If you are someone who needs to learn a lot of technical terms for dealing with internal or external website development services, then you may have issues when you hear acronyms being used in conversations. It’s normal to mentally remember these terms for subsequent reference or even to covertly Google them while in a meeting to keep up with the topic. However, the computer industry is full of strange jargon and buzzwords that can seem very perplexing to those who are unaware of it. Web development is no exception; learning the terminology used in the field will help you succeed as a programmer.
The world of web development services is rife with acronyms, and it can be daunting to communicate with your coworkers daily. Thus, it’s understandable to feel overburdened by the seemingly endless flow of new jargon, which ranges from Java to JavaScript, frontend to backend, and apps to APIs.
That’s why we’re here to provide you with some common acronyms you’ll come across during development projects, described in simple terms so that anyone can understand them, regardless of their technical background.
AJAX [Asynchronous JavaScript And XML]:
Web apps can transport data to and from a server in the background (asynchronously) using a set of web development techniques called AJAX. This doesn’t require the user to see any changes to the web page. When you need to interact with a section of a web page without having to reload the full page, AJAX is employed. It combines HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and an XMLHttpRequest object that is built into the browser.
CSS [Cascading Style Sheets]:
With Cascading Style Sheets, the internet has become much more colourful. CSS is a set of rules that impact how HTML information is styled. CSS is used to make a website’s fonts, colours, and layouts uniform throughout all of its pages. It is comparable to the icing on top of a cake.
According to W3C guidelines, CSS is one of the fundamental languages of the open web and is standardised across Web browsers. In the past, different CSS standard components were developed simultaneously, allowing for the versions of the most recent recommendations. Perhaps you are familiar with CSS1, CSS2.1, or perhaps CSS3. However, there won’t ever be a CSS3 or CSS4, as everything is now CSS without a version number.
ARIA [Accessible Rich Internet apps]:
To make web content and web apps (especially those created with JavaScript) more accessible to individuals with impairments, a set of roles and attributes known as Accessible Rich Internet apps (ARIA) was created. When no other mechanism is available, it adds HTML to transmit interactions and widgets commonly used in programs to assistive technologies.
For the purpose of identifying features for user interaction, their relationships to one another, and their current state, WAI-ARIA offers a framework for adding attributes. As well as menus, principal content, secondary content, banner information, and other forms of web structures, WAI-ARIA describes navigation mechanisms to indicate areas and typical web structures. For instance, WAI-ARIA allows developers to recognise areas of pages and make it simple for keyboard users to switch between regions without repeatedly pressing the Tab key.
Additionally, WAI-ARIA contains tools for mapping custom controls used in rich Internet applications, live areas, and events to access application programming interfaces (APIs). Widgets like buttons, drop-down menus, calendar features, tree controls (like expandable menus), and others can be used with the WAI-ARIA technique
CDN [Content Nelivery network]:
A network of proxy servers and accompanying data centres that are geographically dispersed is known as a content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN). The goal is to deliver high availability and performance by spatially distributing the service to end users. We can send material to each user from a server that is less congested or farther away from their location, thanks to CDNs. By doing so, we can improve performance and cut down on server downtime.
A CDN’s main objective is to boost web speed by reducing the time required to deliver content and media to consumers. One if the main purpose of CDN architecture is to lessen network delay brought on by transporting traffic over vast distances and over numerous networks. As more dynamic content, video, and software as a service are delivered to an expanding number of mobile devices, eliminating latency is crucial.
BEM [Block Element-Modifier]:
BEM is being used to make writing for CSS classes more readable, simple, and uniform. It is necessary to define classes using the block-element-modifier syntax when using BEM throughout the text. These are regarded as main buttons, along with Menu, Edit, etc.
Element: It is seen as having a block’s alert, danger, and success characteristics.
Modifier: This is regarded as changing a block’s design, such as the size of the button.
Given that classes allow you to reuse names if necessary and produce more consistent coding structures, using BEM solely with classes rather than IDs is the recommended practise. The same block, element, and modifier structure should be used if you want to divide your website into organised modules, where each block may include a number of elements, and both the block and the components may contain a number of modifiers. But let’s start with the fundamental BEM structure and illustrate it with several examples.
CMS [Content Management System]:
A content management system (CMS) is an application used to manage material that enables numerous contributors to generate, update, and publish. Typically, content in a CMS is kept in a database and shown using a presentation layer based on a collection of templates, much like a website. The collaborative nature of a CMS is one of its main benefits. Content can be contributed to, scheduled for publication, or managed by a number of editors. A CMS can be accessible from any location by an unlimited number of users because the user interface is often browser-based.
The ease with which non-technical users who don’t know programming languages may simply develop and maintain their own material is a CMS’s another benefit. Users can add text and upload photos using the drag-and-drop editors of a normal content management system without having any prior knowledge of HTML or CSS. (programming languages).
VCS [Version Control System]:
Have you ever made changes to a project or document that you later realized you needed to undo but failed to save the previous version? A web application can address this issue using a VCS. They keep track of each change in a file so you can review, undo, or recall it. By recording who made which changes to a file, a VCS aids developers in maintaining accountability while working together. The most widely used VCS is Git, which is free and open source. When working with web developers, you’ll likely hear that term used in conjunction with phrases like “pull request” and “commit.”
QA [Quality Assurance]:
The phrase “quality assurance,” or “QA,” is used in every business. QA in software development refers to checking code for errors before distribution to the intended audience. Some larger organisations frequently have a QA Department or a team of QA engineers solely responsible for creating and carrying out software tests. On smaller teams, a developer who also produces code performs the QA. There are two types of QA testing: automated testing, which performs these steps automatically and provides feedback, and manual testing, which involves a tester walking through the steps a user would take in a browser and look for problems or unexpected occurrences.
UAT [User Acceptance Testing]:
Through user acceptance testing users test the programme by carrying out exact steps that they would have taken in the real world. This is also referred to as beta testing and takes place when a business has a committed team of actual customers that test new features. After UAT, the development team can address defects discovered before making the application available to all users.
OAuth [Open Authentication]:
The industry-standard protocol for authorization is called OAuth or Open Authentication. Who can access what in an application is determined by authorisation in web development. Tiers of access within an app could be the result; whereas an administrator has access to the entire system, a single user might only have 10% of it available to them. There are libraries and services for this kind of permission in every programming language.
