Here at TechLaunch, we take a no-nonsense approach to web dev. We don’t waste time with excessive theorizing, learning about “legacy” technologies, or spelling out the “elopment” in web development. Our students come to us to help them get into new careers, so we focus on the only things that truly matter: the skills that employers are actually looking for in the 2018 job market, like for example how TikTok algorithm works.

We work with dozens of small, medium, and large-scale employers here in Miami, and have placed students
in web dev positions throughout the city. Through extensive
conversations and in-depth hiring processes, we have determined that
there are five major skills that employers are looking for in junior web
developers.

So without further ado, here are the five skills you’ll need to land a web dev job in 2018:

1. DESIGN SKILLS

Before you even start coding a website, you’ll need to have the overall design in mind. While design skills generally fall in the purview of web designers [LINK] (rather than developers), developers do need to understand some basic (and some not-so-basic) design principles in order to be good at their jobs. You can visit here to see the necessary design skills required to be a good hire.

Responsive & Mobile-First Design

All web developers who want to be employed in 2018 must know how to build mobile-first websites that are responsive
to all screen shapes and sizes. If you build a website that looks great
on your giant HD desktop screen, but looks like a pile of garbage on
the CEO’s new iPhone X, your employer isn’t going to be happy with your
work.

Design Paradigms

Design paradigms like Google’s “material design”
and Apple’s “flat design” aren’t just there to make your websites look
pretty. Aside from making websites feel more familiar, modern, and
integrated into the cutting-edge internet trends that viewers are
accustomed to, design paradigms also help make websites more
user-friendly and functional.

Google’s Material Design “Floating Action Buttons” are a great
example of functional design. Chances are, you’ve seen these little
floating buttons before; in your gmail account, in your calendar, or on a
million other websites you’ve used. When you see it, you automatically
know where to click. You don’t have to think about it, it’s second
nature.

Such is the power of the design paradigm.

UX, UI & Usability

The three u’s — user experience, user interface,
and usability — are buzzwords thrown around a lot in the tech
community… and for good reason. Ease of use and customer satisfaction
are pretty much the primary goals of the entire web development process.
UX/UI/usability skills are important aspects of web development
training that real-world employers are actively looking for.

Progressive Web Apps

The progressive web app is a relatively new design principle, introduced a few years ago by some innovative folks over at the Googleplex.

The idea was to combine the best parts of HTML-based websites and
native mobile apps, while avoiding the pitfalls of both of them. These
web-based mobile apps (or “progressive web apps”) are basically just
websites that are designed to look and feel like mobile apps when
accessed through a mobile device.

Progressive web apps offer “native-like” and “offline-first” experience.

Progressive web apps have some major advantages over traditional
mobile apps. For one thing, they are much easier (and cheaper) to design
and develop, since you only need to make one version for all devices.
Since they run in the browser, they are truly cross-platform. And
luckily for you, as a web developer, they’re built with simple HTML,
CSS, and JavaScript… just like your average website. So you don’t need
to learn an entirely new set of skills in order to build fully
functional mobile apps.

Progressive web apps can download assets into the smartphone’s cache
so that your “app” can run offline. They can go “full screen” like a
native mobile app, by hiding the browser. They can allow the viewer to
add the website to their home-screen with a single click (with a custom
app-icon, no less!). Progressive web apps can access some parts of the
smartphone’s hardware, send push notifications even while the browser is
closed, run much faster and smoother than traditional mobile websites,
and more. Google has already developed a framework for you to create
progressive web apps. Who knows what the future may hold?

Many big internet companies, including Twitter, Forbes, and eBay,
have switched over to progressive web app frameworks for their mobile
sites. Employers in today’s market are making very generous offers to
developers who can create progressive web apps for their companies.

Some of the companies around the world that have switched to progressive web apps for their mobile sites.

2. FRONT-END WEB DEV SKILLS

HTML/CSS

HTML is the fundamental building block of the internet. It creates all the pieces of your websites.

CSS makes the whole thing look pretty.

Without these two basic skills, you are not a web developer.

JS, jQuery, React.js

For web developers, JavaScript
is just as fundamental as HTML and CSS. While HTML and CSS take care of
the structure and design of your websites, JavaScript takes care of its
behavior. It allows users to interact with your website, and for your
website to interact with users.

In order to just barely qualify as a web developer, you need to know
some JavaScript and jQuery. In particular, knowing how to handle ajax
requests, attach event listeners, and manipulate the DOM with JavaScript
is a must. Good knowledge of frameworks like React can unlock access to
higher end opportunities.

GitHub

When traditional employees need to work together as a team, they do
it in an office. When web developers need to work together as a team,
they do it on GitHub.

GitHub, and other “version control” platforms, allow you to
collaboratively edit code with your coworkers (and others), while still
maintaining the integrity of previous versions through time. So if the
boss hires his fifteen-year-old nephew to “modernize” the code, you
don’t lose seven months of work. You can always revert to an earlier
stable version.

GitHub also allows you to view all the changes that were made in each
version, so it makes it much easier to find new bugs in the code.

Google Chrome’s Developer Tools

Ever wonder why so many web developers prefer Google Chrome over
other browsers? Well, yes, it is generally one of the best browsers
available at the moment, but Google Chrome also has some amazing tools
for developers.

Google chrome’s developer tools can help you play with the code of
live websites, and watch the changes happen in real time. They allow you
to view the JavaScript console in your browser, track how fast assets
download from the server, and much, much more.

Many employers are savvy enough to specifically look for developers
who know how to use Google Chrome’s developer tools. In particular,
being able to profile an application in order to optimize its
performance is a valued skill.

WordPress

While WordPress
certainly has its downsides, it’s also an important skill that many
employers are looking for in junior web devs. WordPress powers something
like 28% of the internet.
That means that a large percentage of employers need to hire web
developers who can develop and maintain their WordPress-based
infrastructure.

Aside from just maintaining previously-built websites, WordPress can also be an ideal solution for companies that want a CMS they can work with and maintain by themselves. You can check out the website of Collectiveray to learn more about WordPress.

3. BACK-END BASICS

While some web developers start out as back-end
experts, front-end web development tends to be a more intuitive entry
point for many people. But even if you want to get a job as a front-end
specialist, you still need to have at least a basic understanding of the
concepts of back-end web development. At the very least, you’ll be
working with back-end developers, and you’ll need to be able to
understand what they’re saying in order to work together effectively.
Or, you may be put in positions where you actually need to do some of
the back end work yourself!

Servers

Most entry-level web development jobs won’t require you to build your
own servers. But you’ll at least need to understand how they work, and
how your website interacts with them.

APIs

You’ll need to understand how the front-end of your website can
interact with back-end infrastructure, through Application Programming
Interfaces (APIs).

SQL & Databases

Many websites and web apps use databases to store information. You’ll
need to have a basic understanding of how they work, and how to
interact with them.

HTTPS & Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity became a hot topic at the end of 2017 due to high-profile hacks that caused billions of dollars in damages and exposed 145 million Americans to the joys of identity theft. Employers are more concerned about cybersecurity than ever.and this is where the email security saas steps into the scene. If you can display a basic understanding of cybersecurity, you’ve got a leg up on your competition.

4. DIGITAL MARKETING INSIGHT

With ZTNA solution, security of the business is maintained. If there’s one thing that’s more important to employers than security, it’s profits. While digital marketing skills are mainly needed by, well, digital marketers, employers look highly upon web developers who can show at least some insight into the world of digital marketing. A web developer who understands digital marketing can develop websites that get real, tangible results.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

One of the primary reasons companies build websites is to bring in
new customers. The best way to bring in new customers is to rank highly
in search engines for relevant keywords. If your company sells lemur
food in Miami, you’ll want to show up on the first page of Google
whenever somebody searches “lemur food Miami”. If you’re not on the
first page, it’s very unlikely that your target customers will find your
website.

Search engine optimization is very important, but it’s a skill that
most people don’t have. Companies often resort to hiring specialized SEO
teams to optimize their websites. Web developers who have some SEO
skills can offer major advantages to companies that hire them. Building a
website with SEO in mind is much more efficient than building a poorly
optimized website and then hiring a team to fix it.

Conversion-Focused Design

While making pretty-looking, well-functioning websites is nice and
dandy, employers tend to care more about their bottom line. Web
developers who understand conversion-focused design are much better at
building high-converting websites. Higher conversion rates = more
profits = better bottom line = happy employers.

5. “SOFT SKILLS”

Many aspiring web developers spend all day staring at computer screens, trying to work out the bugs in their code.The truth is, though, that many would be better off taking some time to work on their interpersonal skills. Visit This Link to know more about computer skills. Employers aren’t looking for anti-social nerds to do their coding. They’re looking for well-rounded employees. Employers want devs who can build their websites, while at the same time fitting into the company culture, handling clients’ concerns, collaborating with other developers, and communicating effectively with non-technical executives and managers.

“Soft skills,” like communication and social skills, aren’t just
important for networking, wooing employers, and acing interviews.
They’re important on-the-job as well. The better you are at
communicating with the people around you, the better you’ll be able to
get things done.

Be a Well-Rounded Developer.

Many people getting into web development make the mistake of putting
all of their energy into improving one or more of these skill-sets,
while neglecting others. We often see people focusing on coding, without
developing their soft skills. The truth is, the people who do the best —
the ones who actually get high-paying jobs and fulfilling careers —
make sure to develop all five of these skill-sets, becoming well-rounded
web developers.

You can learn most of these skills on your own, through Google,
YouTube, and online courses. Of course, it will take you a really long
time to do it that way (if you succeed at all). Here at TechLaunch, we
focus on teaching you all five of these skills, at a relaxed pace, over
the course of nine months. We can help you become a well-rounded
developer, and start a new career in under a year! To explore our course
offerings, check out techlaunch.io.

By Max Lynch

Today I am thrilled to announce the 4.0 release of Ionic Framework, lovingly known as “Ionic for Everyone.”

Ionic 4 represents the culmination of more than two years of research and hard work transforming Ionic from “mobile for Angular” into a powerful UI Design System and app framework for every web developer in the world.

There are so many things to talk about with this release, but first I’d like to talk about how we got here.

The Angular Years

Back in 2013 when we started working on Ionic Framework, we sought to build rich JavaScript-powered components for building quality mobile apps with web technologies, and distribute them as custom HTML tags that any web developer could use in their apps.

Unfortunately, there was no standard way to do that back then, so we jumped on the next best thing: AngularJS directives. We loved that you could build custom directives in AngularJS and package up all the complexity we needed to offer native-quality components into an easy-to-use custom HTML tag. Any AngularJS template that used that tag would magically bootstrap the component and run it as if it was natively supported right in the browser. Our early experiments with AngularJS were so successful we stopped looking at alternatives and went all-in.

When Angular 2 was announced, we knew that in order to stay relevant in the Angular world, we’d need to port Ionic to it. So, we shipped Ionic 2 and 3 to do just that. I’m so glad we did, as Ionic 3 has been the most successful version of Ionic yet.

Oh, if only the story ended there!

Frontend Churn

Fast forward to 2019, and the frontend landscape looks nothing like it did back in 2013.

To start, AngularJS has been replaced by modern Angular. React, which wasn’t even on our radar back then, has achieved massive popularity. New frameworks like Vue have grown even more quickly and serve to remind us that the status quo is anything but.

So much change happened so fast that “frontend churn” became the bane of a generation of web developers.

At the end of 2017, we started asking ourselves if our original dream was worth revisiting. It was clear that frontend developers would never settle on any specific frontend framework or libraries, so to assume otherwise was futile. At the same time, we were frustrated that Ionic could only be used by those that embraced Angular. And, while we loved Angular, we hated the idea that Ionic wasn’t achieving its original goal of being a toolkit for every web developer in the world.

Luckily for us, something wonderful had happened in the frontend world between 2013 and 2018: Browsers had converged on a standardized component model, allowing developers to define custom HTML tags and easily distribute them to other developers. This collection of APIs become known as Web Components, and they were everything we had dreamed of back in 2013.

We started experimenting with turning Ionic into a set of Web Components in 2017, and we were blown away by how capable and efficient they were. In our minds, it was clear Web Components would be the way UI libraries, like Ionic, would be distributed in the future. So, we took a big bet and started porting all 100 of our components over.

Thusly, Ionic Framework 4, “Ionic for Everyone,” was born.

“Ionic for Everyone”

With today’s release, Ionic Framework is now distributed as a set of Web Components using the Custom Elements and Shadow DOM APIs available in all modern mobile and desktop browsers.

This means that practically every web developer in the world can now use Ionic’s components in their mobile, desktop, and Progressive Web Apps—just by using Ionic’s custom HTML tags in their app.

On top of that, because Ionic now targets standard web APIs instead of third-party ones, developers can rest assured that Ionic’s component APIs will stay stable for many years to come instead of falling victim to frontend and framework churn.

No longer just “mobile for Angular,” Ionic is now a modern, web-based Design System and app framework for every web developer no matter what tools and frameworks they choose to use on top.

This is the dream we’ve had since 2013, and, after six years of hard work and making some big bets on promising new technology, it’s finally a reality.

The Best Ionic Yet

Not only is Ionic 4 the most accessible and future-proof version of Ionic we’ve ever built, but it’s also the fastest and most complete.

Every one of the nearly 100 Ionic components has been evaluated for performance, theme customizability, and platform look and feel. This includes a complete iOS and Material Design refresh for each component to match the latest standards on iOS and Android.

Since each component is now a Web Component built with our new Web Component compiler project Stencil, Ionic components are optimized for load and render performance, helping Ionic apps reach the coveted 100/100 score* on Google’s Lighthouse benchmark tool (*heavily dependent on the framework used with Ionic).

We’re going to be publishing more extensive data and benchmarks comparing Ionic load/render performance across various frameworks, but the graph above shows significant improvements on First Meaningful Paint for developers using Angular with Ionic 4, and this is just the beginning.

Finally, we’ve dramatically improved the design for all new app starter templates, to help developers get to great design faster than before.

Performance for World-Class Progressive Web Apps

Progressive Web Apps are all the rage right now, and Ionic 4 was designed out-of-the-box to be the best UI framework for building high-performance PWAs.

For Ionic to reach performance standards set by Google, new approaches for asynchronous component loading and delivery were needed. To achieve this, we spent a year building out a web component pipeline using Stencil to generate Ionic’s components, ensuring they were tightly packed, lazy loaded, and delivered in smart collections consisting of components you’re actually using.

Today, Stencil-built components lead the pack in terms of bundle size and load performance, and Ionic 4 benefits from all of that.

Of course, you’ll likely be using Ionic with a separate frontend framework like Angular or React, so we will be publishing some guides shortly about how to pick the right technologies to reach Progressive Web App performance standards, since reaching performance standards with Angular and React requires some additional work.

Built for Customization

One of the biggest changes under the hood is the move to using native CSS Custom Properties, also known as CSS Variables, in each component.

CSS Custom Properties make it possible to expose a “public theming API” that provides structure to developers that wish to brand and customize Ionic’s components, in a way that supports easily upgrading to future versions of Ionic without introducing compatibility issues. CSS Custom Properties also provide a standardized way to theme Ionic apps independent of the frontend framework used in your app.

This means developers no longer have to modify the internals of Ionic’s Sass/CSS styles or inspect to find internal classes to override. Modifications now happen by targeting Ionic’s public theming API through the published, documented CSS Custom Properties.

This represents a significant improvement over the style modification process web developers have had to work with, in the past, which often restricted developers from being able to upgrade to new versions due to reliance on internal style modifications.

Revamped Documentation

One of the things Ionic developers often tell us is that Ionic has some of the best developer documentation around.

We take incredible pride in that, but we also knew that our old docs could be improved in a number of significant ways.

Today we’re launching version 0.5 of a major revamp for the official Ionic Documentation, which along with dramatically improved performance also includes a simpler design, focused on content, and an easier-to-navigate organization.

We’ve also consolidated the API reference and the component reference, reducing the number of pages developers have to flip between to get the information they need.

We’re not quite done with the final version of the docs, but we’re releasing a version 0.5 today that has most of the content and API references filled out.

Check out the new work-in-progress docs.

Perfect for your Design System

With new theming capabilities and a focus on framework-agnostic web components, Ionic is ready to be the foundation for your own Design Systems, essentially building your own Ionic on top of Ionic.

We dug into this on the blog last week, so take a look if you’re interested in building a cross-platform, web-standards based Design System for your company.

Use your Framework’s Tooling

Back when Ionic 2 was built on top of Angular and modern JavaScript tooling was just emerging, Ionic had to figure out and build a fair amount of tooling in order to compile and bundle modern Angular apps. Not to mention, solutions like Angular Router were still in development and were not yet ready for Ionic to use for navigation, so we had to build our own.

With Ionic 4, we now use your framework’s official tooling for building, bundling, and routing, so you can get the most out of your framework’s ecosystem and we can focus on what we do best.

That means you’ll use the Angular CLI when using Ionic with Angular, Vue CLI with Vue.js, and so on.

Read more about this on our blog.

React and Vue, too

Ionic is moving to a “bring your own framework” model, and because Ionic’s UI controls are now based on Web Component APIs, they can generally work out-of-the-box in all major frontend frameworks (Angular, React, Vue, etc.).

However, Ionic also needs to integrate with a framework’s routing system for a first-class native navigation experience, so we still have to ship framework-specific functionality. Additionally, developers on each framework expect things to work a specific way that sometimes deviates from the way they are done with plain Web Components (like React devs expecting MyComponent vs my-component).

Our official Vue.js and React bindings are currently in alpha and you can expect them to be a big part of the Ionic 4 developer experience going forward. We are incredibly bullish on these two frameworks and expect that the majority of Ionic developers will eventually build apps with one or both.

If you’d like to try the alpha versions today, take a look at the React README and the Vue README in our repo. Don’t worry, we will make it way easier to use these projects soon.

Lastly, we dug into how Ionic Vue was created on our blog. Take a look if you’re interested in how this project came to be.

Roadmap

Over the last two years, we’ve been intensely focused on making Ionic the most future-proof, framework-agnostic, high-performance, and standards-based UI framework ever.

Now that 4.0.0 (codenamed Neutronium) is out and production-ready, we’re thrilled to be able to invest some more time in improving what you love most about Ionic: Our components.

Next on our roadmap includes desktop-specific UI support to expand the types of desktop apps that can be built with Ionic, improved keyboard scenarios (chat apps, etc), better theming options, richer animations, and more. Along with improvements to the core of Ionic, expect more tutorials and guides on migrating to and building with Ionic, now that we feel confident going all-in on this brave new version of Ionic Framework.

Additionally, we are excited about making React and Vue support first-class in Ionic and expect that these frameworks will become a significant percentage of the frameworks used in Ionic apps, so watch for updates on those in the near future.

We will also be working to incorporate our new Cordova alternative Capacitor as an option for new Ionic projects in the CLI. Stay tuned for more on that this year.

Thank you

Before we leave, we want to extend a huge “thank you!” to the entire Ionic community. We’ve been teasing Ionic 4 for a while now, and in an ecosystem filled with change and uncertainty, we are grateful to have had your trust and patience throughout the entire process.

We also want to thank the Ionic community members who took a big bet on Ionic 4 and shipped real apps even though it was alpha and we said very clearly it wasn’t production ready .

Teams like Sworkit, built and shipped entire new versions of their app with Ionic 4, and we’ve been working directly with enterprise teams that are doing the same. With Ionic 4 going into a production-ready state, the pressure release valve has been opened and we are excited to see other teams start building with it.

Last but not least, we want to thank the wonderful contributors that have stepped up to help Ionic 4, whether that was by submitting PRs, helping test new releases, or creating educational content for the community: None of this would be possible without your help.

Getting Started and Migrating

Getting started with Ionic 4 is easy. Follow the Getting Started Guide, or create a new project directly from the Ionic CLI:

npm install -g ionic # Update the Ionic CLI
ionic start awesome-app

For teams looking to migrate from an older version of Ionic to Ionic 4, we can help! Along with a fully-supported version of Ionic Framework for Enterprises building mission-critical apps (including Cordova/Capacitor native plugin support!), we have Advisory Services available for teams that need assistance. Plus, we’ve also published a Migration Guide for self-directed migrations, along with some tools to help ease the process.