Want to become a front-end developer? Do you know what tools, technologies and programming languages will be best for it? Today, we will help you out with all the questions you might have for building a career as a front-end developer. Please note that this roadmap is merely here to help you identify what you should learn next and understand the need for certain tools and frameworks.
Front-end development, or client-side development, involves building the User Interface (UI) of a website or a web application, that determines how every part of a website will look and how it will work. The UI includes the visual part of the application and the user interactions. Whatever you see when you visit a website - the different types of buttons and other UI components, media, texts, forms, animations, etc. are all developed as a part of the front-end.
To be a successful front-end developer, you must have a strong understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You should also be familiar with frameworks such as React or Angular and libraries such as jQuery.
1. HTML- HyperText Markup Language
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is used to form the “skeleton”, or the base, of any website. It lays out a website’s general structure and content. The elements that you see on the screen - buttons, images, sliders, date pickers, texts, lists, etc. are all added using HTML.
HTML can also be used to add minimal styles to these elements like colors and fonts. However, it does not compare to CSS when it comes to flexibility. CSS is more powerful when it comes to styling and it is the standard and recommended way to style your website.
2. CSS- Cascading Style Sheets
CSS is a styling language for HTML. While HTML informs the browser about content, CSS describes the way to format that content. Some of the basics of CSS you will come across are CSS positioning, grid, box model, flexbox, and responsive design.
You can add styles to your web pages like colors, fonts, layouts, and animations. With CSS, you can also make responsive websites that can change layout and styles according to the device resolution and orientation so that users have a seamless experience while using your website on devices of any size. CSS allows you to style multiple elements at once. It uses tag, class, and id selectors to target HTML elements that we want to style.
3. JavaScript
JavaScript improves the interactivity of your website. You can also create dynamic UI elements using JavaScript. JavaScript adds functionality to your website. With the help of JavaScript, your website can respond to user activities on the page.
JS is a lightweight and rendered programming and scripting language, developed for network-centric applications. It’s used in both front-end and back-end development. It helps in creating appealing, fast and dynamic websites. While using JS, you can implement elements like interactive animations and maps. A few basics of JavaScript you need to learn are its syntax, DOM manipulation, the concept of closure, scope, async-await, hoisting, shadow DOM, event bubbling & prototype and fetching APIs.
4. TypeScript
TypeScript is a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript. That means that any valid JavaScript code is also valid TypeScript code. But TypeScript adds some extra features that make it more powerful than JavaScript. For example, TypeScript supports classes and modules, which helps to organize code better. And because TypeScript is statically typed, it can catch errors at compile time instead of runtime.
It is purely object-oriented and offers optional static typing, interfaces, and classes that are later compiled into JavaScript for execution. TypeScript allows IDEs to provide a richer environment for identifying common errors while writing the code.
5. Angular
Angular is a popular front-end framework for web development. The framework is backed by Google, which means it is constantly updated with the latest web technologies. This makes Angular a good choice for any modern web developer.
Today, JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. Millions of developers use it to build interactive web applications. To be a web developer, you need to learn JavaScript.
6. React
React is a popular JavaScript library for developing web applications. Like Angular, React allows you to create reusable components and manage the state of your application. React is typically used with a backend framework such as Node.js or Express.
Angular and React are both popular libraries for developing web applications. They both allow you to create dynamic and responsive user interfaces. Angular is a full-fledged framework, while React is a library. This means that Angular comes with more built-in features and functionality than React. However, React is generally easier to learn and use than Angular.
7. Vue.JS
The Vue.JS framework has gained popularity in the past year among web developers. This JavaScript framework is easy to learn and use and has a small footprint compared to other frameworks like AngularJS. Additionally, Vue.JS is capable of two-way data binding and can be used for front-end and back-end development. More people are recommending Vue.JS as an excellent option for web development projects with its growing popularity.
8. State Management Libraries
Along with any JavaScript Framework, it is recommended to learn State Management Libraries like Redux, VueX, NgRX, XState, etc. depending on which framework you choose to learn. Certain state management libraries can only be used with specific frameworks - for example, NgRX is a Redux based library that is specifically made for Angular applications.
9. Package Managers
A Package Manager is a tool that allows you to install, configure, update and manage software packages, product dependencies and also to publish your own packages. With the use of Package Managers, the development process is faster and easier as you can reuse code libraries created by other developers that are published to a central repository. NPM and Yarn are two popular package managers. You should learn the basic commands of any of the Package Managers.
10. Version Control System
A Version Control System is useful if you are working on a large project or need to collaborate with other developers. It is a software that allows you to manage and track changes to the source code and also revert to a previous version of the code, instead of manually reverting the changes. It enhances the development speed and experience as you spend less time managing the code, reduces possibilities of code conflicts, and helps to recover your code in case you want to revert to a previous version. Git is one of the most popular and widely used version control systems.
In the End, There are many skills that you will need to learn. This roadmap provides a great starting point, but remember that learning is a never-ending process. Stay motivated and always be willing to learn new things, and you’ll be well on your way to a successful front-end developer career.
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