Web Technologies Employed by Front-End Developers

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    The following core web technologies are employed by front-end developers (consider learning them in this order):

    1. Hyper Text Markup Language (aka HTML)
    2. Cascading Style Sheets (aka CSS)
    3. Uniform Resource Locators (aka URLs)
    4. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (aka HTTP)
    5. JavaScript Programming Language (aka ECMAScript 262)
    6. Document Object Model (aka DOM)
    7. Web APIs (aka HTML5 and friends or Browser APIs)
    8. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (aka WCAG) & Accessible Rich Internet Applications (aka ARIA)

    For a comprehensive list of all web related specifications have a look at platform.html5.org.

    The nine technologies just mentioned are defined below along with a link to the relevant documentation and specification for each technology.

    Hyper Text Markup Language (aka HTML)

    Most relevant specifications / documentation:

    Cascading Style Sheets (aka CSS)

    Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language. Although most often used to change the style of web pages and user interfaces written in HTML and XHTML, the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including plain XML, SVG and XUL. Along with HTML and JavaScript, CSS is a cornerstone technology used by most websites to create visually engaging webpages, user interfaces for web applications, and user interfaces for many mobile applications.

    — Wikipedia

    Hypertext Transfer Protocol (aka HTTP)

    The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.

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    Most relevant specifications:

    Uniform Resource Locators (aka URL)

    Most relevant specifications:

    Document Object Model (aka DOM)

    The Document Object Model (DOM) is a cross-platform and language-independent convention for representing and interacting with objects in HTML, XHTML, and XML documents. The nodes of every document are organized in a tree structure, called the DOM tree. Objects in the DOM tree may be addressed and manipulated by using methods on the objects. The public interface of a DOM is specified in its application programming interface (API).

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    Most relevant specifications / documentation:

    JavaScript Programming Language (aka ECMAScript 262)

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    Most relevant specifications / documentation:

    Web APIs (aka HTML5 and friends)

    Most relevant documentation:

    JavaScript Object Notation (aka JSON)

    c It is the primary data format used for asynchronous browser/server communication (AJAJ), largely replacing XML (used by AJAX). Although originally derived from the JavaScript scripting language, JSON is a language-independent data format. Code for parsing and generating JSON data is readily available in many programming languages. The JSON format was originally specified by Douglas Crockford. It is currently described by two competing standards, RFC 7159 and ECMA-404. The ECMA standard is minimal, describing only the allowed grammar syntax, whereas the RFC also provides some semantic and security considerations. The official Internet media type for JSON is application/json. The JSON filename extension is .json.

    — Wikipedia

    Most relevant specifications:

    Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (aka WCAG) & Accessible Rich Internet Applications (aka ARIA)

    Accessibility refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e., unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers).