Web development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). Web development can range from developing the simplest static single page of plain text to the most complex web-based internet applications, electronic businesses, and social network services. A more comprehensive list of tasks to which web development commonly refers may include web design, web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, web server, and network security configuration, and e-commerce development. Among web professionals, “web development” usually refers to the main non-design aspects of building web sites: writing markup and coding.

Practical web development

Basic

In practice, many web developers will have basic interdisciplinary skills/roles, including:

• Graphic design / web design
• Information architecture and copywriting/copyediting with web usability, accessibility and search engine optimization in mind

The above list is a simple website development hierarchy and can be extended to include all client-side and server-side aspects. It is still important to remember that web development is generally split up into client-side coding, covering aspects such as the layout and design, and server-side coding, which covers the website’s functionality and back-end systems.

Advanced

Some more advanced web developers will also have these interdisciplinary skills/roles:

• GUI (Graphic User Interface) design
• Audio, Video and Animation processing and encoding (for web usage)
• Flash Capabilities (animation, audio, video, scripting)
• Web content management system Deployment and/or Content management infrastructure design, development and integration
• Web applications development, integration, and deployment
• Web server stress testing (how much traffic can a web server running a specific application endure before collapsing)
• Web site security analysis & testing
• Web site code optimization (which is an important aspect of search engine optimization)
• Project management, QA and other aspects common to IT development
• Advanced customized admin panel (For end-users)
• Database integration with web applications

Security considerations

Web development takes into account many security considerations, such as data entry error checking through forms, filtering output, and encryption.[2] Malicious practices such as SQL injection can be executed by users with ill intent yet with only primitive knowledge of web development as a whole. Scripts can be used to exploit websites by granting unauthorized access to malicious users that try to collect information such as email addresses, passwords and protected content like credit card numbers.

Some of this is dependent on the server environment (most commonly Apache or Microsoft IIS) on which the scripting language, such as PHP, Ruby, Python, Perl or ASP is running, and therefore is not necessarily down to the web developer themselves to maintain. However, stringent testing of web applications before public release is encouraged to prevent such exploits from occurring. If some contact form is provided on a website it should include a captcha field in it which prevents computer programs from automatically filling forms and also mail spamming.