A front-end developer architects and develops websites and web applications using web technologies (i.e., HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), which typically runs on the Open Web Platform or acts as compilation input for non-web platform environments (i.e., React Native).
A person enters into the field of front-end development by learning to build a website or web application which relies on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and commonly runs in a web browser but can also run in a headless browser, WebView, or as compilation input for a native runtime environment. These four run times scenarios are explained below.
Web Browsers (most common)
A web browser is software used to retrieve, present, and traverse information on the WWW. Typically, browsers run on a desktop or laptop computer, tablet, or phone, but as of late a browser can be found on just about anything (i.e, on a fridge, in cars, etc.).
The most common web browsers are (shown in order of most used first):
- Chrome
- Safari
- Internet Explorer (Note: not Edge, referring to IE 9 to IE 11)
- Firefox
- Edge
Headless Browsers
Headless browsers are a web browser without a graphical user interface that can be controlled from a command line interface programmatically for the purpose of web page automation (e.g., functional testing, scraping, unit testing, etc.). Think of headless browsers as a browser that you can run programmatically from the command line that can retrieve and traverse web page code.
The most common headless browsers are:
- Headless Chromium
- Zombie
- slimerjs
- puppeteer
Webviews
Webviews are used by a native OS, in a native application, to run web pages. Think of a webview like an iframe or a single tab from a web browser that is embedded in a native application running on a device (e.g., iOS, android, windows).
The most common solutions for webview development are:
- Cordova (typically for native phone/tablet apps)
- NW.js (typically used for desktop apps)
- Electron (typically used for desktop apps)
