. The component-based architecture and DOM (document object model) make this technology more powerful. Also, it is useful for developing single-page server-side apps.
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets or CSS is a popular Java front-end technology. It simplifies the styling process of web applications with pre-built CSS components. Side by side, it enables a responsive grid system for responsive web design and faster prototyping. Additionally, its utility-first approach ensures visually appealing web applications.Â
Flutter
Flutter is a popular UI framework used for cross-platform app development services. Developed by Google, it helps developers build native apps with a singular codebase. The widgets and front-end tools of Flutter help you to design highly interactive UI elements. Additionally, it allows you to develop dynamic apps with pre-built templates.
Angular.js
It is another front-end development technology developed by Google. It’s suitable for web application development. It incorporates the MVC or model-view-controller architecture approach, which enables advanced features such as two-way data binding, dependency injection, and more. This framework’s robust command-line interface also helps to develop large-scale web apps.Â
Back-end Development Technologies
Here are the leading back-end development technologies that you should know of-
Python
Python is an industry-leading, object-oriented, multiple-purpose programming language that is widely used in web development, AI, ML, and scientific research. It offers a plethora of frameworks and libraries like NumPy and Pandas, which eliminate the necessity of building functionalities from scratch. This language is platform-independent, which means you can run it on different operating systems (OS).
Java
Java is a highly demanding, popular object-oriented programming language for full stack web development that helps to overcome the difficulties of C++ programming language. Tech giants like Google, Amazon, Netflix, and others use this language for back-end development. The Java bytecodes help developers build highly secure systems and apps. This language enables dynamic memory allocation and reduces memory wastage.
Ruby
Ruby is a flexible and popular programming language that is used in full stack web development, DevOps, data processing, scripting, static site generation, and more. It includes an ORM library that supports easy interaction with databases. It comes with multithreading, which allows you to handle multiple programs simultaneously without decelerating your system.
C#
Developed by Microsoft, this object-oriented programming language helps you to create complex programs. It’s widely used for desktop applications, game creation, web development, business software, and mobile app development. It has robust features like type safety, LINQ (Language-Integrated Query), memory management, generics, and more. These features make it more capable of ensuring the readability and performance of the applications.Â
PHP
It’s a server-side programming language that provides the best support for developing dynamic web applications. Most interestingly, this language helps develop cybersecurity applications to secure data sharing between users and servers. It supports generating outputs in different formats like simple text files, PDFs, and Flash. Also, it enables you to send cookies to identify visitors’ returns, collect visitors’ information, and more.Â
  *conkerworld.com
Frameworks for Full Stack Web Development
Here is a list of full stack web development frameworks that can be of great help –
NodeJS
NodeJS is an open-source, full stack web development framework. It is a cross-platform runtime JavaScript engine that provides a runtime environment for executing JavaScript codes. Generally, it is used to create API and support the front-end technology of the web and mobile apps that run on browsers. This framework has excellent support for agile methodologies in software development and software prototyping.
Django
Django framework is well known for its production-grade back-end support capability for mobile and web apps developed in Python. Its pre-defined and inbuilt features reduce the effort of writing code from scratch. It offers an admin panel to manage and monitor all the activities of the already-developed applications. Moreover, it follows the Model View Template Architecture strategy, which offers the views of Python template texts. These texts help build an HTML structure for users. Â
Spring Boot
Spring Boot is a Java framework that is used in full stack web development to provide back-end web services for server-side or client-side tech applications. It enables creating, configuring, and running stand-alone Spring-based web apps that are on the production level. This framework helps developers to build fast, auto-configured, and robust microservices, which further allow them to build web services. Additionally, Spring Boot helps to build enterprise-level apps.
GraphQL
Developed by Meta, this query language for API acts as an intermediary between the back-end services and the front-end client. It supports data mutation, such as adding, modifying, and deleting data. It can receive and send HTTP requests and responses well. So, it helps front-end developers send different requests to various services for filling UI with data.Â
Flask
Flask is a Python-written, micro web framework that is suitable for faster website development. It has extended extension support, which is suitable for form validation or adding data to the database. Also, this framework supports unit testing, restful request dispatching, and fast debugging.Â
Tech Stacks for Full Stack Web Development
Here are the important tech stacks for full stack web development –
MERN
MERN is a popular stack for full stack web development which is composed of React, Node.js, Expres.js, and MongoDB. Its major feature is the React library. This library is well known for its outstanding capability of simplifying and managing UI and improving overall site performance. Apart from React integration, it has features like coding on servers and browsers simultaneously.Â
MEAN
MEAN stack uses technologies like Angular, MongoDB, Node.js, and Express.js to simplify the development and testing tasks. Amongst these, Angular provides all-in-one solutions that help developers overcome challenges during single-page application building for full stack web development. Another benefit of this stack is you don’t need to learn multiple programming languages to use it. Only you need to work with JavaScript.
LAMP
LAMP stack is built with Apache, Linux, PHP, and MySQL. It’s an open-source full stack web development stack that is popular for its flexibility and simplicity. Over the years, WordPress and Shopify have used this stack. It’s popular amongst web developers because of its customisable and cost-effective solutions. As a result, it improves the performance of apps and websites.
PERN
PERN has the same composition as the MERN stack. However, the major difference is that the PERN stack uses PostgreSQL instead of MongoDB. PostgreSQL is SQL-based and enterprise-level and has strict rules of ACID compliance and data integrity, which ensure data validity. Additionally, this database relies on monolithic architecture to provide reliable storage and ensure the elements are working systematically. Thus, developers prefer PostgreSQL over MongoDB. That is the reason for the popularity of the PERN stack.
Serverless Stack
The major difference between serverless stack and other stacks is that serverless stack depends on cloud infrastructure instead of the local server. This cloud platform reduces the burden of infrastructure management because it maintains the server and updates the security by itself. So, developers can write and execute codes through this stack without concern or infrastructure.Â
Workflow for Full Stack Development
The full stack web development comprises these 5 stages –Â
Planning and designing phase
For full stack web development, it is crucial to know the requirements and understand the scope of the project. Developers also need to collaborate and coordinate with stakeholders to identify the desired technical specifications and features.Â
Front-end development
After the planning and designing phase, front-end development starts. In this stage, developers configure their project structure and layout. So, they need to choose the right technologies, such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS frameworks. Additionally, frameworks like Angular, React, and others help them develop UI while ensuring accessibility and responsiveness.Â
Back-end development
The next step of full stack web development is back-end development. In this stage, developers build and integrate the back-end part of the project. For this, they need to work with server-side logic, handle data management tasks, and create RESTful APIs. So, they choose a server-side language like Python and Ruby. They also design database schemas with the help of DB management systems like MySQL and PostgreSQL. They perform these tasks to ensure the security and flexibility of the back-end system.
Integration and testing
In this stage, full stack developers connect the front-end and back-end components. That means they integrate the components to establish communication between them. It ensures smooth data flow and feasibility between the client side and the server side.Â
Then, they plan and execute testing. They conduct unit, integration, and end-to-end testing to achieve the desired functionality and behaviour of the entire application.
Deployment and maintenance
After completing the development and testing phase, developers start the application deployment. So, they set the application for continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) to ensure the production of the application.
After the deployment, they also monitor the performance of the app and identify if there is any issue. Side by side, they conduct maintenance of the application to ensure a smooth experience for users.
Career Path of a Full Stack Developer
- First, you need to earn a four-year bachelor’s degree in any of these popular disciplines – computer science, information technology (IT), computer engineering, or other related fields.
- Then, apply for an internship in full stack web development. It will help you extend the networking opportunity and lead you towards future job offers.Â
- Side by side, you have to continue your self-study of new programming languages. It will assist you to land an opportunity to work on development. Additionally, you can take a certification course if you want to.
- Next, you can work on volunteer projects. This is a good option for gaining experience as a fresher.
- Then, apply for an entry-level position. Entry-level full stack developers are responsible for building front- and back-end structures. They also coordinate with other professionals to design and test codes.
- After that, you will move to a senior full-stack developer role. These roles require expertise in managing organisational infrastructure and a solid understanding of architectural design and database management.
- After spending some years in this role, you will move to a managerial role. This role is all about handling management-level tasks. Side by side, you have to spend time on coding and problem-solving.
Final Thoughts
Full stack developers need versatile skill sets and the ability to work with different technologies. Based on the requirements, they need to choose the right framework for application development. Also, the workflow of full stack development goes through several steps.Â
So, to succeed as a full stack developer, you should learn full stack web development from leading universities. One of such prestigious programmes is the Executive Programme in Full Stack Web Development by IITM Pravartak Technology Innovation Hub of IIT Madras. To learn more about the course, contact the admission experts of Jaro Education.
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