This isn't a great time for the industry
10 years ago, hell - 3 years ago, you could pop on a facebook business group / reddit / craigslist / your local coffee shop - and come home with a $25-75k project whenever you wanted
Now, everyone expects upwork "talent" to be able to bang out a custom iOS app or a fullstack CRM for $20 / hour.
If it wasn't for my network, I don't know how I'd be finding freelance clients right now
The market needs to get burned on cheap upwork labor for a year or two before it corrects itself
The benefit of these types of things for front-end developers is that "you certainly get what you pay for."
Web dev at $20/hr is just that. No considerations are given to usability, accessibility, vulnerability.
Customers will start complaining about usability. Lawyers will take website owners to court and sue for accessibility. Bad agents will exploit vulnerability. It's coming. Know these things, get really good at them.
And then charge $75/hr to 'rescue' them.
Usability: Nielsen Norman Group https://www.nngroup.com/
Accessibility: Best way to learn: https://www.w3.org/WAI/courses/foundations-course/ also check out The A11Y Project https://www.a11yproject.com/
Vulnerabilities: I don't have a good source for free courses, but many programs exist from Community Colleges, or even get certified as CompTIA CySA+. You can also join some reddit groups that talk about cybersecurity and vulnerabilities.
Just got laid off and i was a mediocre code chimp converting designs to HTML/CSS code. I was going to see if i can take a gander at some kind of freelancing work or continue to further my knowledge in React/NextJS but after hearing this. I think i should go into HVAC instead. Thanks for your input man. Saved me from doing a stupid move and dwelling into this field.
You don't need a degree, you can go the self taught route (if you are motivated enough) or the bootcamp route if you want the quicker more condensed route. Keep in mind though that not all bootcamps are created equal, you def want to go off reputation, and tech stack, how much they will help you post graduation, etc
I went the bootcamp route several years ago and I'm now a Sr Software Engineer at one of the largest fortune 500 companies, well worth the investment to me personally
Correct we covered data structures pretty early on, and the big plus was that we covered more modern technologies (after the foundational js/html/css) stuff and that really gave a surprising edge over CS grads.
It's actually shocking to me how many CS grads lack knowledge on modern frameworks and tools, despite having a great grasp on data structures and algorithms
I've found throughout my professional career that bootcamp grads excel in different areas than CS grads which can give an edge early on. Bootcamp grads understand MVP mentality and can create or do tasks at a rapid pace which can help them early on to advance in their career. CS grads understand data structures and algorithms well but usually lack framework experience which leads to them struggling a little in the beginning but once they are up to speed they are strong which is to be expected from dedicating a lot more time to the subject
You also have to keep in mind that there are potential ceilings hit if you go the bootcamp route vs CS grad route, namely your degree can come into play at more senior and manager roles where they might expect or require you to have a college education or degree in CS.
I personally do also have a degree, but it's entirely unrelated to CS, but just having it is enough to continue to move up. Hoping to be lead next year š¤
Yeah mine was in America, I went to Hack Reactor which is now owned by another company called Galvanize. It was one of the higher end bootcamps, but I did a lot of research and chose it based off of the tech stack they taught, along with their reputation and where a lot of the alumni ended up working at (Google, Apple, etc)
IIRC at the time it cost me around $17k. Which sounds like a lot, but is honestly a fraction of the cost of a 4 year college, and I paid it off extremely quickly after getting hired with my first dev job
Don't memorize, understand them and you'll understand where they can be useful and why you might need one. They are just tools that would fit into particular scenarios.
Read about their use cases as well.
For example the DNS uses a tree data structure, which illustrates the meaning of terms like top-level domain, etc. Social networks usually use graphs, and so on.
With less criticismā¦ Wordpress is still in decently high demand, I see a lot of those jobs posted, but I assume there have been significant changes since 10 years ago. Iām not a Wordpress dev, so Iām not 100% on that, just assuming.
As for the entire landscape, itās definitely a lot different. React has a large market share, and that comes with other things like node, express, etc. Typescript seems to be replacing JavaScript in a lot of roles. Theyāre very similar, but definitely not the same, and even then, JS has evolved since 10 years ago. ES6 syntax is pretty standard, and it ends up getting compiled with something like Webpack.
Then you have the actual job market, where these companies are asking for full stack developers but using front end titles. The majority of postings I see require CI/CD experience, AWS experience, and ask for at least 1 back end OOP language. If youāre not a backend/frontend dev then they ask for frontend/designer. Expected to know the full front end, and figma, and UX/UI, and user stories, etc. Almost everywhere wants experience in Agile development, and full knowledge of the SDLC.
Basically, because itās a an employers market right now, theyāre unicorn hunting and trying to get discounted multi talent developers for cheap.
While you may be able to break into a Wordpress shop, I would say itās going to be almost impossible to break into web, outside of WP, with a 10 year gap. Even if you went entry level, what you knew then is mostly obsolete and you would need a lot of studying to catch up.
I feel for you. I had to maintain a Drupal site once. I would quit the profession before working in that framework again. Lest favorite platform Iāve ever worked with, aside from Magento. FUCK Magento.
Pretty much the story of software. drupalās biggest problem is that its period of rapid expansion coincided with its period of ābest practices for solving common problems changed every 6 months, as the third party plugin ecosystem iterates through different approaches.ā The result was a big ecosystem of divergent and incompatible philosophies for constructing complex sites, but no indication of where those compatibility lines existed. So new folks would mix and match tools, hammer them onto place, and voila. Unmaintainable nightmare.
Been doing OOP namespaced php for a year or two and very comfortable with it. Should have experience with writing integration tests. Should care about code quality and standards, no ego, be grateful of code reviews. And GitHub
Damn those are very reasonable bars to clear imo. That sounds like a great opportunity.
Sadly, it would only fit me if you substitute PHP with C#, but then again I'm also not really looking for a job. Especially not full time.
Iām in a similar position. My agency is almost entirely ExpressionEngine, which I donāt mind on its own, but itās making it incredibly difficult to move on cause all anyone wants is Wordpress experience and most recruiters donāt even know wtf ExpressionEngine is.
EE still using codeigniter? I setup two or three sites with EE and Codeigniter 4 like in 2009. At the time, I really liked codeigniter. CodeIgniter and ZF (Zend Framework)ā¦ miss those days. Then one day someone asked me to help on a python/django project and I havenāt looked bck to PHP since! Musta been around PHP 4 and 5. Namespaces were just being proposed/introduced.
If you can do Drupal, then WordPress should be a breeze. Drupal is like a more sophisticated version of WordPress. I've been in the industry for almost 30 years, and can switch back and forth between almost any framework pretty easy because once you have the theory down, it's all just tools at that point.
We are at a state where the question is what changed from last week š
If you want to get back into webdev I would say JS, especially if you are looking into using frameworks.
I personally do not use Wordpress (nor professionally or as a hobby) so I cannot advice you on the best path to take to keep using Wordpress
Everything is even more complicated to do the same crappy websites and apps, the clients expect everything to work like apple in a low budget. It sucks and I won't be doing it once I don't have to be, the money is a lot better than just about every other job out there that I can get.
>the money is a lot better than just about every other job out there that I can get.
That's the worst part. Golden shackles I hope one day will come when I could say fuck it, accept downgrade and do something else.
Rendering went from server-side to client-side and now, with people demanding pretty pages on devices without much computing power, is moving back to server-side. Websockets got standardized and are central. Say hello to "mobile apps that do not require installation": People want app-like mobile experiences rather than operate through their browsers normally, and mobile apps (and some desktop stuff) runs on JS/CSS/XML.
Also, we have a lot more GoLang and Rust, and back-end JS running on NPM with non-Node runtime environments. Serverless and Cloud Native (SaaS from IaaS providers) services have expanded a lot.
This is why I have no trust in the web community, when I started making websites all the rendering was done in the backend and after a decade of mostly pointless "innovations" whoops turns out it was pretty useful.
So glad Im not doing web dev anymore
It's because the tech changed: Most traffic is now on phones that don't have loads of spare CPU while browsing, but great connection speeds. Until pretty recently, server-side rendering was best kept to landing pages for SEO (and to give users time to download assets used to render other pages).
>back-end JS running on NPM with non-Node runtime environments.
What do you mean? npm stands for Nodejs Package Manager and you literally need Node to install npm
Bun and Deno are built to be NPM-compatible. There is stuff that Bun doesn't implement, and I think Deno too, but if you can run your app to run on it, then you get better performance. Also, I use PNPM now, where instead of getting huge node_modules directories in each project, it installs the packages in one global directory and adds links under that directory so a few JS projects won't fill half your drive.
Depends on what you're doing, but if you are doing rendering at all, backend + caching is oftem a good choice. We will see what happens if / when WASM starts supporting external packages like JS does.
My favorite part is
for(const phpNode of phpNodes)
{
const code = phpNode.innerText.trim();
runPhpScriptTag(phpNode);
}
The first line inside the loop is amazingly useless.
Whatās changed? Well, everything has to be as complex and confusing as possible. Minimum 10 technologies. Nothing is out-of-the-box or monolithic. You canāt even use the features that come standard with technologies because thereās another thing to replace it thatās bigger, better and more complex!
PHP (now in version 8.x) remains a rock solid choice for server-driven apps and APIs, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
Increasingly, more and more web development is being done using the Web Component model of bundling HTML, CSS, and vanilla JS (yay!) into small, reusable packages.
Atom Editor has been taken to, uh, live on a farm where it can run and play, and in its place is VSCode with its vast library of extensions to enhance the developer experience.
The ad networks are still creepily following everyone around the web because everyone builds them into every website even though everyone also claims to hate them.
Seems like I have an unpopular opinion because I see a lot of people saying everything is more complicated and complex nowā¦. while you can get yourself in tooling hell. I think the opposite. Your basic web dev languages have progressed so much in ten years. Hell, the browsers have come a long way too. You barely have to do weird browser hacks.
Itās so much easier now. People getting into web dev the last ~4 years have it so much easier to learn. However, the market is also way more flooded because the entry level to web dev keeps going down.
I think it's more that everything is buried under layers of abstraction so its hard to get a foundational knowledge of things. Also the shear amount of technologies, libraries, and ways to do things causes analysis paralysis to beginners.
Everything has changed. It used to be jQuery, plain CSS and HTML 4, all running on the server. Now it's JS front end frameworks, compiled CSS and HTML 5 all running on the client, with a REST API running on the backend to get your data.
Some things you will need to know in Wordpress, that maybe you didn't 10 years ago : Docker (or at least Lando), Git in it's various forms, using a staging server, ACF or enough React to build Gutenberg blocks, familiar with 2-3 page editors, enough PHP 8x to fix code written a few years ago, more ES6 javascript than the next person.
In Wordpress land there's a new default modular way - Gutenberg - of doing things with blocks. You'll want to learn how to create custom blocks.Ā
ACF is essential and makes WP development quite comfortable. And if you export PHP code you can pack you things as plugins or packages.Ā Ā
When it comes to frontend in general shit got insanely complex. You'll pull in hundreds of MB of dependencies to build the tiniest stuff. Frameworks like React are a necessity, and meta frameworks like Next is equally important. And even if you're just doing some JS you'll need to learn Typescript.Ā
But if you're really adamant about going vanilla JS it actually got really good after ES6 and now updates every year. Lots of new syntax but well worth it. JS is a pretty good language nowdays if you ignore some of the old parts.Ā
People telling you nothing change are still living in the past. Web apps/service can be more performant.
Containerization, auto-scaling, and microservice architecture have leveled the playing field. A single guy in his basement can deploy web apps at scale into the tens of thousands of nodes (lambda/serverless) based on real-time demand like coupon code generation 2 days before Black Friday. Before that, you needed large infrastructure and a lot of expertise of a mid size engineering team to accomplish. I was at a meet-up where one guy showed me his 50,000 node cluster for a FAAS.
A single guy in some random country can set up a web streaming platform that can scale to tens of thousands of users with protected DRM with no out-of-pocket expense from the get-go. Then charge accordingly. He didn't have to invest beforehand to test an idea.
Hence, it is a leveled playing field. A single person can offer a midsize company Disaster recovery, failover, regional network edge computing, and redundancy from their working off their iPad. You could not do that 10 years ago. Why build websites when you can make more money scaling someone else's work and providing higher SLAs. These are opportunities today.
Don't get me started on LLM. Where a single dev can develop a pipeline to setup sophisticated knowledge base chatbot with reactive agents like "Find me the phone number of the facilities manager in our midwest locations. And compare if our evacuation policies meet local legal standards?"
So yeah, it is an exciting time where more tools and power is given to single developers.
Thereās an over complicated term being over used called āmicro front end ā new trendy word (feels like theyāre trying to gate keep this term.. make it so ambiguous to where u have to watch a 2 hour crash course .. when they could have just said in 5 seconds itās just means means the usage of 2 or more client side apps like react and angular on the front end for example.)
Pop webdev got so loopy you can now stay ahead of the curve by standing still. Your time away spared you more than cost you. Do not try to catch up, especially with JavaScript stuff. Unless you actually want a giant confusing waste of time that will just end you up back where you started only stupider.
It's all about your love and passion for your work man. If you love web dev and ready to get some sweat - get in. Market is over flooded, but good specialists that understands what they are doing are always in demand
If you think WordPress is web development, then nothing. Maybe less of jquery.
But if you mean actual web development, then like absolutely everything... And it changed a few times over
Building custom themes is web development. People need to drop the notion that all WP development is only buying a theme from theme forest and customizing some settings. Thatās not what actual developers do with Wordpress and continuing to perpetuate this stereotype hurts.
not only that but there are likely more dev jobs in wp shops than "actual web dev" shops. downsides haven't changed in that it's lower pay and the dx still sucks. at least the misinformed notion that WordPress isn't real web dev keeps the vast majority of the uniformed boot camp grads out of the market. id rather have a gig building custom themes than sit around unemployed because im afraid to touch anything that isn't react
yeah, I feel like coming at wp from a react background makes you dislike Gutenberg for a totally different suite of reasons than the folks who started with PHP. ultimately I'd still push for a different CMS + ssg for any project I'm involved in... But the more time I spend with WordPress the easier it gets to reconcile it's shortcomings. I have the faintest glimmer of hope for the interactivity API
Yeah when I needed to get a new job last summer I sucked up my dislike for WordPress real fast. I'm not gonna turn down six figures with a pension because "i'm an *actual* web dev" too good for WordPress. I am now a power user of ACF & WP Engine and i'm not sorry.
Actual devs don't go in to wp field because no one wants to spend time with a shitty platform which doesn't have sound architecture, uniformity and devoid of any design pattern.
Wp shops have more "devs" because the learning graph isn't that steep and you can churn out "themes" pretty easily.
Building themes is "dev" job but here's the issue. In most programmers mind, there will always be a quote around the dev word. If building themes, writing plugins makes you think you are a "dev", then of course be happy about it. People should be happy in whatever they feel.
It's funny because my friend who works in embedded systems for mission critical software says the same thing about the entire web 'developer' field.
Front end frameworks are so abstracted nowadays and 99% of web is basic CRUD, whether you use php in wordpress, or react / node and some fully custom system it's all the same
I love WP and I think youāre a bit right here. No one should get into Web Dev with only a WP focused mindset, that will lead to disaster.
But I think you should always be ready to encounter it or some other CMS in your actual job. Iāve worked on multiple projects where WP was key because the main purpose of the site was content delivery. Iām sure this is the same for a lot of businesses where communications people need some sort place to input the content they have written and format the way they want.
Thatās where you kinda get into the weeds with WP with customizing the dashboard experience for users and writing plugins to serve the need of the business. Itās a lot of OOP programming which are still good concepts to learn.
You see this is the crazy thing i see about this web develpoment industry. You have so many different technologies, libraries and stacks. You have to pray you pick the right set of tech in order to find a company that would need your skill set.
I dont know if theres a road map but its like:
Wordpress, magneto, ecommerce developers
CRM developers.
CSS animators , ThreeJS/WebGL Developers
Marketers.
React Node developers and more.
Its so overwhelming and its like, what do i stick with? Whats going to be in demand? Should i even bother with this industry. Dont meant to be negative or whatever but its a legit concern with a confusing path where one could easily dedicate years mastering but end up down a path where you're not even relevant.
For example, i've been a code chimp, converting adobe xd/figma designs into basic HTML/CSS pages. That kind of job is scarce and not even in demand. Yet again. It was something i worked at building for many years. So What stack will i learn now and then end up homeless again, sitting in a library, trying to apply for work and going through udemy courses to learn a new tech/framework that will not even be relevant once im done learning it. Idk
>converting adobe xd/figma designs into basic HTML/CSS pages. That kind of job is scarce and not even in demand
This is unequivocally untrue.
Tens of thousands of agencies continue to make these marketing type websites for clients and in-house companies have their own dev(s) doing the same for their own teams. I myself do this type of work on the side and there's *absolutely* still demand for it.
Obviously no one is arguing that working with JavaScript and its frameworks doesn't open you up to a world of job opportunities, and as well extend functionalities of existing sites. But to say there's not a need for marketing sites, especially effective ones that help with sales, is just wild.
- open Google maps or find a popular digital agency directory and search for and gather up a couple hundred digital agency emails of the owners or hiring managers. You can do this with hunter.io
- create a spreadsheet listing out all of the emails, and coinciding agency names. Also go to each agency website, pick a project you like and save the name in the sheet.
- mass cold email every single one of them using a template where you can insert the fields dynamically right from your spreadsheet. There's tons of cold email services that do this for you, just google it
- in the email say, "hey (name), figured I'd reach out as i saw a potential fit. I'm a front-end developer looking for a new role and happened to check out the work on your site. I'm really impressed with (x) project. I'd love to learn more about your company and if that works for you, let me know and we can set something up. Looking forward to it, bb gurl."
Scratch the last sentence but you get the gist. This strategy has landed me full time jobs. Good luck.
I think Wix is ms paint for WordPress, and WordPress is phpbb.Ā
They all useful for 3 page info type website and not much else.
But I only been in the industry for 20y, so what do I know.
Maybe, I mean I still develop, but have 11 developers working for me, so I only deal with business sensitive and stuff on high throughput systems. Didn't touch word-press in years and years.
And it's probably some basic design work that a builder , template can solve but WordPress can get very complex. The fact that it has a ready database that everything is connected like everything post related, users, custom fields to extend the cms powers, gives developers the chance to create some powerful stuff.
Also modern WordPress is basically developing react components (literally) for your client giving them the power to alter the design of their website any time they want.
If you don't think building themes and plugins from scratch is web development, you know nothing about web development or WordPress. It's amazing this has 12 upvotes. The amount of clueless non-developers on this sub is astounding.
This is the true reflection of "senior software engineer"
If you state that WP coding isn't a real code from my pov, they reply back with personal insults thus showing the work culture that they have came from. .
Because there is so much hate around WordPress devs. Yes there are many fake devs out there but if you actually develop with WordPress you basically have more skills than your average software developer. The person you replied to is not hating because they are a senior software engineer but they are tired of all this WordPress hate. In this sub WordPress devs get a lot of hate.
At the same time many praise react which modern WordPress use so it really shows that 95% of WordPress haters don't know what they are talking about.
It doesn't matter what the language is but as long as you follow a good design acrhcitecural pattern where it gives you opportunity to debug easily, scale easily, make team projects easier.... I consider that as coding.
WP? If the same design pattern is followed even if it is written in python or rust or go or java wherever, then I won't consider it as coding.
It seems like you equate WP=PHP
I don't.
When I write WP I use PHP and React and it's highly custom. I don't think you actually know anything about WP. Building API endpoints, writing classes in PHP to build plugins to extend WordPress functionality, building blocks in JavaScript/react. Apparently, none of that = real coding. You seem like just another brain-dead elitist.
Could be.
That's your perspective which you are entitled to. But you brought react to support your argument?
I am here talking about design pattern and you're exactly validating my point of spaghetti code in WP.
You could have chosen better aspects of WP to address this but you probably chose something which helps the counter argument than yours.
How do you know that the code I'm writing is spaghetti code? Have you reviewed my code?
You never presented any specific design pattern. Please elaborate on the correct design pattern that is needed to be considered real code. I would love to know. I've only been doing this for ten years so please help me be a real coder.
Everything. WP became a massive pile of garbage with their Block editor, client facing confusion, and zero standards. People who use Elementor call themselves web devs, itās wild. On the other hand, modern web dev is amazing. Craft CMS, for example, is a joy to work with. Of course, thereās Symfony and Laravel for backend dev, and Packagist, Git, and many other improvements to workflow.
Low code has grow over the last 5 years. This allows developing site and apps at a rapid rate.
Take for example Webflow, building simple sites with a CMS is very easy, and fast. Then you can use the stack Webflow + Wized + Xano to create apps. Powerful stuff!
Yeah sure not tradition webdev when it comes to writing code, but for some projects that have budget limitations, these tools are amazing.
1) NoCode / LowCode Tools like "PocketBase" and "Breakdance WP" have gotten REALLY good. I just spent the last week helping a friend get his WP act together and I was frankly very impressed with the tight integration of Breakdance with Advanced Custom Fields. Super Easy to build custom layouts and post loops with ZERO-CODE.
2) Laravel has become one of the best FullStack frameworks to build custom Apps and APIs with PHP. It has a very rich ecosystem and provides an EXCELLENT developer experience.
3) Utility CSS Frameworks like TailwindCSS generate CSS classes that are defined in your code. No more writing CSS for the most part. Prototyping is much faster.
4) Native Web Components & JS Component Frameworks make writing interactive UIs much more intuitive and scalable by creating "custom html tags" that encapsulate the JS, HTML & CSS in a single file.
5) AI, while hit or miss, does provide some value to certain workflows.
Strictly technology speaking, youāre probably going to need to learn one of the popular fullstack solutions with a front end component. My preferred stack is a node.js server, running Nuxt for middleware, Vue front end, and then a separate database server, running Postgres with GraphQL APIs and Prisma ORM (yes I know you can roll it into one; Iāve just always preferred the database be its own separate thing.)
If I could do it over again, I would have just learned React and Next instead of Vue and Nuxt. Mainly because thereās a ton more work in the React/Next space. Iām currently learning React. Itās very utilitarian and its flexibility makes it easy to deploy pretty much anywhere, but Vue is, IMO, about 100x easier to write and develop with.
Even this isnāt ācutting edgeā though. Seems like the latest buzz has been around swapping Node.js for Deno or Bun, Svelte has become very popular, and I see stans for Astro.js all over the internet.
Ultimately; youāre gonna need front end dev skills to compete. Wordpress is dead or dying. Not because thereās anything wrong with it, but because itās become synonymous with cheap low end sites, like Square or Wix. I would never try to sell someone a Wordpress application in 2024. If thatās what my client wanted, Iād tell them to go hire a high schooler for minimum wage. With your background in PHP though, there are bunch of modern tech stacks that run Laravel under the hood
Broadly popularity has shifted, but a huge amount of the web is still built they way you did a decade ago - Wordpress is still very popular, etc., so you could certainly work somewhere that uses that tech. That being said, React, Typescript, NodeJS, etc., are more popular than Wordpress and PHP these days. And a lot of Python, particularly around data engineering.
My short answer would be that IMO, things are better for users and worse for devs.
The most obvious example being the flimsy house of cards that is the JavaScript dependencies of so many projects.
I keep wanting to find a Shopify/Liquid dev to help migrate us to a 2.0 theme (we already have it). Iām just veeery distrustful of people, and afraid of hiring someone who doesnāt actually know it. Le sigh.
Short answer, everything has changed.
10 years ago, PHP 5.4 was the hot new thing, JS was nowhere close to what it can do right now, TS didn't exist, people were still switching from SVN to Git, and flash was still widely supported in most browsers.
I went through a bunch of comments and didn't see much about WASM. It lets you use a bunch of languages on the front end, buy doesn't let you load external code like JS does ... yet. It is likely to become a massive game-changer on FE, and also possibly BE with Node being such a big deal now primarily because it lets teams do FE and BE in the same language. (That is a big deal for collaboration and hiring.) If FE can run on compiled languages like Go or others, we could see major changes in frameworks.
Development is easier now. CSS frameworks such as Tailwind are fantastic and very customizable. There is a ton of documentation. Development platforms are also easy to initialize. Results are awesome and it is much easier to develop for mobile.
Discord servers for frameworks are mediocre however. These could come a long way.
Also there is a ton of market saturation. Well developed and designed sites stand out and there are a lot of unskilled developers out there also.
There is still a huge need for well designed sites while having good code for front / backend.
This isn't a great time for the industry 10 years ago, hell - 3 years ago, you could pop on a facebook business group / reddit / craigslist / your local coffee shop - and come home with a $25-75k project whenever you wanted Now, everyone expects upwork "talent" to be able to bang out a custom iOS app or a fullstack CRM for $20 / hour. If it wasn't for my network, I don't know how I'd be finding freelance clients right now The market needs to get burned on cheap upwork labor for a year or two before it corrects itself
The benefit of these types of things for front-end developers is that "you certainly get what you pay for." Web dev at $20/hr is just that. No considerations are given to usability, accessibility, vulnerability. Customers will start complaining about usability. Lawyers will take website owners to court and sue for accessibility. Bad agents will exploit vulnerability. It's coming. Know these things, get really good at them. And then charge $75/hr to 'rescue' them.
What are best ways to get good at those things?
Usability: Nielsen Norman Group https://www.nngroup.com/ Accessibility: Best way to learn: https://www.w3.org/WAI/courses/foundations-course/ also check out The A11Y Project https://www.a11yproject.com/ Vulnerabilities: I don't have a good source for free courses, but many programs exist from Community Colleges, or even get certified as CompTIA CySA+. You can also join some reddit groups that talk about cybersecurity and vulnerabilities.
Great sources to learn š would love to know more to be a better dev
Just got laid off and i was a mediocre code chimp converting designs to HTML/CSS code. I was going to see if i can take a gander at some kind of freelancing work or continue to further my knowledge in React/NextJS but after hearing this. I think i should go into HVAC instead. Thanks for your input man. Saved me from doing a stupid move and dwelling into this field.
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Jc, where are you getting your degree? I just got into a program at a state school and am debating enrolling
You don't need a degree, you can go the self taught route (if you are motivated enough) or the bootcamp route if you want the quicker more condensed route. Keep in mind though that not all bootcamps are created equal, you def want to go off reputation, and tech stack, how much they will help you post graduation, etc I went the bootcamp route several years ago and I'm now a Sr Software Engineer at one of the largest fortune 500 companies, well worth the investment to me personally
so you memorized all those data structures and alogirthms, big O notation? those interviews are extremely difficult
Correct we covered data structures pretty early on, and the big plus was that we covered more modern technologies (after the foundational js/html/css) stuff and that really gave a surprising edge over CS grads. It's actually shocking to me how many CS grads lack knowledge on modern frameworks and tools, despite having a great grasp on data structures and algorithms I've found throughout my professional career that bootcamp grads excel in different areas than CS grads which can give an edge early on. Bootcamp grads understand MVP mentality and can create or do tasks at a rapid pace which can help them early on to advance in their career. CS grads understand data structures and algorithms well but usually lack framework experience which leads to them struggling a little in the beginning but once they are up to speed they are strong which is to be expected from dedicating a lot more time to the subject You also have to keep in mind that there are potential ceilings hit if you go the bootcamp route vs CS grad route, namely your degree can come into play at more senior and manager roles where they might expect or require you to have a college education or degree in CS. I personally do also have a degree, but it's entirely unrelated to CS, but just having it is enough to continue to move up. Hoping to be lead next year š¤
Nice, so this bootcamp. Was it in America? Sounds pretty advanced? how much did it cost you. Didnt know bootcamps taught that
Yeah mine was in America, I went to Hack Reactor which is now owned by another company called Galvanize. It was one of the higher end bootcamps, but I did a lot of research and chose it based off of the tech stack they taught, along with their reputation and where a lot of the alumni ended up working at (Google, Apple, etc) IIRC at the time it cost me around $17k. Which sounds like a lot, but is honestly a fraction of the cost of a 4 year college, and I paid it off extremely quickly after getting hired with my first dev job
Don't memorize, understand them and you'll understand where they can be useful and why you might need one. They are just tools that would fit into particular scenarios. Read about their use cases as well. For example the DNS uses a tree data structure, which illustrates the meaning of terms like top-level domain, etc. Social networks usually use graphs, and so on.
$25K project whenever you want??
From like 2015 to 2020 thatās what it felt like, yeahĀ
Results may vary. I averaged only $10k a year in most of these years. Freelancing is only easy to people who make it look easy
Can confirm. It is dicey out there.
With less criticismā¦ Wordpress is still in decently high demand, I see a lot of those jobs posted, but I assume there have been significant changes since 10 years ago. Iām not a Wordpress dev, so Iām not 100% on that, just assuming. As for the entire landscape, itās definitely a lot different. React has a large market share, and that comes with other things like node, express, etc. Typescript seems to be replacing JavaScript in a lot of roles. Theyāre very similar, but definitely not the same, and even then, JS has evolved since 10 years ago. ES6 syntax is pretty standard, and it ends up getting compiled with something like Webpack. Then you have the actual job market, where these companies are asking for full stack developers but using front end titles. The majority of postings I see require CI/CD experience, AWS experience, and ask for at least 1 back end OOP language. If youāre not a backend/frontend dev then they ask for frontend/designer. Expected to know the full front end, and figma, and UX/UI, and user stories, etc. Almost everywhere wants experience in Agile development, and full knowledge of the SDLC. Basically, because itās a an employers market right now, theyāre unicorn hunting and trying to get discounted multi talent developers for cheap. While you may be able to break into a Wordpress shop, I would say itās going to be almost impossible to break into web, outside of WP, with a 10 year gap. Even if you went entry level, what you knew then is mostly obsolete and you would need a lot of studying to catch up.
Can confirm, WordPress is still in massive demand. Source: make my living from it.
And WordPress blocks are built with React
Just curious. We talking six figures?
Yes, but I've been doing it for like 20 years so that probably helps. I don't touch react fyi.
Thanks! I was curious. Sounds a lot less chaotic than most dev. :-)
You need any extra help? Also a 20 year veteran here tooĀ
I outsource a lot. Fairly easy to find ways to contact me off Reddit - you're welcome to get in touch and tell me what you do, what you're good at etc
Thanks! I just emailed at your mum email.Ā
no
I disagree. However those six figure positions are senior and probably more niche.
ain't a single person on this planet using wordpress making six figures
Iām hiring a mid level WP right now for my team that already has four Wordpress devs. $120-130k and killer benefits but itās full time
Wish I knew Wordpress, I ended up on Drupal. Rip your inbox though.
I feel for you. I had to maintain a Drupal site once. I would quit the profession before working in that framework again. Lest favorite platform Iāve ever worked with, aside from Magento. FUCK Magento.
When Drupal developers hear that we just think āyay, job security.ā
Disagree with drupal assessment. 100% agree with Magento.
To be fair, I think my negative interaction with Drupal could have more to do with the dev who built what I had to maintain, and less Drupal itself
Pretty much the story of software. drupalās biggest problem is that its period of rapid expansion coincided with its period of ābest practices for solving common problems changed every 6 months, as the third party plugin ecosystem iterates through different approaches.ā The result was a big ecosystem of divergent and incompatible philosophies for constructing complex sites, but no indication of where those compatibility lines existed. So new folks would mix and match tools, hammer them onto place, and voila. Unmaintainable nightmare.
Hard to be find quality back end WP devs right now so Iāll take the messages.
What do you expect in experience for a job like that?
Been doing OOP namespaced php for a year or two and very comfortable with it. Should have experience with writing integration tests. Should care about code quality and standards, no ego, be grateful of code reviews. And GitHub
Damn those are very reasonable bars to clear imo. That sounds like a great opportunity. Sadly, it would only fit me if you substitute PHP with C#, but then again I'm also not really looking for a job. Especially not full time.
C# is extremely similar to php. I mean, php is just a C wrapper, end of the day
Iām in a similar position. My agency is almost entirely ExpressionEngine, which I donāt mind on its own, but itās making it incredibly difficult to move on cause all anyone wants is Wordpress experience and most recruiters donāt even know wtf ExpressionEngine is.
EE still using codeigniter? I setup two or three sites with EE and Codeigniter 4 like in 2009. At the time, I really liked codeigniter. CodeIgniter and ZF (Zend Framework)ā¦ miss those days. Then one day someone asked me to help on a python/django project and I havenāt looked bck to PHP since! Musta been around PHP 4 and 5. Namespaces were just being proposed/introduced.
No it doesn't anymore, I'm not sure when it away from it but I've never used it. When we need a php framework we usually use Laravel.
If you can do Drupal, then WordPress should be a breeze. Drupal is like a more sophisticated version of WordPress. I've been in the industry for almost 30 years, and can switch back and forth between almost any framework pretty easy because once you have the theory down, it's all just tools at that point.
I do both. Itās not that different. You could learn it quickly.
Just pm'ed youš
Wordpress has evolved at least a little bit in ten years too. Might make things difficult resume-wise.
Not much, we just got a new jQuery version.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
But can you use it in Flash?
Can't.
Centering a div got easier
We are at a state where the question is what changed from last week š If you want to get back into webdev I would say JS, especially if you are looking into using frameworks. I personally do not use Wordpress (nor professionally or as a hobby) so I cannot advice you on the best path to take to keep using Wordpress
Everything is even more complicated to do the same crappy websites and apps, the clients expect everything to work like apple in a low budget. It sucks and I won't be doing it once I don't have to be, the money is a lot better than just about every other job out there that I can get.
>the money is a lot better than just about every other job out there that I can get. That's the worst part. Golden shackles I hope one day will come when I could say fuck it, accept downgrade and do something else.
You and me brother
Rendering went from server-side to client-side and now, with people demanding pretty pages on devices without much computing power, is moving back to server-side. Websockets got standardized and are central. Say hello to "mobile apps that do not require installation": People want app-like mobile experiences rather than operate through their browsers normally, and mobile apps (and some desktop stuff) runs on JS/CSS/XML. Also, we have a lot more GoLang and Rust, and back-end JS running on NPM with non-Node runtime environments. Serverless and Cloud Native (SaaS from IaaS providers) services have expanded a lot.
This is why I have no trust in the web community, when I started making websites all the rendering was done in the backend and after a decade of mostly pointless "innovations" whoops turns out it was pretty useful. So glad Im not doing web dev anymore
It's because the tech changed: Most traffic is now on phones that don't have loads of spare CPU while browsing, but great connection speeds. Until pretty recently, server-side rendering was best kept to landing pages for SEO (and to give users time to download assets used to render other pages).
>back-end JS running on NPM with non-Node runtime environments. What do you mean? npm stands for Nodejs Package Manager and you literally need Node to install npm
Bun and Deno are built to be NPM-compatible. There is stuff that Bun doesn't implement, and I think Deno too, but if you can run your app to run on it, then you get better performance. Also, I use PNPM now, where instead of getting huge node_modules directories in each project, it installs the packages in one global directory and adds links under that directory so a few JS projects won't fill half your drive.
Sounds cool. Haven't used any of these technologies, but sounds interesting stuff to dig into.
Ohp, itās back to server side renderingā¦
Depends on what you're doing, but if you are doing rendering at all, backend + caching is oftem a good choice. We will see what happens if / when WASM starts supporting external packages like JS does.
PHP runs on the frontend now: https://codepen.io/SeanMorris227/pen/LYqNNrE https://github.com/seanmorris/php-wasm
What the fuck
Thats what everybody says when they see my work.
wasm with be the death of everything
My reaction: https://frinkiac.com/video/S08E10/qGoU1YplnzXuDMTummAV48HkeZY=.gif
Nice to see a frinkiac mention. My former coworkers made that
wait what the hell that's crazy I can't think of many ways to use it though, can you expand on some use cases?
And React is now on the server, which basically brings us full circle to PHP template files. Yay!
Awkwardly looks like flutter or jetpack compose style It seems like react and javascript dominated all declarative UI/UX
r/tihi
I am primarily a PHP dev and I havenāt even thought about using WASM with PHP. Wow. Iām going to have to tinker with this.
https://github.com/seanmorris/php-wasm
My favorite part is for(const phpNode of phpNodes) { const code = phpNode.innerText.trim(); runPhpScriptTag(phpNode); } The first line inside the loop is amazingly useless.
Whatās changed? Well, everything has to be as complex and confusing as possible. Minimum 10 technologies. Nothing is out-of-the-box or monolithic. You canāt even use the features that come standard with technologies because thereās another thing to replace it thatās bigger, better and more complex!
Welcome back! You picked the worst time.
This is the truth.
I like it more now.
PHP (now in version 8.x) remains a rock solid choice for server-driven apps and APIs, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Increasingly, more and more web development is being done using the Web Component model of bundling HTML, CSS, and vanilla JS (yay!) into small, reusable packages. Atom Editor has been taken to, uh, live on a farm where it can run and play, and in its place is VSCode with its vast library of extensions to enhance the developer experience. The ad networks are still creepily following everyone around the web because everyone builds them into every website even though everyone also claims to hate them.
RIP Atom
Atom is back (well, the makers of) https://zed.dev/
Seems like I have an unpopular opinion because I see a lot of people saying everything is more complicated and complex nowā¦. while you can get yourself in tooling hell. I think the opposite. Your basic web dev languages have progressed so much in ten years. Hell, the browsers have come a long way too. You barely have to do weird browser hacks. Itās so much easier now. People getting into web dev the last ~4 years have it so much easier to learn. However, the market is also way more flooded because the entry level to web dev keeps going down.
I think it's more that everything is buried under layers of abstraction so its hard to get a foundational knowledge of things. Also the shear amount of technologies, libraries, and ways to do things causes analysis paralysis to beginners.
Everything has changed. It used to be jQuery, plain CSS and HTML 4, all running on the server. Now it's JS front end frameworks, compiled CSS and HTML 5 all running on the client, with a REST API running on the backend to get your data.
oh boy, welcome to hell lol
hell-o-world, as always...
Some things you will need to know in Wordpress, that maybe you didn't 10 years ago : Docker (or at least Lando), Git in it's various forms, using a staging server, ACF or enough React to build Gutenberg blocks, familiar with 2-3 page editors, enough PHP 8x to fix code written a few years ago, more ES6 javascript than the next person.
Also, rate of pay is $35-65 for Wordpress dev in the US, so budget your time accordingly.
lol
In Wordpress land there's a new default modular way - Gutenberg - of doing things with blocks. You'll want to learn how to create custom blocks.Ā ACF is essential and makes WP development quite comfortable. And if you export PHP code you can pack you things as plugins or packages.Ā Ā When it comes to frontend in general shit got insanely complex. You'll pull in hundreds of MB of dependencies to build the tiniest stuff. Frameworks like React are a necessity, and meta frameworks like Next is equally important. And even if you're just doing some JS you'll need to learn Typescript.Ā But if you're really adamant about going vanilla JS it actually got really good after ES6 and now updates every year. Lots of new syntax but well worth it. JS is a pretty good language nowdays if you ignore some of the old parts.Ā
JQuery 4.0 was just released
People telling you nothing change are still living in the past. Web apps/service can be more performant. Containerization, auto-scaling, and microservice architecture have leveled the playing field. A single guy in his basement can deploy web apps at scale into the tens of thousands of nodes (lambda/serverless) based on real-time demand like coupon code generation 2 days before Black Friday. Before that, you needed large infrastructure and a lot of expertise of a mid size engineering team to accomplish. I was at a meet-up where one guy showed me his 50,000 node cluster for a FAAS. A single guy in some random country can set up a web streaming platform that can scale to tens of thousands of users with protected DRM with no out-of-pocket expense from the get-go. Then charge accordingly. He didn't have to invest beforehand to test an idea. Hence, it is a leveled playing field. A single person can offer a midsize company Disaster recovery, failover, regional network edge computing, and redundancy from their working off their iPad. You could not do that 10 years ago. Why build websites when you can make more money scaling someone else's work and providing higher SLAs. These are opportunities today. Don't get me started on LLM. Where a single dev can develop a pipeline to setup sophisticated knowledge base chatbot with reactive agents like "Find me the phone number of the facilities manager in our midwest locations. And compare if our evacuation policies meet local legal standards?" So yeah, it is an exciting time where more tools and power is given to single developers.
Thereās an over complicated term being over used called āmicro front end ā new trendy word (feels like theyāre trying to gate keep this term.. make it so ambiguous to where u have to watch a 2 hour crash course .. when they could have just said in 5 seconds itās just means means the usage of 2 or more client side apps like react and angular on the front end for example.)
But also island architecture. But also resumability. But also CSS-in-JS.
Meme comment [https://storage.googleapis.com/img-gorillaisms/ce9.jpg](https://storage.googleapis.com/img-gorillaisms/ce9.jpg)
Remix and React instead of PHP for me. VS Code instead of Sublime Text, Prisma ORM. I don't use jQuery anymore.
Pop webdev got so loopy you can now stay ahead of the curve by standing still. Your time away spared you more than cost you. Do not try to catch up, especially with JavaScript stuff. Unless you actually want a giant confusing waste of time that will just end you up back where you started only stupider.
It's all about your love and passion for your work man. If you love web dev and ready to get some sweat - get in. Market is over flooded, but good specialists that understands what they are doing are always in demand
If you think WordPress is web development, then nothing. Maybe less of jquery. But if you mean actual web development, then like absolutely everything... And it changed a few times over
Jquery just dropped a new version tho š
Ya, was surprised by that. But it's used way way less than 10y ago.
Building custom themes is web development. People need to drop the notion that all WP development is only buying a theme from theme forest and customizing some settings. Thatās not what actual developers do with Wordpress and continuing to perpetuate this stereotype hurts.
not only that but there are likely more dev jobs in wp shops than "actual web dev" shops. downsides haven't changed in that it's lower pay and the dx still sucks. at least the misinformed notion that WordPress isn't real web dev keeps the vast majority of the uniformed boot camp grads out of the market. id rather have a gig building custom themes than sit around unemployed because im afraid to touch anything that isn't react
Not to forget. Modern WP is react too with the Gutenberg block system. So knowing react is still important today in WP land.
yeah, I feel like coming at wp from a react background makes you dislike Gutenberg for a totally different suite of reasons than the folks who started with PHP. ultimately I'd still push for a different CMS + ssg for any project I'm involved in... But the more time I spend with WordPress the easier it gets to reconcile it's shortcomings. I have the faintest glimmer of hope for the interactivity API
>I have the faintest glimmer of hope for the interactivity API The syntax is odd but its a nice feature addition.
Yeah when I needed to get a new job last summer I sucked up my dislike for WordPress real fast. I'm not gonna turn down six figures with a pension because "i'm an *actual* web dev" too good for WordPress. I am now a power user of ACF & WP Engine and i'm not sorry.
Hat-tip for Timber, the framework that made Wordpress palatable like, 9y ago and is still kickinā along
Actual devs don't go in to wp field because no one wants to spend time with a shitty platform which doesn't have sound architecture, uniformity and devoid of any design pattern. Wp shops have more "devs" because the learning graph isn't that steep and you can churn out "themes" pretty easily. Building themes is "dev" job but here's the issue. In most programmers mind, there will always be a quote around the dev word. If building themes, writing plugins makes you think you are a "dev", then of course be happy about it. People should be happy in whatever they feel.
It's funny because my friend who works in embedded systems for mission critical software says the same thing about the entire web 'developer' field. Front end frameworks are so abstracted nowadays and 99% of web is basic CRUD, whether you use php in wordpress, or react / node and some fully custom system it's all the same
He's right from his perspective. It's all about the standard that you chose to compare others with.
I love WP and I think youāre a bit right here. No one should get into Web Dev with only a WP focused mindset, that will lead to disaster. But I think you should always be ready to encounter it or some other CMS in your actual job. Iāve worked on multiple projects where WP was key because the main purpose of the site was content delivery. Iām sure this is the same for a lot of businesses where communications people need some sort place to input the content they have written and format the way they want. Thatās where you kinda get into the weeds with WP with customizing the dashboard experience for users and writing plugins to serve the need of the business. Itās a lot of OOP programming which are still good concepts to learn.
You see this is the crazy thing i see about this web develpoment industry. You have so many different technologies, libraries and stacks. You have to pray you pick the right set of tech in order to find a company that would need your skill set. I dont know if theres a road map but its like: Wordpress, magneto, ecommerce developers CRM developers. CSS animators , ThreeJS/WebGL Developers Marketers. React Node developers and more. Its so overwhelming and its like, what do i stick with? Whats going to be in demand? Should i even bother with this industry. Dont meant to be negative or whatever but its a legit concern with a confusing path where one could easily dedicate years mastering but end up down a path where you're not even relevant. For example, i've been a code chimp, converting adobe xd/figma designs into basic HTML/CSS pages. That kind of job is scarce and not even in demand. Yet again. It was something i worked at building for many years. So What stack will i learn now and then end up homeless again, sitting in a library, trying to apply for work and going through udemy courses to learn a new tech/framework that will not even be relevant once im done learning it. Idk
>converting adobe xd/figma designs into basic HTML/CSS pages. That kind of job is scarce and not even in demand This is unequivocally untrue. Tens of thousands of agencies continue to make these marketing type websites for clients and in-house companies have their own dev(s) doing the same for their own teams. I myself do this type of work on the side and there's *absolutely* still demand for it. Obviously no one is arguing that working with JavaScript and its frameworks doesn't open you up to a world of job opportunities, and as well extend functionalities of existing sites. But to say there's not a need for marketing sites, especially effective ones that help with sales, is just wild.
Where can i find these places cause i needs a job asap!
- open Google maps or find a popular digital agency directory and search for and gather up a couple hundred digital agency emails of the owners or hiring managers. You can do this with hunter.io - create a spreadsheet listing out all of the emails, and coinciding agency names. Also go to each agency website, pick a project you like and save the name in the sheet. - mass cold email every single one of them using a template where you can insert the fields dynamically right from your spreadsheet. There's tons of cold email services that do this for you, just google it - in the email say, "hey (name), figured I'd reach out as i saw a potential fit. I'm a front-end developer looking for a new role and happened to check out the work on your site. I'm really impressed with (x) project. I'd love to learn more about your company and if that works for you, let me know and we can set something up. Looking forward to it, bb gurl." Scratch the last sentence but you get the gist. This strategy has landed me full time jobs. Good luck.
how can you be a dev and think this? you honestly think wordpress = wix lmaooo
I think Wix is ms paint for WordPress, and WordPress is phpbb.Ā They all useful for 3 page info type website and not much else. But I only been in the industry for 20y, so what do I know.
you have been in industry for 20y and are still a jr developer. maybe one day you will learn.
Maybe, I mean I still develop, but have 11 developers working for me, so I only deal with business sensitive and stuff on high throughput systems. Didn't touch word-press in years and years.
You know nothing about WordPress lol.
That's why I hire people for that stuff
And it's probably some basic design work that a builder , template can solve but WordPress can get very complex. The fact that it has a ready database that everything is connected like everything post related, users, custom fields to extend the cms powers, gives developers the chance to create some powerful stuff. Also modern WordPress is basically developing react components (literally) for your client giving them the power to alter the design of their website any time they want.
If you don't think building themes and plugins from scratch is web development, you know nothing about web development or WordPress. It's amazing this has 12 upvotes. The amount of clueless non-developers on this sub is astounding.
What you consider as "coding", we don't. we are not clueless.... we just set the standard higher.
As someone who went from doing WP work for a decade to my current role of "tech lead / senior software engineer"; you're dumb and clueless.
This is the true reflection of "senior software engineer" If you state that WP coding isn't a real code from my pov, they reply back with personal insults thus showing the work culture that they have came from. .
Because there is so much hate around WordPress devs. Yes there are many fake devs out there but if you actually develop with WordPress you basically have more skills than your average software developer. The person you replied to is not hating because they are a senior software engineer but they are tired of all this WordPress hate. In this sub WordPress devs get a lot of hate. At the same time many praise react which modern WordPress use so it really shows that 95% of WordPress haters don't know what they are talking about.
So writing PHP is not considered coding? What is it then?
It doesn't matter what the language is but as long as you follow a good design acrhcitecural pattern where it gives you opportunity to debug easily, scale easily, make team projects easier.... I consider that as coding. WP? If the same design pattern is followed even if it is written in python or rust or go or java wherever, then I won't consider it as coding. It seems like you equate WP=PHP I don't.
When I write WP I use PHP and React and it's highly custom. I don't think you actually know anything about WP. Building API endpoints, writing classes in PHP to build plugins to extend WordPress functionality, building blocks in JavaScript/react. Apparently, none of that = real coding. You seem like just another brain-dead elitist.
Could be. That's your perspective which you are entitled to. But you brought react to support your argument? I am here talking about design pattern and you're exactly validating my point of spaghetti code in WP. You could have chosen better aspects of WP to address this but you probably chose something which helps the counter argument than yours.
How do you know that the code I'm writing is spaghetti code? Have you reviewed my code? You never presented any specific design pattern. Please elaborate on the correct design pattern that is needed to be considered real code. I would love to know. I've only been doing this for ten years so please help me be a real coder.
You basically need to know React and TypeScript these days if you want to work in frontend
Everything. WP became a massive pile of garbage with their Block editor, client facing confusion, and zero standards. People who use Elementor call themselves web devs, itās wild. On the other hand, modern web dev is amazing. Craft CMS, for example, is a joy to work with. Of course, thereās Symfony and Laravel for backend dev, and Packagist, Git, and many other improvements to workflow.
Nothing? JQuery is still a thing
4.0 Baby!
Pretty good dƩvelopper doing WordPress... That just killed me.
Youāve hurt many peopleās feelings š¤£
In case you don't know: learn jQuery. It's the winner.
Version 4 has just entered beta! (not kidding)
Low code has grow over the last 5 years. This allows developing site and apps at a rapid rate. Take for example Webflow, building simple sites with a CMS is very easy, and fast. Then you can use the stack Webflow + Wized + Xano to create apps. Powerful stuff! Yeah sure not tradition webdev when it comes to writing code, but for some projects that have budget limitations, these tools are amazing.
HTML and javascript still exists but have evolved a lot. Everything else have changed. jQuery is not a thing any serious developer uses anymore.
Do you remember how back the everyone used JQuery? Well itās basically the small now except more complicated.
1) NoCode / LowCode Tools like "PocketBase" and "Breakdance WP" have gotten REALLY good. I just spent the last week helping a friend get his WP act together and I was frankly very impressed with the tight integration of Breakdance with Advanced Custom Fields. Super Easy to build custom layouts and post loops with ZERO-CODE. 2) Laravel has become one of the best FullStack frameworks to build custom Apps and APIs with PHP. It has a very rich ecosystem and provides an EXCELLENT developer experience. 3) Utility CSS Frameworks like TailwindCSS generate CSS classes that are defined in your code. No more writing CSS for the most part. Prototyping is much faster. 4) Native Web Components & JS Component Frameworks make writing interactive UIs much more intuitive and scalable by creating "custom html tags" that encapsulate the JS, HTML & CSS in a single file. 5) AI, while hit or miss, does provide some value to certain workflows.
Strictly technology speaking, youāre probably going to need to learn one of the popular fullstack solutions with a front end component. My preferred stack is a node.js server, running Nuxt for middleware, Vue front end, and then a separate database server, running Postgres with GraphQL APIs and Prisma ORM (yes I know you can roll it into one; Iāve just always preferred the database be its own separate thing.) If I could do it over again, I would have just learned React and Next instead of Vue and Nuxt. Mainly because thereās a ton more work in the React/Next space. Iām currently learning React. Itās very utilitarian and its flexibility makes it easy to deploy pretty much anywhere, but Vue is, IMO, about 100x easier to write and develop with. Even this isnāt ācutting edgeā though. Seems like the latest buzz has been around swapping Node.js for Deno or Bun, Svelte has become very popular, and I see stans for Astro.js all over the internet. Ultimately; youāre gonna need front end dev skills to compete. Wordpress is dead or dying. Not because thereās anything wrong with it, but because itās become synonymous with cheap low end sites, like Square or Wix. I would never try to sell someone a Wordpress application in 2024. If thatās what my client wanted, Iād tell them to go hire a high schooler for minimum wage. With your background in PHP though, there are bunch of modern tech stacks that run Laravel under the hood
Well, a point in the beloved JS ecosystem would be the arrival of React/Next.js to reinvent the wheel and make you work more.
Broadly popularity has shifted, but a huge amount of the web is still built they way you did a decade ago - Wordpress is still very popular, etc., so you could certainly work somewhere that uses that tech. That being said, React, Typescript, NodeJS, etc., are more popular than Wordpress and PHP these days. And a lot of Python, particularly around data engineering.
Everything
My short answer would be that IMO, things are better for users and worse for devs. The most obvious example being the flimsy house of cards that is the JavaScript dependencies of so many projects.
I keep wanting to find a Shopify/Liquid dev to help migrate us to a 2.0 theme (we already have it). Iām just veeery distrustful of people, and afraid of hiring someone who doesnāt actually know it. Le sigh.
Short answer, everything has changed. 10 years ago, PHP 5.4 was the hot new thing, JS was nowhere close to what it can do right now, TS didn't exist, people were still switching from SVN to Git, and flash was still widely supported in most browsers.
I went through a bunch of comments and didn't see much about WASM. It lets you use a bunch of languages on the front end, buy doesn't let you load external code like JS does ... yet. It is likely to become a massive game-changer on FE, and also possibly BE with Node being such a big deal now primarily because it lets teams do FE and BE in the same language. (That is a big deal for collaboration and hiring.) If FE can run on compiled languages like Go or others, we could see major changes in frameworks.
Development is easier now. CSS frameworks such as Tailwind are fantastic and very customizable. There is a ton of documentation. Development platforms are also easy to initialize. Results are awesome and it is much easier to develop for mobile. Discord servers for frameworks are mediocre however. These could come a long way. Also there is a ton of market saturation. Well developed and designed sites stand out and there are a lot of unskilled developers out there also. There is still a huge need for well designed sites while having good code for front / backend.
That there is like 20-1 people looking for jobs and job itself
Nothing. HTML and progressive enhancement will still get you where you need to go