In today’s quickly evolving digital world, there is an ever-increasing demand for skilled web developers, and no developer’s stack is complete without JavaScript. Often described as the backbone of modern web development, JavaScript has become an integral part of creating dynamic and interactive websites and applications.

If your goal is to dive head first into the world of web development, or if you would like to improve your existing skills to enhance your resume, a Java coding bootcamp might be the pivotal experience you need to launch your career and increase your earnings.

In today’s article, we will be going through the ins and outs of JavaScript and Java coding bootcamps, as well as some of the common use cases for JavaScript in modern web development.

What is JavaScript Used For?

JavaScript is a programming language that is widely used in web development and mobile app development for creating interactive interfaces, but it can also be utilized on the server side with the help of various frameworks, such as Node.js.

Here are a few examples of ways that you will learn to use JavaScript in your Java coding bootcamp.

Dynamic Pages

JavaScript allows developers to create web pages that respond to the input of the user who is viewing the page, as well as changes that occur within the information stored in libraries on the site’s server. When a page has the ability to change the content that is being displayed while retaining the same format and layout, this is known as a dynamic page. To better explain how this works, let’s take a look at an example you are probably already familiar with.

Let’s say you are visiting an ecommerce website like eBay. Because eBay’s inventory is constantly changing, this information has to be stored on the website’s server within libraries that are available for retrieval of information, rather than being stored in the website’s source code.

To explain this further, let’s imagine you are building a website for your business, and your business offers three services. If you create a page for your services and add a filter so users can retrieve information about each of your services, you might create an individual block of text for each of these services so users can learn more about your product.

When your website’s visitor applies a filter to learn more about a specific service, your site will fill in a text area with the corresponding block of text you’ve written about your product. Although your website’s content was updated according to its user’s input, this is still not considered to be dynamic because all of the information is already stored in your website’s source code.

Now let’s go back to our previous example of eBay. It would not be practical or efficient to add a new static page every time a product is listed for sale on eBay, and it would be a nightmare to try to keep up with eBay’s inventory because there are millions of items for sale at any given time, and the list is constantly changing throughout the day.

So rather than creating static pages for each of these items, a website like eBay will create a library where every item’s information, such as its title, description, photos, etc., will be stored. Additionally, there is a single page for displaying lists of items that are determined through filters set by the user, and there is another single page in which the details of individual items are displayed.

When a user enters keywords for an item they would like to view, the website’s code takes those keywords to the site’s library and retrieves items that match those keywords according to a predetermined set of protocols. Once the website has its list of items, it returns those results to the user by filling in the prebuilt dynamic page.

This is something you have probably seen a thousand times, but you may not have considered previously how it’s done. Well, now you know that it’s done by employing forms of JavaScript.

Interactive Pages and Applications

JavaScript can also be used to create interactive elements on webpages and mobile applications that will respond to what the user is doing on the webpage. For example, if a user hovers over an element causing it to change colors, or when a user clicks a button that loads a popup on the page, both of these events are made possible through the use of JavaScript.

Let’s take a look at some more examples of how JavaScript can be used to create interesting and interactive UIs on websites and applications.

Event Handling

JavaScript allows developers to add elements to their pages that will capture and respond to a user’s actions, such as mouse movements, clicks, and keyboard input. By attaching scripts to certain triggers, developers can run specific functions when those triggers occur. These might include menus, dropdowns, and popups.

Have you ever been on a webpage that you are about to navigate away from, and a popup jumps on the screen as you are about to hit the back button? This happens when JavaScript within the page’s code detects your mouse moving towards or away from a certain element on the page.

Animation and Effects

JavaScript can be used in tandem with CSS (cascading style sheets) to create visual effects and animations on web pages by manipulating the CSS embedded in the page’s HTML. These can include color changes, images and elements fading in or out, and text blocks sliding into view as you scroll through a page.

Interactive Elements with JS Frameworks

There are several JavaScript frameworks, such as React, Vue, and Angular, that provide developers with an extensive ability to create interactive elements within a web page. One famous example of this is the “like” button, which was first introduced by Facebook. This gave developers the ability to create an element that could be changed by the user without triggering a full page reload.

These are just a few examples of some of the interactive and animated elements that can be created using JavaScript, and there are many subsequent JavaScript frameworks that provide almost endless possibilities for developers to create more interesting and user-friendly websites.

Coding Bootcamp Programming Languages

Although JavaScript is a fundamental programming language that every developer needs to have in their toolbox, it is essential to have a working knowledge of other programming languages as well, since JavaScript is almost always used in conjunction with other libraries.

Here are some of the other programming languages you can expect to learn when you attend a Java coding bootcamp at LearningFuze.

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language is the programming language most commonly used for creating the structure of a website or mobile application. HTML is the essential framework that determines several details about each element on a page. HTML designates the header, footer, and body of a web page, and it is also used to specify the characteristics of each component within those elements.

HTML tells the browser how big or small each component is, whether or not it has a background, where to find embedded images and where they should go on a page, and how far apart components should be spaced, as well as many other details.

CSS

Cascading style sheets tell us how each component of a web page should look. CSS will be used to determine colors, fonts, gradients, shadows, image heights and widths, etc.

The CSS file will usually be located in the header of the HTML document for each page, and it can be customized to responsively change the appearance of different elements depending on how they are tagged. For example, a title could be a certain color and font, while a body of text will have different characteristics.

Java Coding Bootcamp Core Competencies

In order to fully leverage your coding skills, you will also need to be familiar with several other platforms and protocols. Here are a few examples of what you will learn to help you bring your coding skills to life.

Git & GitHub

GitHub is a platform designed for developers, and it allows them to test new elements and features they are writing for their site without needing to publish the changes to their live code.

When a developer wants to test an element or an entire page, they can simply copy the code they want to work on and paste it into GitHub’s platform where they can make changes and test new versions of their code. GitHub also allows developers to segregate specific portions of their code so they can work on them independently, then reintegrate them back into the rest of the code once the segregated portions are completed.

There are also a number of powerful collaboration tools within GitHub that allow teams to work together in order to resolve issues, track and fix bugs, and work on individual portions of code independently.

Command Line

This is a feature that can be found on almost any modern day computer, but it is typically only used by developers since it lacks the graphical user interface that most users are accustomed to. Rather than being graphically-based, the command line interface is a text-based interface that allows users to execute functions by typing out their commands.

Command line is an essential tool for developers, and it is commonly used in server environments where there is a more “bare bones” operating system that does away with the graphical user interface. However, even though the command line interface lacks the sophistication of a GUI, it can be used to make changes and retrieve information from a system’s hard drive more efficiently. This is true for any type of device where a command line interface is available because it allows developers to interact directly with the system’s storage.

PostgreSQL

Postgres is a standard query language that is used by developers for managing and accessing databases in backend web applications. PostgreSQL is a dependable and scalable database solution that provides a structured framework for easy access and retrieval of data.

If you recall the example we gave earlier of how JavaScript can be used to create dynamic pages that populate data from a database, you can be sure that the database framework from that example employs this database management system.

Front End Development

Another important skill that you will learn at LearningFuze’s Java coding bootcamp is front end web and application development. By combining your abilities to write in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS with your knowledge of database management and data retrieval, you will be able to create dynamic and visually appealing user interfaces from scratch.

While most developers will tend toward one or the other, it is important to have a working knowledge of both frontend and backend development, which is why you will learn both in your Java coding bootcamp.