Best Tools for Web-Base Development - Assignment Example

Webbase Development Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Table of Contents Introduction 3 Text Editors 3 Source Code Revision Control 4 Wireframing Tools 4 Task Tracking Tools 5 Conclusion 5 Appendices 6 Appendix A: Visual Studio Code Symbol 6 Appendix B: Git Symbol 6 Appendix C: UXPin Symbol 6 Appendix D: Asana Symbol 6 Bibliography 8 Introduction In web development, there are a number of tools that play very important roles in ensuring that all that needs to be done is done with the least effort possible. These tools help developers in handling such functions as writing code, source code revision control, layout visualization and task tracking. These functions are key to the successful development of a website or web-based application. Many tools have been developed to handle these functions leading to a variety from where developers can choose. Just as it is in other fields and especially in business, the availability of many products in the market leads to competition which ends up benefitting the consumer. The products in this case are the web development tools while the consumers are web developers. The presence of many tools in the market has led to some sort of competition that has led to those producing them coming up with additional features to make their products stand out. This leads to the availability of great tools in the market that can lead to the development of great web applications[Avi03]. However, when there exists a variety from, where developers can choose, the challenge of knowing what to choose comes in. there are various aspects of a tool that a developer must look when selecting a tool to perform the mentioned functions. These aspects are efficiency, plugins and extensions. The main focus is, therefore, on better time use and the available of additional features to make work easier. The paper focuses on the best tools for each of the identified categories. Text Editors Text editors, also source code editors, are tools that enable a developer to write and manipulate (edit and delete) code during the development stage of an application. Text editors are very important tools because they enable the entire process of web development to be begin and run with or without other tools. Even without other enhancements, text editors alone can be used to develop an entire web application. There are many tools that serve this basic operation of web development; some of the notable ones Macromedia Dreamweaver, Sublime Text, Notepad, Notepad++ and Visual Studio Code. Different developers will choose different tools from this category, but, arguably, the best text/source code editor is the visual studio code[Mat16]. Efficiency: Visual studio code (symbol in appendix A) is a free text editor that supports OSX, Windows and Linux platforms. From the time of its release (April, 2015) to date, it has received many positive ratings and is now ranked high. As opposed to the other editors, Visual studio code is very efficient. It underlines errors so that one doesn’t have to execute and correct later. It also marks functions and other parts of code differently to easy identification. It also allows for the opening of folders so that addition of files, deletion and manipulation of code for a project can be done within the editor. Side-by-side coding makes it the most efficient text editor. Plugins and extensions: visual studio code comes with a built-in extension management functionality which allows one to easily add plugins and extensions. It also has many plugins and extensions than other text editors. One of the plugins is the Debugger from Chrome which allows one to debug JS codes within the editor. Among its best extensions are Open-In-Browser, which allows the developer to open the code in a default browser of the developer’s choice. The editor has over 15 plugins and extensions that help in adding more functionality and ease coding. Others are Quokka for debugging, Faker for JS library, CSS peek for CSS classes and the great Color Info plugin that gives information about the various colors of code used. These extensions and plugins can be added and managed easily with visual studio code than with any other source code editor. This makes visual studio code stand out among the rest. VS studio is, therefore, the best text/source code editor. Source Code Revision Control Source code revision control is the management of changes to collections of information. Source code revision control, also known as version control, allows the developer to manage the changes that occur in source code. There are also a multitude of tools used for source code revision control, some of the notable ones being; Git, AccuRev, BitKeeper, Fossil, and Monotone, among others. Git stands out as the best version control tool for me. The logo of Git tool is shown in appendix B. Efficiency: Git is a tool that helps developers with version control of their code. It does through repositories that are found built in text editors like visual code or can be added as a plugin with ease. It is very efficient mainly due to two factors; one is that it supports a distributed repository model. This means that all repositories of the source code act as peers. This allows users to work on local repositories with version history as opposed to having a working copy. The second factor is the merged concurrency model. This allows for free editing of files and then get notifications of possible conflicts, at which the changes may be merged on both sides[Jun17]. Plugins and Extensions: Git tool has many plugins that enable users to get more out of the code versioning tool. The plugins and extensions can also be added to the main tool with ease. The main plugin is GitFlow which manages the branching model of the application. The branching feature of git allows the user to have multiple local branches that can be independent of each other. The other available plugins are; Auto Compile Submodules, Background Fetch, Create Local Tracking Braches, GitUIPluginInterface, Github, Proxy switcher, Release Notes Generator, and Statistics, among others. What makes Git stand out in terms of the plugins and extensions is that they are easily available and also easy to use – with simple commands. Their documentation is also easily available. Wireframing Tools One of the best type of tools that a web developer should have is the wireframing tools. These tools make web development very easy by visualizing the layout of the product into a framework on which the developer can concentrate on the functionalities and user interactivity. Some of the existing tools are Wireframe.cc, Moqups, Fluid UI, and UXPin, among others. My best wireframe tool is the UXPin (symbol in appendix C)[Nat17]. Efficiency: UXPin is simply the best wireframing tool. It allows developers to drag and drop custom elements for wireframing instead of designing from scratch; making the process very fast and simple. It also allows the developer to start designs from scratch on other applications like Photoshop and then import them into the tool. All this makes it very fast to wireframe. It also enables fast designing of interactive and animated wireframes; as opposed to the other wireframing tools. Plugins and extensions: a great advantage of UXPin is the availability of plugins and extensions that enable it to support various platforms. For instance, there are library plugins for Bootstrap, Foundation, IOS and Android which can be used in the application very fast. It also allows for the addition of extensions for other applications. It can be added with ease as a plugin to the common web browsers[UXP17]. It stands out due to its collaborative nature seconded by the ease availability of plugins and extensions. UXPin is, therefore, the best wireframing tool for visualizing layout. Task Tracking Tools Sometimes web development incorporates teams of developers who have to share tasks to speed up the process. The main challenge with this arrangement is the tracking of the tasks. however, tools like Asana, Basecamp, Trello, Podio, and Todoist, among others, help handle this. The best tool in this category is the Asana tool. It is the most widely used in many organizations. It serves well with a team of skilled developers. Its symbol is shown in appendix D[Tas14]. Efficiency: Other task tracking tools require developers to track work using the tool and communicate outside the tool itself using such tools as internal emails. However, this is not the case with Asana; the tool allows for communication within the application, saving time and bringing in convenience. It also has many elements that can be accessed with ease as icons on the toolbars; easing the task tracking process. It also, unlike others, has a feature for sending notifications and reminders. Plugins and Extensions: Asana connects with several other apps to give the user a convenient experience. It allows for integration with other apps like slack, salesforce, OneDrive, Google Forms, and Google Sheets, among others. This makes Asana have features of these other apps and allow the user to track their tasks with even more ease. These integrations are easy to perform and are also efficient and convenient because they bring together apps that are commonly used by most users. This makes it stand out among the rest in this category. Conclusion Web development is a practice that has been made very easy with the availability of many applications which act as support tools. It is easier to select the best among the existing tools based on their efficiency and availability and usefulness of their plugins and extensions. This leads to the selection of Visual Studio Code as the best text/source code editor, Git as the best source code revision control tool, UXPin as the best wireframing too, and Asana as the best task tracking tool. Appendices Appendix A: Visual Studio Code Symbol Appendix B: Git Symbol Appendix C: UXPin Symbol Appendix D: Asana Symbol Bibliography Avi03: , (Avison & Fitzgerald, 2003), Mat16: , (Goldspinl, 2016), Jun17: , (Hamano, 2017), Nat17: , (Foster, 2017), UXP17: , (UXPin, 2017), Tas14: , (Anon., 2014), Read More