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While many popular web sites add interactivity with JavaScript and use backend languages like PHP, Python, and Ruby to store and retrieve data from a database, HTML and CSS are fundamental building blocks that make up much of what you see in the browser.
Treehouse Blog: I Don't Speak Your Language: Frontend vs. Backend
HTML and CSS are a fundamental
part of all websites.
0:00
But for many websites like Amazon,
Facebook, and Twitter, HTML and CSS
0:04
are just two of many other technologies
they use to provide their services.
0:08
You may have heard of JavaScript, PHP,
Java, Python, MySQL or Ruby on Rails.
0:13
These are just a few of the technologies
that are used to create today's
0:19
complex websites.
0:22
Web Development is often split into
two areas, front end development and
0:24
back end development.
0:28
Front end developers use HTML, CSS and
JavaScript to build what the client sees.
0:30
The stuff that runs on the browser.
0:34
Backend developers are responsible for
what runs on the server.
0:38
They use languages like Python, Ruby, and
0:42
Java to work with databases to save,
change, and retrieve data.
0:44
As an example, JavaScript runs in the
browser to add interactivity to a page.
0:49
Like if you wanted to have a window pop
up each time your user clicks a button or
0:54
if you wanted to display a group
of images with the slide show.
0:58
You'd use HTML and CSS to build and
style the slide show and JavaScript
1:01
to program the slide show images, so
that they slide in and out of view.
1:07
Or think about a log in page for
1:11
website like Facebook, you'd use HTML to
create input field and submit button.
1:12
And use CSS to control what the button and
the input fields look like.
1:18
But when a user presses enter or
click submit, you might use JavaScript
1:22
to make sure the information they
submitted is formatted correctly.
1:26
That their email address contains
an @ symbol, for example.
1:29
You also might use JavaScript
to throw up an error or
1:33
a success message when
the form is submitted.
1:35
And then you might need a backend
language like PHP, Python, or
1:38
Ruby to save the username or email address
to a database to retrieve it later.
1:41
That's how HTML and CSS fit into
the larger field of web development.
1:47
As we've seen, HTML and
CSS are the foundation of websites and
1:52
web applications.
1:56
If it's on the web, it uses HTML and
CSS in some capacity, which is why
1:57
learning the basics is an excellent way to
start your journey learning how to code.
2:02
In the next part of this course,
2:07
we're going to go into a little more
detail about how web pages are structured
2:08
and learn all about the most common and
useful HTML tags.
2:12
I'll see you there.
2:15
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