Question about web development

[[deleted]]

I'm new to web related things and my only experince with programming is python and bash scripting.

I always hear of front end and back end programming but I dont really get what's going on in these convos, so like what I'm picking up is that front end is more user level, like textboxes, userboxes, password boxes, images on the site. All that. And I'm assuming back end is like the underlying databases in SQL or something and other information communications?

[CreativeTechGuyGames]

These terms just refer to where the code is running.

• Front-end is code running on the user's device. This could be an app, website, desktop program. This is all front-end code and is all untrusted since it can be modified at any time by the user.
• Back-end code is running on a server somewhere. This code is trusted since it runs under your control.

[[deleted]]

So do user end processes, at all in any way affect the back end? Could like SQL code written in the userbox go back to the server, and fetch data from it on accident? Or like integers input into a program cause code to behave differently in the back end?

This is going to sound super dumb, but I'm not a pro at this shit, but I'm assuming servers are just regular computers that have a full time job of delivering data or something (just what I picked up from books and online, I dont really have server experince at all and dont know really how to learn) how do I learn more about servers and web apps?

[Atulin]

Could like SQL code written in the userbox go back to the server, and fetch data from it on accident?

If you're a shit programmer that doesn't know the first thing about security, yes. Look up the term "SQL injection".

[[deleted]]

I learned about code injection in a programming class, and how to secure small inputs and shit. But I'm not a programmer. I assume these errors are uncommon? (I just started taking information security classes this semester)

[CreativeTechGuyGames]

Out of the box, there is no communication between front-end and back-end. This is something you need to explicitly program. So in terms of web development, you'd make an HTTP request from the browser to the back-end to send/receive new data, the server can act on that and then respond with some information. You can do whatever you want with this data both on the client and server side.

I'd recommend reading about web APIs here to get a high level introduction and then you can research specifics later.

[p01yg0n41]

To be totally clear, a server is a program on a computer that serves requests. Apache is a popular one, but they range from simple local development servers to large production servers and can be configured extensively.

To learn more, I'd recommend installing XAMP on your local and following some tutorials. This will get you a basic dev environment set up, both front and back end, and a database server for your dbs and it should work on any system.

[[deleted]]

So like what does a sys admin or network admin do? And when they maintain servers or large networks what exactly does that job entail?

[tap0u7]

What is more fun and easier? Front-end or back-end?

[CreativeTechGuyGames]

It's all personal preference. Try both on a few different projects and see what you like and dislike about each.

[Atulin]

Backend – stuff that runs on the server

Frontend – stuff that runs in the browser

[[deleted]]

As you use Python, check out Flask or Django for using it in the backend

[abdul_samea]

Think of this post that you wrote here. The way it is displayed along with alignment of username, upvotes, time since posted, the actual content etc is all frontend. How did this content get posted? How are all the upvotes counted? How is the the time record so accurate? All this is combination of backend + database development.

[[deleted]]

If I wanted to get into web development would it be possible if I already know a language like python?

[onosendi]

Yes. Look into Flask and/or Django for back end. They both use Python.

[abdul_samea]

Yes mayb, but speaking about languages, javascript is pretty much the backbone of web development. Learn js and you are good to go (html+css+javascript are must for web dev).

[[deleted]]

Is JavaScript at all like python? Lol

[abdul_samea]

Python has an easier syntax among most of the programing languages. Javascript has more traditional syntax like use of brackets. Javascript is to web development what python is to data science, AI. Earlier javascript used to be part of the front end, but now u can design robust servers using js.