What are Web Frameworks?

The purpose of web frameworks is to boost the efficiency and performance of web tasks, services and applications. There are many web frameworks that come with useful features like templates, session management and database access libraries. Web frameworks offer flexibility and save time for web developers. Without web frameworks, developers would have to handle code, design user interfaces, build databases and manually verify the stability and security of their codes.

A Technical Introduction

A web framework is a package comprised of structured files and folders containing standardized code such as JS, CSS or HTML. A web framework is used as the structural basis to build and develop a website. Almost all websites share similar and sometimes nearly identical structures and frameworks that allow developers to quickly reuse existing code. There are back-end and front-end web frameworks because some are used for the presentation layer and others are used for the logical or application logical layer.

The concept of a web framework can be applied to different web development functions. For example, the web programmer’s work that connects databases to the site content through PHP language, or the web designer’s work that presents content in HTML documents with CSS style sheets for browser viewing. When it comes to full-stack web frameworks, developers may use a combination of a storage mechanism, template engine, request dispatcher, authentication module and base HTTP application server.

Front-end Frameworks

Back-end frameworks refer to a limited number of template structures, session management solutions and library sets used to access databases. The more numerous front-end, or CSS frameworks, are typically made up of packages with files and folders of standardized codes. The standard components include typography HTML style definitions, browser incompatibility solutions, CSS classes for user interface and CSS source codes to create grids. The latter allows web developers to easily re-position website visuals.

There are two types of CSS frameworks: simple and complete. While this distinction is subjective, simple frameworks generally refer to the grid systems that offer basic frameworks of style sheets with columned systems that facilitate the distribution of design elements. Due to the influx of mobile devices accessing websites, responsive framework techniques facilitate the development of flexible and multi-functional websites.

Career Potential

Web developers are the IT professionals who create and maintain website structures. They manage the life-cycle of each website’s software development. They write code that is testable, efficient and well-designed. Web developers establish project specifications, determine operational feasibility and develop software verification quality assurance procedures. They maintain software functionality, enforce industry standards, document recurrent user issues and integrate software components into fully functional systems.

Web developers customize and deploy web development tools, metrics and reports. They generally have a Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering or web development. They must be fluent in C, C++, C#, Java and other programming languages. They must maintain knowledge of relational databases, such as SQL and ORM, as well as knowledge of standard web frameworks, such as JSF, GWT and Wicket. Web developers must have good insight in web engineering trends, the ability to maintain meticulous documentation and be familiar with mobile web development methods.

Related Resource: Interface Design in Web Design

Readers should keep in mind that a web frameworks are different from web servers, which are network software that listen to and respond to incoming HTTP requests.