The Complete Front end Developer road map for 2022

The Front end Developer is one of the raging professions of the year 2022. And why wouldn’t it be? It has good job satisfaction – and pays quite well too! In recent times, with the rise of online searching, the scope of Web Development has increased as well. So if you’re looking to start a career in the Front end, look no further: we’ve scoured the internet and added the most important requirements for the career in the roadmap below. 

Table Of Content

• Some Things You Should Focus On As A Front end Developer
• HTML/CSS
• JavaScript
• Learn the Frameworks for the Languages
• Learn about Version Control Systems
• Learn about Package Managers
• Learn about Testing
• Learn about Website Deployment
• Build a Portfolio
• Conclusion

Some Things You Should Focus On As A Front end Developer

It’s obvious that the most important thing one should focus on when considering a programming job as a novice is to learn the programming language required for the job. For Front end Development, these languages are JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. These are virtually the trademark of the occupation and that’s not going to change soon. Of course, as your learning curve resumes you’ll be introduced to crucial ideas such as frameworks, tools, and a thorough understanding of how the web works.

HTML/CSS

These two languages are the fundamentals of any kind of website development. They focus on the arrangement of the webpage and oversee the layout of colors, fonts, and overall appearance. So, in essence, these two languages give your website a personality – something that might want to keep users interested. You might’ve learned HTML in your middle school computer class to make a basic website with some page content. Now, CSS is the styling language for HTML wherein CSS tells the browser how to format the content that HTML provides. Some things you would be introduced to in CSS are flexbox, positioning, grid, model, and responsive design.

JavaScript

For a front end developer JavaScript adds interactivity and functionality to a website. It’s an object-oriented language that makes the website faster, more vibrant, and more appealing. It can do things like adding an interactive menu bar, zooming in or out of an image, or displaying a timer/countdown on a website. 

When learning concepts about JavaScript, you’ll be coming across things such as scope, closure, fetching APIs, and shadow DOM. While this may seem rattling at first, it’s not as complicated as you think! One of the reasons why JavaScript is so easy to learn in the first place is its easy concepts and how fun programming with it is! 

If we use the analogy of body parts using these programming languages, HTML would be the skeleton and the organs of the body, while CSS controls the overall appeal and personality, and JavaScript covers the little but crucial biochemical processes the body needs.

Learn the Frameworks for the Languages

Utilizing frameworks is the next important step for a front-end developer. Web frameworks are packages of folders and files that have standardized code, which is used as templates for web development. There’s an extensive variety of frameworks that you can choose from, so it might take some time to find the framework that perfectly fits your preferences. 

CSS Frameworks help by upholding consistency within the website in terms of style. They have CSS stylesheets that save development time and are made to be accessible, aesthetically pleasing, and contain built-in classes for important web elements such as sidebars or headers. 

Some popular CSS Frameworks are Bootstrap, Bulma, and Semantic UI.

Some popular JavaScript frameworks are Vue.JS, React, and Angular. These are convenient pre-written lines of code that offer complexity to JavaScript programs. Though you can write these with normal JavaScript, these save time and offer better functionality. 

Learn about Version Control Systems

Version Control Systems are basically the tracker and managers of the progress that you make while programming, especially if you’re working on a large project or collaborating with other developers. It’s awfully convenient because, due to the fact that it thoroughly tracks every line of code, you can easily revert to the previous version of the code if you need to, or track who programmed what code. Therefore, Version Control Systems essentially increase productivity and reduce the chances of a conflict. 

Some of the most popular Version Control Sytems are GitHub and AWS Beanstalk.

Learn about Package Managers

A Package Manager is a software that automatizes the operations of installation, configuring, updating, and deleting programs from a computer in a consistent manner, and also publishes your own packages. These make coding more efficient as you can reuse code made by other programmers by taking them from a central repository. It’s important to acquire the skills to use these as they may a large role in programming.

Popular Package Managers include Yarn, NPM, and Bower.

Learn about Testing

Testing is the phase where the functionality, usability, and GUI (Graphical User Interface) of the website are sampled by writing test cases. This is done to ensure that the program functions as expected. Of course, there are several “levels” to testing as well, like End-to-End testing or Unit testing, so there’s something you should spend some time exploring while on this step. 

Some tools available for testing are Jasmine, Cypress, and Mocha. 

Learn about Website Deployment

So you’ve spent a considerable amount of time developing the best website you can make and now you want people to see your amazing work of art! This is where Website Deployment comes in. To be able to deploy a website, you’ll need to learn hosting tools. 

Some hosting tools you should look into are GitHub Pages, Firebase, and Heroku. Some Cloud Providers also offer hosting tools, like Microsoft Azure. 

Build a Portfolio

The next and final step of becoming an official Front-end Programmer is a portfolio to show to potential clients! It’s to be noted that Frontend Programming is a very competitive field, so as a front end developer you’d need to make a portfolio that keeps clients hooked! A portfolio of a Front end Developer is a website that consists of samples of work, testimonials, experiences, skills, and so forth. This would increase your visibility and credibility within the industry. 

Conclusion

Now you’re on your way to becoming a (hopefully) successful Front end Developer! Be mindful that this roadmap doesn’t consist of fixed rules that you should follow, but merely act as guidelines. There are so many other things you would learn as a developer – such as web security, micro-frontend, or preprocessors – all of which would lead you to become a web programming wiz! 

In the end, the actual work is done by you, so everything should be self-paced and done according to what’s most ideal for you. Programming of any kind requires lots of practice and research, as there are continuous advancements in the field that would prove to be very useful. 

Also, learn about the road map for Back end developers.