While not required to build a website, using a CMS makes things easier.
See why thousands of customers use CMS Hub to build an optimized website that integrates with their HubSpot CRM data and full marketing suite. (Note: CMSs aren’t the same as site builders, like Squarespace or Wix.)
What is a CMS?Ī content management system (CMS) is a web application or a series of programs used to create and manage web content. That’s because browsers - at the front-end - only understand HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but a server - at the back-end - can be configured to understand pretty much any language.
There are more back-end coding languages than front-end languages. It’s the digital infrastructure, and to non-developers, it looks like a bunch of numbers, letters, and symbols. What does back-end mean?īack-end (or server-side) is the side that you don’t see when you use the Internet. Web developers who work on front-end coding work on client-side development.
When website information is transferred from a server to a browser, front-end coding languages allow the website to function without having to continually “communicate” with the Internet.įront-end code allows users to interact with a website and play videos, expand or minimize images, highlight text, and more.
What does front-end mean?įront-end (or client-side) is the side of a website or software that you see and interact with as an Internet user. All languages fall into one of two categories: front-end and back-end. They also include special commands, abbreviations, and punctuation that can only be read by devices and programs.Īll software is written by at least one coding language, but languages vary based on platform, operating system, and style. They’re called “languages” because they include vocabulary and grammatical rules for communicating with computers. What is coding?Ĭoding refers to writing code for servers and applications using programming languages. It’s essentially the translator between you and the Internet - it reads your website request, reads the code sent back from the server, and translates it for you in the form of a website. When you type a website into your web browser or search for something through a search engine, HTTP provides a framework so that the client (computer) and server can speak the same language when they make requests and responses to each other over the Internet. It allows you to jump between site pages and websites. It’s a set of rules (a protocol) that defines how messages should be sent over the Internet. HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) connects you and your website request to the remote server that houses all website data. While you can access a website using its IP address, most Internet users prefer to use domain names or by going through search engines. To find your device’s IP address, you can also type “what’s my IP address” into your search browser. You can find any website’s IP address by visiting a site like Site 24x7 or by using Command Prompt on Windows or Network Utility > Traceroute on MacBooks. The IP address for HubSpot is 104.16.249.5. Each device has an IP address to distinguish itself from the billions of websites and devices connected via the Internet. An IP address is a unique string of numbers. To access a website, you need to know its Internet Protocol (IP) address. These servers are connected to a giant network called the Internet.īrowsers are computer programs that load websites via your Internet connection, such as Google Chrome or Internet Explorer, while the computers used to access these websites are known as “clients”. Websites are files stored on servers, which are computers that host (fancy term for “store files for”) websites. Now that we've defined web development, let’s review some web development basics.