Category Archives: web-development

What is up with Error Codes for HTTP Methods

Photo by Vie Studio on Pexels.com

Hello Debug Ducker here, and I have a question. I am sure you are familiar with a 404 error code, as you may have run into it while surfing the web. 404 Not Found means that the server on the other end couldn’t find what it was looking for, and this is cause the URL is not recognized. This can happen when the webpage is no longer available and you tried connecting to it. 404 is quite the common error, that I believe many have seen at least once but would you be able to tell me what other errors you may have encountered in the web, there is quite a few and some obscures ones you may have never seen.

Perhaps you also wondered why 404 is even an error number, why the number is the way it is, why use those specific numbers. Well you see 4xx is specifically for client errors, which means they are errors on your end and not the server. If a server would to have an error than it would use 5xx instead. For example, there is the 500 error code that is an internal server error which just means something messed up in the server and sent you that as a response. Basically each response code are in different categories, with the error categories coming entirely from 4xx and 5xx.

Now here are ones you know and some obscure ones

400: Bad Request, as in the server could not process the request, either because of a syntax error such as misspelling something

402: Payment Required, says what is on the tin you need to pay, not often used

409: Conflict, the request conflicts with something within the server

414: The URI too long, the URI is long and the server is not willing to handle it

418: I’m a teapot…yeah I don’t understand this one, and yes this is real

There are many of these errors code for 4xx and I would recommend you check it out with the link below.

There are also some 500 server errors, that are interesting such as

501: Not Implemented, as in the request has not been implemented, so exactly what it says

503: Service is Unavailable, just means the server are down.

And Many More.

Thre are a fascinating amount of error codes for some interesting stuff and I reccomend you see a bunch in the link below.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status

Anyway have a nice error free day day.

MozDevNet. “HTTP Response Status Codes – HTTP: MDN.” MDN Web Docs, developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status.

“HTTP Status Codes: All 63 Explained – Including FAQ & Video.” Umbraco, umbraco.com/knowledge-base/http-status-codes/#http-status-code-categories.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Debug Duck by debugducker and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Week 13

We started to work in the front end I became more curious about front-end developers. They are often the key if someone will even use a website to begin with. You can have a fully functional site but if it isn’t engaging it can lose people. In the past, this wasn’t something you had to deal with but there are so many things taking people’s attention that just doing the bare minimum isn’t enough. There are things that we don’t even think about that are key to a successful website. A main common feature now is dark mode if a website doesn’t come with this theme it can scare away users. Even simple things like where the search bar is placed are key for the navigation through the site. This week I decided to find information about front-end developers and how they achieve success.

The article starts by explaining what a front-end developer does. They create the graphical layout of a website or application. Front-end workers are usually hired by someone looking to build a website. They can create a site layout to give the buyer an idea of what their website could look like. It can save people a lot of money and hassle if their vision can reasonably be imagined by a front-end developer. A front-end developer’s main focus should be to place everything to benefit the user it should be simple and intuitive for the user. There are several job opportunities in this field from working in industry or having the freedom to be a freelancer. This is a job that offers a lot of challenges but with critical thinking, a solution can always be found. Many big companies hire this position including Microsoft and Meta are always looking for new front-end developers.

Reading this article showed me a new field in this space. There are many fields in Coding there are so many I find a new one every year. This field uses different coding languages including HTML, CSS, and javascript to name a few. I liked how this was a problem-solving job that there has to be actual decision-making need to be successful. This is a job that is engaging while trying to engage others to use your product. The key for a great front-end developer would probably have to be to not forget about the little things. This article reassures that keeping a user-friendly UI is the key to having a successful website.

https://www.coursera.org/articles/front-end-developer

From the blog CS@Worcester – DCO by dcastillo360 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Was it really all about frameworks?

What’s a Framework? All About Software Frameworks is an article written by Luke Stahl. I found it on dev.to, but it can also be found on the Contentful Blog. Links to both blogs are available in this post. The reason I chose this article is that I’ve heard a lot about frameworks since I started exploring web application development, and they always confused me. I used to struggle to understand what they were and what they were built for. Luke Stahl’s article answered both of these questions for me, though it also left me with a few more.

The article provides a general overview of frameworks for software development, web development, and working with APIs. However, it then pivots toward web development frameworks, which left me wondering about the differences between them. While it clearly explains the distinctions between backend and frontend frameworks, it misses covering some other differences I initially expected.

The author also includes a fairly extensive list of the benefits that frameworks bring to development, along with a brief list of challenges. For me, it’s always a bit concerning when something presents itself with so many benefits and so few downsides. Still, the benefits outlined are appealing and useful for developers.

Frameworks, as explained by Luke Stahl, are essentially blueprints or templates for a particular final product. They provide the essential building blocks and materials required to create your software or web application. A framework offers a skeleton for your application, allowing you to build functionality on top of it.

Halfway through reading the article, I began to wonder about the difference between a framework and a code library. Thankfully, and to my surprise, it seems Luke anticipated this question. He includes an explanation from two outside sources, David Fateh and Alvin Bryan. Both summarize that frameworks act as templates, while code libraries serve as tools you can use to build on top of that template.

One point that caught my attention—and that I believe is very important—is that most frameworks are FOSS (Free and Open Source Software). Being free and open source brings many advantages. Such products undergo extensive testing by a diverse group of programmers, across various applications, which increases the test sample size. This added testing leads to greater reliability, as it helps ensure that any new functionality works as intended. Another benefit of free and open-source products is the large community that often forms around them. This means that if you encounter questions or difficulties, it’s likely that someone else has already addressed them.

From the blog CS@Worcester – CS Today by Guilherme Salazar Almeida Nazareth and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Week 14 – Token #1 – CS343

For this blog I’ll be using one of my tokens for this class so I can hit the 6 blog minimum before the semester is over.

In this blog post, I wanted to look more into JavaScript since I didn’t really know too much about it. I struggled with the backend homework we had because I never knew anything about the syntax or language at all. So, I want to learn a bit more about this language within this blog. For this, I consulted this website, and gave it a good hearty read:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript

This site gives an overview of JavaScript and the applications in which it is used in general, and what benefits and downsides it has compared to other languages.

What I found very interesting is that I originally knew that JavaScript was mainly used for website development and coding, but this site gave some examples of applications such as Node.js and Adobe Acrobat. I believe we’ve actually utilized Node.js before in our classes, but I can’t quite put my finger on what exactly we used it for, but I recgonize the name appearing in one or more of the repositories we’ve been working with.

It seems like JavaScript is much like Java in the sense that it can use object oriented code, but I think the similarities between the two end there. In the past, I always heard that JavaScript was a completely different beast from Java, and after look more into it, I see why. This site below describes the differences:

https://www.lighthouselabs.ca/en/blog/java-vs-javascript

JavaScript it object-orientedcode, whereas Java is object-based. That may sound the same as each other, but there is some very specific distinctions between them. Java relies on objects to function, whereas JavaScript has functionality for objects and suggests use of them with it’s language, it is not required. JavaScript is also a lot more fluid with it’s syntax, and has a lot more free-form and flexibility with it, which reminds me a lot of what I’ve heard about Python. Java is a lot more rigid, and requires specific pre-set uses of it’s syntax.

But back to JavaScript, it seems like its The language for web design, as a lot of it’s language is made with web design in mind. My future for this area of study is some form of design in technilogical areas, so it would be possible I go into Web Design. If I do, I’ll definitely have to teach myself more JavaScript. It seems like a really useful language to have on hand in that case.

I will be posting one other blog today, using another token, so stay tuned for another!

From the blog CS@Worcester – You're Telling Me A Shrimp Wrote This Code?! by tempurashrimple and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.