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Tushar Saraf
7,101 PointsSince most people are using CMS, why are we still focusing so much on front-end coding?
Most people are using Wordpress, Joomla etc to build their website. So, is front-end development still worth it?
3 Answers
Craig Watson
27,930 PointsHi Tushar,
This is a HUGE!!! yes.
WordPress and Joomla might "power" the websites but you still have to see the content. Content is delivered to the front end for the user to see and interact with, this is a massive part of the websites structure.
Take WordPress as an example. A group of front-end developers created all the in things you see in the WP admin. On top of this for every theme you see, front-end code was needed to bring them to life.
You also have something very important to consider, your clients needs. If they don't need to edit content all the time or add a blog post every week, the better solution would be to build a "static" site. They are faster( when built right ), require less maintenance and cheaper to host to name a few things.
Anyway I am rambling lol, don't jump past front end dev, without it the web would be pretty damn ugly to look at and un accessible.
Hope this helps :)
Craig
Benjamin Larson
34,055 PointsIt's true that a large percentage of the internet is built on a CMS like Wordpress or Joomla, but there's a couple things to consider. While there are a large percentage of them in existence, those websites are not likely making up as significant a portion of internet traffic. I would guess that most of the major websites you visit are not built on those platforms. They tend to be best for personal sites and small-businesses.
These sites have a time and place but they lack full control over both front-end and back-end customization. In order to make a WP site look professional (and not look like every other WP site) requires someone to create a custom theme. Doing so effectively necessitates understanding the underlying front-end principles and technologies. It could be argued that you could customize WP to do any such thing that could be accomplished without it, but any large amount of customizing is still going to require understanding the various web technologies, in addition to the architecture of how WP is built.
Tushar Saraf
7,101 PointsThanks a lot, guys for answering my question :)
Jonathan Hamada
4,810 PointsJonathan Hamada
4,810 PointsI agree Craig, I used wordpress blogs to post my articles for years. It;s great for small micro niche blogs. But eventually when you start growing, you'll want to customize your site. That's why I signed up for treehouse. So get an understanding of the basics.