Web development refers to building web applications and deploying on the web. Web development requires use of scripting languages both at the server end and client end. In the present scenario most of the web applications are developed dynamically; it means interactive web applications in the client side as well as server side. Examples of web applications are social networking sites like Facebook or e-Commerce sites like Amazon.
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For developing web applications there is a need of programming or scripting languages. The selection of languages is on the basis of client’s specific requirements, skill and experience of the programmer of the particular language of either server or client side, The server side and client side languages differ.
Client-side Languages (Programming or Scripting)
Client-side programming involves writing program (code) that is interpreted by a browser such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome or by any other web clients such as cell phone. The most common languages and technologies used in client-side programming are HTML, Javascript, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
HTML
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is the language behind most of the web pages. The language is made of elements that describe the structure and format of the content on a web page. It is a scripting language.
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used in HTML pages to separate formatting and layout from content. Rules defining color, size, positioning, and other display aspects of elements are defined in the HTML page or linked CSS pages. It has a better design features and more effective in design.
JavaScript
JavaScript is used to make HTML pages more dynamic and interactive. It can be used to validate forms, pop up new windows, and create dynamic effects such as drop-down menus and image rollovers. The word “JavaScript” is a proprietary name for Netscape’s version of ECMAScriot, Microsoft’s version of this language is called JScript.
Dynamic HTML
DYnamic HTML is not a language but rather refers to code that uses JavaScript to manipulate CSS properties on the fly.
Ajax
The term Ajax was originally a pseudo-acronym for “Asynchronous JavaScript and XML” but is now used much more broadly to cover all methods of communicating with a server using JavaScript.
The main purpose of Ajax is to provide a simple and standard means for a web page to communicate with the server without a complete page refresh.
jQuery
It is not a programming language, per se, but is a javascript library, but is an indispensable part of client-side scripting. The claim of the developers is that jQuery runs exactly same across all the browsers.
This is the technology’s greatest advantage. Jquery is javascript toolkit that simplifies writing code and enables rapid web development.
Microsoft Silverlight
Silverlight is a powerful development tools for creating engaging, interactive user experiences for web and mobile applications. Silverlight is a free plugin powered by the..NET framework and compatible with multiple browsers devices and operating systems bringing a new level of interactivity with the web works.
Server-Side Languages (Programming or Scripting)
Server side programming involves writing program code that connects web pages with databases XML pages email servers, file systems and other system and software accessible from the web server. The most common server side languages are ColdFusion, Java enterprise Edition, ASP.NET, PHP and Node.js.
ColdFusion
ColdFusion, created by Allaire (now owned by Adobe), is arguably the simplest of all server-side languages. It is tag-based, which makes it look a lot like HTML and easier for client-side programmers to understand than some of other choices, Because of the relative ease with which it is written ColdFusion is sometimes assumed not to be so powerful. In fact, ColdFusion is compiled to Java byte code, which means the page runs quickly. Web developers can accomplish virtually any required task using the ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML). However, as ColdFusion can easily be integrated with Java applications, developers have the choice of using Java to extend ColdFusion applications.
Java EE
Java EE is used in large web projects. With its power and robustness comes a steep learning curve. Java EE is defined by its specifications and API. A Java application server (JavaAS) manages servlets Java server pages (JSP), web services and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB). Java EE also includes a number of other APIs commonly linked to enterprise application development. JDBC, JPA, e-mail, JMS, and XML are some examples. But that’s only part of the picture. There are a number of frameworks built on some of these technologies that streamlines the development process further. Hibernate offers most of the object / relational mapping (ORM) without an EJB Container. For this reason it’s called lightweight ORM technology. JavaServer Faces, Struts, and Spring-MVC build on JSP to do away with scriptlets completely, relying on HTML style tags and associated JavaBeans.
ASP.NET
Microsoft’s ASP.NET is not a language, but a framework for writing websites and software. Like ColdFusion and JSP (and unlike traditional ASP) ASP.NET pages are precompiled, so they run faster than traditional ASP pages do. ASP.NET pages can be written in many languages, but the most popular are C# (pronounced C-sharp) and Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET).
Python
Like Perl, Python is open source and a multi-paradigm programming language. It has been a popular programming language for a long time; it runs on commonly used web servers such as Apache.
PHP
Like Python, PHP is also open source. It has rapidly become a popular alternative to the proprietary languages such as ColdFusion and ASP.NET. PHP is lightweight, relatively simple to learn, and runs on web servers such as Apache.
Node.js
Node.js is a JavaScript framework that operates server machines. Therefore, the server side code is contained in scripts as opposed to compiled programs. Although Node.js can be run on a web server like Apache, HTTP servers can be written using Node.js.
CGI Script
A CGI Script is any program that runs on a web server. CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface. It defines a standard way in which information may be passed to and from the browser and server.
Ruby
Ruby is a powerful scripting language. Scripts can be used to automate tasks such as creating and searching files and managing and organizing subdirectories. Companies like Github, CHef and Puppet use Ruby for scripting. Devops teams use scripting to combine development and operations.
Both Client and Server side languages
Some of the language that is applicable in both server and client side very effectively. The language which easily and effectively communicates between the server and client. Some examples are given below:
Google Web Toolkit
Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is a development toolkit for building and optimizing complex browser-based applications. GWT is used by many products at Google, including Google AdWords and Orkut. GWT is an open source completely free and used by thousands of the developers around the world and it is licensed under the Apache Licence version 2.0.
Dart
Dart is a client-optimized programming language for apps and multiple platforms. It is developed by Google and is used to build mobile, desktop, server and web applications. Dart is an object-oriented, class-based, garbage-collected language with C-style syntax.
Opa
Opa is an open-source programming language for developing scalable web application. Opa subsequently compiled to Node.js on the server together with JavaScript on the client, with the compiler automating any communication between the two.
Tersus
The Tersus Visual Programming Platform is 100% visual, and requires no coding. It dramatically reduces the effort, costs and time required for creating and maintaining enterprise web applications, which are developed by simply drawing visual diagrams instead of writing code.
So this was a basic introduction about client side and server side languages. Hope it helps you in understanding basic concepts about them.
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