What exactly is Frontender doing now?

Question

Career in IT

If the backend is work with a third-party API, CRUD, data processing, database, optimization, provision of API.
That the front is only getting the API and its output + layout?

Answer 1

Yes, fronts do everything the user sees. And if earlier, it was only a layout for 1-2 browsers, now it is a layout for different resolutions, animation, pop-ups, reactive components and much more. I don’t think that the usual back writing parsers and APIs, like this, can take a psd layout layer by layer and turn it into an adaptive SPA application in a reasonable time, for example, on Vue. This is where the industry has grown - the front has become more complicated and narrow specialists are needed. At the same time, the backing, in turn, is becoming simpler and simpler, since in 90% of cases the backing is just a set of instructions for displaying data from the database.

Answer 2

A normal front-ender costs a lot of money
No one in their right mind would use an expensive layout specialist A layout
designer makes a psd layout in sass / less + html + minimal JS to implement the designer's idea
If ready-made components are used or the layout designer has already made a set of components, then the front-ender makes them out of them templates for your framework
Between the position of a layout designer and a front-end developer there is an abyss in the form of a huge amount of knowledge on js and on a specific framework

Answer 3

"So the front is just getting the API and its output + layout?" Generally speaking, YES.
In more detail, then:
Not in all companies, the fronts are engaged in layout. You also need to be able to bungle SPA, especially when you need to update information asynchronously in real time. Plus all sorts of local tasks: data validation; bundle size optimization; slowly came PWA with its goodies (webworkers, push notifications, cash, etc.); working with API can also be different (JSON REST, websockets, graphql); Client-side code testing (acceptance tests); Tracking user actions; Various interactive games (webgl); and so on...
The area is large enough if you dig deep.

Answer 4

If you are working on a backend, then try to write a client for this backend, for example, in Vue or React.
Take the finished layout. Lay it out. Divide layout into components. Add a data store. Write validators in forms. Make all data reactive (change in storage - change immediately on the page). Connect your backend to the client. You will have to write data converters, because often, data from the backend does not come in the structure that the client needs.
And then make changes to the layout. Change the design of UI components (inputs, buttons, drop-down lists). Change the position of the blocks. And try to make these changes in your frontend. Did it work quickly and without problems? This is the work of a front-end developer in Russia.

Answer 5

Active job search.

Answer 6

Depends on the company and experience. All the same, this is more about js, but it also doesn’t hurt to build user-friendly interfaces.
What is he doing? Refactors, optimizes, implements new things, writes at least one of the popular frameworks, looks at node.js, writes his own projects. He writes tests well, but again it depends on the tasks and the time for them.