At Mojoe.net, we believe in empowering our customers through education. Understanding the jargon of web development can help you make informed decisions about your business’s digital needs. Whether you’re an entrepreneur navigating the digital landscape for the first time, or a seasoned professional looking to expand your knowledge, we’ve put together this comprehensive guide to web development terminology. From application development to WordPress, our web development glossary covers the key terms that are shaping the digital world.
This list of terms and definitions serves as a resource for you to come back to any time you need. As the digital landscape evolves, so will this page with updated and new terminologies.
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Web Application Development
Front-End: Refers to the user interface and user experience aspects of your website or web application.
Back-End: This is the server-side of websites, web applications, or software. It’s where the data is stored and manipulated.
Full-Stack: A developer that has the ability to work on both the front-end and back-end portions of an application.
API (Application Programming Interface): A set of rules that allow programs to talk to each other.
Database: A structured set of data stored in a computer or server.
SQL (Structured Query Language): A programming language used to communicate with and manipulate databases.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): The standard language for creating web pages and web applications.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): A style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in HTML.
JavaScript: An object-oriented programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers.
User Interface (UI): It is the point of human-computer interaction and communication in a device, which can include display screens, keyboards, a mouse and the appearance of a desktop.
Mobile Development
iOS: The mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware.
Android: A mobile operating system developed by Google, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Native App: A mobile app developed in a specific programming language, for the specific device platform, either iOS or Android.
Hybrid App: A software application that combines elements of both native apps and web applications.
Flutter: An open-source UI software development kit created by Google used to develop applications for Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Windows, Google Fuchsia, and the web.
React Native: A JavaScript framework for writing real, natively rendering mobile applications for iOS and Android.
Swift: A powerful and intuitive programming language for macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS.
Kotlin: A cross-platform, statically typed, general-purpose programming language with type inference developed by JetBrains.
Mobile UI/UX: The look and feel of a mobile application, focusing on usability and user experience.
Mobile Compatibility: The ability of a website to appear fully functional on a mobile device, maintaining the same features and functions as the desktop version.
Laravel
Composer: A tool for dependency management in PHP, allowing you to declare the libraries your project depends on and it will manage (install/update) them for you.
MVC (Model-View-Controller): Laravel is built on this design pattern used to separate an application into three interconnected components.
Artisan: The command-line interface included with Laravel, providing helpful commands for common tasks.
Eloquent ORM: Laravel’s built-in ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) implementation for working with your database.
Blade: Laravel’s powerful templating engine.
Middleware: A type of filtering mechanism for HTTP requests entering your application.
Service Container: Laravel’s powerful IoC (Inversion of Control) container.
Service Provider: Central place to register Laravel’s container bindings.
Facades: Provide a “static” interface to classes available in the application’s service container.
Routing: The way to define how an application responds to a client request for a specific endpoint.
Drupal
Module: The building blocks for Drupal functionality.
Theme: A collection of files that define the look and feel of your Drupal site.
Node: An individual piece of content, such as a page, poll, article, or blog entry.
Block: The boxes of content that can be displayed in regions (such as footer or sidebar) on your page.
View: A query tool that generates lists and tables based on database content.
Taxonomy: The practice of classifying content on a Drupal site.
Content Type: A pre-defined collection of data types (Fields) which relate to each other by an informational context.
Field: Allows you to add custom data to nodes and users.
Menu: A collection of links used for navigation on a Drupal website.
Region: Areas of a page where content can be placed.
WordPress
Plugin: Pieces of software that can be added to a WordPress website to enhance functionality or add new features.
Theme: A collection of stylesheets and templates that are used to define the appearance and display of a WordPress site.
Widgets: Small blocks that perform a specific function, such as a calendar or search bar.|
Shortcode: A specific code that lets you do nifty things with very little effort.|
Gutenberg: The new WordPress block editor, which replaced the old WordPress TinyMCE editor.
Permalinks: The permanent URLs to your individual pages and blog posts, as well as your category and tag archives.
Dashboard: The landing page of the WordPress admin area.
Page Builder: A plugin that provides a flexible way to create WordPress websites by drag and drop.
Custom Post Type: An ability to create different types of content for your WordPress site.
SEO Plugin: A WordPress plugin designed to help improve your site’s visibility to search engines.
Ecommerce Platforms
SSL Certificate (Secure Socket Layer Certificate): A digital certificate that authenticates the identity of a website and encrypts information sent to the server.
Payment Gateway: A technology used by merchants to accept debit or credit card purchases from customers.
Checkout Process: The process a customer must go through to purchase a product from an online store.
Cart Abandonment: When potential customers add products to their online shopping cart, but exit without completing the purchase.
Inventory Management: The process of ordering, storing, and using a company’s inventory.
Dropshipping: A retail fulfillment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock.
Merchant Account: A type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments by payment cards, typically debit or credit cards.
Shipping Integration: A process in which a retailer automates the various shipping processes by integrating their ecommerce platform with shipping solution providers.
Wholesale: The sale of goods in large quantities, typically for resale by retailers.
B2B (Business to Business): A form of transaction between businesses, such as one involving a manufacturer and wholesaler, or a wholesaler and a retailer.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce: BigCommerce is an eCommerce platform that allows businesses to create an online store. It provides a range of features including product management, order fulfillment, customer service, and marketing tools.
Themes: BigCommerce themes are pre-designed website templates that you can use for your online store. These themes are customizable and can be adjusted to fit your brand’s style.
Widgets: Widgets in BigCommerce are elements of functionality that can be added to your online store. These can include things like search bars, social media buttons, or product recommendation sections.
Checkout SDK: This is a library provided by BigCommerce that developers can use to customize the checkout experience for customers.
BigCommerce API: The API, or Application Programming Interface, allows developers to integrate other software or systems with BigCommerce to expand functionality.
Product Catalog: This is the full list of products that are available for sale in your BigCommerce store. It includes product descriptions, images, prices, and other details.
Payment Gateways: These are the services integrated into BigCommerce that process payments from customers. Examples include PayPal, Stripe, and Square.
SSL Certificate: This is a digital certificate that provides secure, encrypted connections between your BigCommerce store and your customers’ browsers.
BigCommerce Channel Manager: A feature in BigCommerce that allows merchants to sell on multiple marketplaces and social media platforms from a single location.
Stencil Framework: The Stencil framework is BigCommerce’s own technology for creating and customizing themes.
Shopify
Shopify: Shopify is a cloud-based eCommerce platform that enables entrepreneurs and businesses to create their own online stores and sell products.
Shopify POS: Shopify’s Point of Sale (POS) system allows businesses to sell products in physical locations and syncs data with their online store.
Themes: Themes in Shopify are ready-to-use designs that determine how your online store looks. Shopify provides a range of themes, both free and paid.
Liquid: Liquid is a templating language developed by Shopify. It is used in the design and customization of Shopify themes.
Shopify API: This is an Application Programming Interface that developers can use to connect other software or systems with Shopify for extended functionality.
Collections: In Shopify, Collections are groups of products that are categorized together for easier browsing by customers.
Shopify Payments: Shopify Payments is Shopify’s own payment gateway. It allows businesses to accept payments from customers.
Apps: Shopify Apps are third-party integrations that extend the functionality of your online store. There are thousands of apps in the Shopify App Store that offer various features.
Shopify Channels: These are various sales and marketing platforms that can be integrated with your Shopify store. Examples include Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, and more.
Fulfillment Centers: Fulfillment Centers are third-party warehouses that store inventory and ship products on behalf of Shopify businesses. Shopify has its own network of fulfillment centers known as the Shopify Fulfillment Network.
PHP
Variable: This is a symbol or name that stands for a value.
Function: In PHP, a function is a block of code that can be reused a number of times.
Class: The blueprint for a PHP object.
Object: An instance of a class in PHP.
Array: A data structure that stores one or more similar type of values in a single value.|
Echo/Print: Both are used to output data to the screen.
Include and Require: Used to include a file in PHP code. The difference is that “require” will produce a fatal error if the file does not exist, while “include” will only produce a warning.
Loop: A control flow statement for specifying iteration, which allows code to be executed repeatedly.
MySQLi: An API that can be used to access the functionality provided by MySQL from PHP.
PDO (PHP Data Objects): A general-purpose wrapper for SQL databases in PHP.
MySQL
MySQL: An open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL), which is the most popular language for managing and manipulating databases.
Database: In MySQL, a database is a structured set of data. It organizes the data in the form of tables, views, indexes, and routines that are related to each other in some manner.
Table: A table in MySQL is a form of structured data consisting of rows and columns. Each table holds specific information, and it’s made up of records (rows) containing the data.
SQL Query: An SQL query is a request for some action to be performed on a database. The action could be to retrieve, insert, update, delete or create data.
Primary Key: A primary key in MySQL is a unique identifier for a record in a table. No two records can have the same primary key, ensuring each record in the table is unique.
Foreign Key: A foreign key is used to link two tables together. A foreign key in one table points to a primary key in another table, creating a relationship between the two tables.
JOIN Clause: A JOIN clause in MySQL is used to combine rows from two or more tables based on a related column between them. There are several types of JOINs: INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, RIGHT JOIN, and FULL JOIN.
Normalization: Normalization in MySQL is the process of organizing data to minimize redundancy and dependency of data. It involves dividing larger tables into smaller tables and linking them using relationships.
Indexing: Indexing in MySQL is a way of sorting multiple records efficiently. An index creates an entry for each value and hence provides faster retrieval.
Stored Procedure: A stored procedure is a prepared SQL code that can be saved and reused. By bundling complex queries into stored procedures, you can avoid repetition and execute complex queries with a single command.