What are the current trends in web programming?

Question

Web development

Hello dear community.
I am a web development dinosaur, started in 2005. I write in pure PHP (and in a procedural style, sorry) and native JavaScript (with the addition of jQuery). It so happened that wherever I worked, I was the only specialist and stewed in my own juice. Accordingly, he performed the role of a full-stack programmer. I don’t justify my possible laziness, but the load everywhere was large and there was not enough time for self-education. Correctly, I understand that the world has changed a lot, now the server and client parts have diverged a lot. The server no longer dynamically generates pages, it serves only as a source and data processor (analogous to API services). The client part is developed on JS-frameworks and the whole process of interface generation takes place in the client's browser?
As a result, what my sites or web applications looked like: in php, I generated dynamic html pages with JS code. If it was necessary to change the data locally in the client's browser, an ajax request was sent to the server, which generated a ready-made html block, which was then inserted in the right place.
What I got confused about, on the one hand, everyone switched to JS frameworks and now rendering takes place on the client side, which puts forward certain requirements for the client’s hardware (otherwise brakes).
At the same time, Google, with its Lighthouse and site ranking method, says that sites should load quickly and display quickly, and this they now first of all check on older smartphones.
I read a lot before asking a question here (cry of helplessness). It’s clear about OOP, everyone switched to it and there is no alternative. About PHP I chose to study Laravel , about JS, CSS, HTML - I realized that I need to learn Bootstrap for adaptive layout, VueJS - as a JS framework.
I apologize for the long introduction, now the actual questions :
Tell me what to do if there are such requirements for the site / web application:
- so that it is universal, that is, correctly displayed on smartphones, tablets, desktops
- so that it works correctly on old / cheap smartphones
Separate the client part and the server part: send / process data in pure PHP, create an interface in VueJS and Bootstrap.
Or Is
it still in PHP already with Laravel to generate pages for the user with Bootstrap and jQuery?
I would really appreciate your advice, thanks.

Answer 1

I'll put in my five cents. IMHO, by and large what you write on matters only in very large projects with a large team and constant updates. There, the choice of the stack at the start will leave an imprint on everything else. In 99% of other cases, the technology stack is completely unimportant if the TASK IS PERFORMED.
I am the same dinosaur, only even more ancient, I have been writing websites since the 2000s. I keep an eye on all new trends, languages, frameworks, IDEs. But I see absolutely no reason to switch to them for myself. 99% of all orders for the web can be implemented on the same WordPress or some other engine, self-written, etc. And only one percent of customers really know what they need, for example, a SPA based on a non-relational database, and so on. The same SASS or loess, which at one time blew up the frontend, also did not convince me of its usefulness. Although I honestly watched vidos with explanations and comparisons, I wrote on them myself, and so on. If you write basic css styles neatly and thoughtfully, break them into pieces if necessary, and so on, you will never have problems anyway.
In fact, all that has changed in my personal world over the past ten years is the addition of a little OOP in my own code and the environment where I wrote from dreamweaver to atom has changed. ALL. The rest, as it was php/mysql/html/css/js-jquery, remains the same. And you know what? This is enough to solve all the problems that are in front of me. And I don't feel at all hurt or outdated.
It seems to me that when something really breakthrough, super convenient, worthwhile, etc. appears, you will not have the question "why do I need this, but is it worth it to go over." You will definitely understand that yes, it’s worth it, it’s cool and will speed up / improve the process and the result of your work.

Answer 2

I have been working as a full-stack developer for a long time and I use just such a stack almost everywhere, I will share my opinion.
The Bootstrap + Laravel + VueJS stack you chose is great, suitable for any application layer. We do highload admin panel management on Laravel + VueJS, and highload api on symphony and node.
Answering your questions:
Bootstrap is just for this, learn all the details of layout for different devices.
Forget about jQuery, write in vuejs (>es6) + vanilla js, use webpack + polyfills if old devices are needed.
To sum up: learn bash + git + composer + laravel + vuejs + bootstrap + sass + js (es6) + docker. (bootstrap is optional, if the volume of styles is not large, write in pure css)

Answer 3

If the site is tuned for traffic from search engines, then all the new-fangled "laravel + vuejs + bootstrap + sass + js (es6) + docker" go hard in the forest

- so that it is universal, that is, it is displayed correctly on smartphones, tablets, desktops
- so that it works correctly on old / cheap smartphones

There is no need to invent great here. If the site is being indexed by search engines, then the good old bunch of php + js + jquey + ajax is what is optimal. Adjusting to different screens is done in css with media rules
, but if you don’t care that the server will receive an almost empty page in the browser, after which it will immediately change dynamically, introducing search engines into a stupor, then walk the field of course

Answer 4

so that it is universal, that is, it is correctly displayed on smartphones, tablets, desktops

Bootstrap is far from mandatory to learn. It has a lot of excess. And sometimes you may run into the problem of non-Bootstrap layout. If the designer did not draw on the grid, bootstrap will only load your project with unnecessary junk and you will have to redefine the styles. Which is hemorrhoids and, again, devours bytes.
Learn how to type better on flex or grid . The native behavior of these css properties is already wired with adaptive behavior.
And how old do they have to be? iphone 3-4? and the like?
Let's start with the fact that these devices, as far as I know, do not support the Internet above 3g. And on such a connection, even their landing pages will not load quickly.
There is a subtle point here. Either you are constantly trying to adapt to the old dull r....:) Or you don't care about it and code modern! Read about Graceful Degradation vs. gradual improvement
As for what to code at all. I can’t tell you about the backend, but Java is very popular (as always). From a relatively new one - Node.js
In the Frontend, if there are 3 frameworks around which hysteria has been going on for more than a year:
- Vue.js
- React.js
- Angular(Already few people use it from scratch. Basically, this is support for already written projects)
For myself, as a frontend, I chose Vue.js.
It has the lowest entry threshold and an understandable "undermining".
The popularity is lower than that of React.js, but is gaining momentum.

Answer 5

Hello fellow dinosaur. Personally, I now write simple back-end APIs with minimal ties to frameworks.
Maximum - I almost never touch third-party libraries and components of the symphony from the Front composer. If a front is required, I saw the skeleton on the bootstrap and enliven it with ECMAScript6 scripts. Those. I describe the object model of entities on the page and the interactions between them.
More often I just provide documentation on the api frontender.

Answer 6

The main thing - do not overload your site with unnecessary and cumbersome scripts. Without fanaticism. Now the entire "civilized" web is very littered with tons of JS frameworks and various libraries, they are now shoved with or without reason. Still, sometimes it's better to do it "the old fashioned way" and it will work better than on Vue.js/Angular/your favorite framework.js, especially if you have a productive server. Don't forget about Windows users, as some hipstors like to optimize their sites for Pink Safari on Aimac, as a result, the site can change completely, usually not for the better. And that's not to mention the old hardware that runs Windows XP. Of course, you should not slow down progress, but you should not follow its lead either.
The best site is the one that benefits its visitor, in 99% of cases he does not care what the site is written on, the final result is important to him. But if it slows down, devours traffic or crashes, it is unlikely that a person will return to you, and even tell others.

Answer 7

I used to be a full stack, I also coded back in a puff in a procedural-functional style, OOP was in the form of connecting all sorts of libraries like Smarty, DBSimple. At the age of 10, I got tired of producing a boilerplate, freaked out and drank a small framework, realizing that the main logic had gone to the front, so the movement focused on giving the primary layout and supporting a bunch of AJAX requests conveniently. The front was made on jQuery with plugins.
For some time, this worked fine, until, one day, I had to cut a 60-field form with a bunch of logic to integrate the customer's internal CRM with Cyan. Especially when after a few months I had to change the logic, because. life doesn't stand still...
I was finally finished off by a form for applying for a mortgage on 8 pages and 300 fields with a configurator and the ability to turn off any fields, blocks, and even pages. The customer demanded an implementation in jQuery, although I was already keen on React at that time.
In general, that the train of the past has left and I need to retrain, I finally realized in 2014-2015, which I immediately did.
At first I jumped into Node.JS, but I found everything boring there, so I switched to the front, mainly React + Vanilla. It turned out that I really did not know JS, so I began to methodically close all my blind spots. One of the best ways to learn something is to start teaching it to others, so I went as a JS mentor wherever they took, which helped me master the basics in a short time, because. you can cheat for yourself, and when other people are waiting for answers, it is very disciplined. :)
In the future, I plan to return to full-stack development, but already based on Node.JS + React, because. For me personally, this stack is the most comfortable.

Answer 8

You can take a look at MEAN

Answer 9

Here the main question is what we write.
If document-oriented systems (like Internet shops, blogs, news).
That actually Laravel, Symphony well, etc. JS with its frameworks didn’t give up here.
For simple SPA applications, you can of course React, Vue. But this is only for simple, complex business applications, they are not very suitable (because they are not stable and long). In general, there are no complex projects on them, and no matter what anyone says.
For business applications (a bunch of tables, reports, non-trivial business logics).
I would recommend Vaadin - it's a java web framework.
In general, everything that turns on Java or C #.
Also, for large corporate clients, Desktop has not disappeared anywhere.
Regarding phones, no one bothers to adapt the site to the screen. Since the resolution of modern phones is large, all who could have written mobile clients for a long time.

Answer 10

well, write api on laravel (lumen) and spa on vue.js, routing through the client, if you need ssr, then there is a module
in php. It will also be interesting to pay attention to typescript, graphQL (rest alternative)
There is also such a list with stacks, more one useful link

Answer 11

Hey!
If you're a dinosaur, then I'm the petrified shit of that dinosaur. Experience since 1990 :)
Use a framework, of which there are many (jQuery Mobile, Bootstrap, Framework7, Onsen UI, etc.)
To prevent old smarts from hanging, generate content on the server (a powerful server is required), giving the finished code. Or combine generation on the server and on the client. It all depends on the specific task.
I note that I use a jQuery-like library for PHP to generate code. The same selectors, the same methods - very convenient!