Web application development tools: what you need to create your first application
Have an idea for a web app, but don’t have the programming skills or the budget to hire a developer? In this article, we’ll take a look at the main tools you’ll need to create the first version of your app. You don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to learn the basics.
To get started, you need an application stack. What’s that? It is the main software that will power your application. Most people use the LAMP stack. This means Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.
Linux is the operating system and Apache is the web server. You don’t have to know much about this to create a basic web application. I just know that you will need them.
MySQL is the Database Management System (DMS). This is where you will store your user data. Don’t worry if you don’t know what this is. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to learn the basics of MySQL, at least how to create a database and a user.
PHP is the server side programming language. You use this to create the business logic for your application. You don’t have to be a programming expert, but you do need to know the basics. However, you don’t have to program everything from scratch. Instead, use a PHP application framework, such as CodeIgniter. This allows you to focus on creating the specific code for your application, instead of the low-level code that is included in every web application.
LAMP is your basic application stack, but you also need to know a few other technologies. One is HTML5/CSS3. These allow you to create your user interface. Again, you don’t have to be an expert to start building your web application. You just need to know the basics.
But you don’t want to build your user interface from scratch. There is no reason to do that. You must use a front-end framework, such as Bootstrap. This is a library of user interface elements such as forms, tables, alerts, and more. You can use this framework to make your app look professional.
You can build a web app using just these technologies, but if you want to build a better and more modern app, you should also learn JavaScript (a client-side programming language) as well as some JavaScript libraries, such as jQuery.
This will make your app look more like a desktop app, which people expect these days. Again, you don’t have to, but you can learn the basics of these technologies to really take your app to the next level.
Sure, this sounds like a lot of work. But you don’t have to become an expert in all of these technologies to create your first web application. Just spend a couple of days on each technology, and then start building your app. If you need to learn something else, you can pick it up as you go.
