The right development tools can help to make web development considerably easier and more efficient. Browserstack can be used to more easily test website functionality across multiple browsers, code editors can make writing code significantly easier, in browser debugging tools can be used to quickly find problems in code, CDNs can be used to reduce website loading times and new cloud hosting services can be used to host client websites. This article will examine a number of useful tools for web development that can help to make it easier to develop high quality websites.
Browserstack
Cross browser compatibility is a huge problem that can greatly slow down development.
The problem lies with the browsers themselves. Each browser interprets code in slightly different ways, which can lead to web pages being rendered differently depending on the browser and the operating system being used. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, in particular, has gained a great deal of notoriety due to how difficult it is to develop for. It is not uncommon to create a website that works perfectly on Opera, Chrome, Safari and Firefox, but fails to load on Internet Explorer.
Browserstack was created to help solve this problem.
Using Browserstack, websites can be tested across a variety of different browsers, including multiple versions of Internet Explorer, to quickly check whether they are working correctly or not. If a problem is identified, Browserstack also contains a number of debugging tools that can be used to quickly diagnose and fix the source of the problem. [1]
Code Editors
Code editors like Notepad++ and Sublime Text 2 can make it easier to write code than when using standard text editors like Notepad.
These code editors are designed specifically to be used by coders for writing code, and so they contain a number of useful features that speed up the coding process.
Arguably the most useful feature is the code editor’s ability organise code to make it more attractive and easier to read. Functions, variables, tags etc. are all colour coded and indents are automatically added in to make the code appear more structured and easier to parse by human eyes.
In browser debugging tools
In browsers debugging tools like ‘Firebug’ and ‘Web Developer’ can help to make it easier to write HTML and CSS.
With Firebug, CSS can be manipulated with the results being shown in the browser in real time. This makes it much easier to write CSS while ensuring that the CSS works as it is intended to.
The ‘Web Developer’ extension makes it possible to rewrite HTML, JavaScript and other code with the results being shown in the browser in real time. The Web Developer plug-in also contains a number of other useful features, including the ability to resize images and display guides and rules to help make sure that divs, grids and tables are lined up correctly.
CDNs
Webpage loading speed is important. Visitors to a website don’t want to wait for it to load – they want to be able to access it instantly.
‘Content delivery networks’, or CDNs for short, can greatly reduce website loading times.
CDNs are a network of servers stored in data centres all around the world. Websites elements such as images, JavaScript and media files are stored on the CDNs and served to visitors whenever they visit a website.
Where CDNs differ from a standard server is that the CDN will automatically detect which country the website visitor is from and it will then serve the website elements from the geographically closest server. As a result, the website elements will be delivered to the website visitor in less time, causing the website to load quicker.
Cloud hosting services
Cloud hosting services are becoming increasingly prevalent, with many users moving their websites away from traditional hosts to cloud hosted alternatives.
The main benefit of cloud hosting services is that they are incredibly flexible and able to adapt to the demands put upon them. If a single cloud server is being taxed too heavily, the cloud hosting service can automatically draft in a second cloud server to carry some of the load. This can lead to less downtime and quicker website performance, particularly if a website gains a great deal of unexpected popularity in a short period of time.
Conclusion
Web development may be more complicated than it was a decade ago, but websites development tools have improved to make it easier to develop beautiful websites in less than time than ever before. Make sure to use all of the tools listed in this article – it’ll make developing websites significantly easier.
This article was written on behalf of cloud hosting provider ElasticHosts. Visit ElasticHosts for a free hosting trial.
