As the web development industry evolves, a vast amount of software development tools for different purposes appear on the market. Integrated development environments, application frameworks, package managers, version control software, and many others.
While it’s excellent to have such a variety of options, it may become complicated to test out all tools and find the best ones. It is hard even for experienced developers. So it’s far more convenient to have a list of current top technologies. With that said, let’s discover 7 web development tools worth your attention prepared by the Gravum web development company.
Quick Overlook
1. Atom
Atom is an open-source web IDE. It is an outstanding code editor for developers seeking true flexibility and convenience, and here’s why:
Customization Opportunities
Atom exposes outstanding customization opportunities. So this IDE allows developers to adjust the environment’s UI, as well as add significant features with just HTML and JavaScript.
Fast-Growing Community
Having an enormous and loyal community ready to help is always a nice thing.
Atom Packages
Atom packages are the way to deliver custom Atom functionality within the tool ecosystem. Say, you need some custom color highlighting or linting?
Find, download, and install wanted packages directly in the code editor, without any additional software.
In addition to the Atom’s unique features, it is also just an outstanding development environment with a convenient layout and extensive functionality. If you are looking for a lightweight yet full-featured development environment, give Atom a try.
2. GitHub
GitHub is the most famous code version control system out there. It is a powerful tool for hosting your web solutions and managing project revisions. Here are the features that make GitHub stand out:
Open-Source Development Community
GitHub enables teams all around the globe to collaborate and contribute to open-source projects.
Advanced Bug Tracking
GitHub community takes bugs very seriously. The platform introduces sophisticated issue management. This makes tracking and merging bug branches, as well as resolving issues a piece of cake.
Feature Requests
A proper feature request made easy with GitHub. The platform offers a convenient interface for creating and submitting requests for software product enhancements.
Project Wikis
Need something more than just a readme preview? Use the GitHub project wiki. GitHub team does its best to let you provide your project contributors with exhaustive information on the software product.
You might enjoy your favorite Git platform, whether it’s GitKraken, GitCola, or SourceTree. Nevertheless, if you are exploring the code version control market, take note of GitHub.
3. Node Package Manager
Node Package Manager (npm) is a package manager for installing, configuring, updating, and removing development packages from your computer.
It is a crucial development tool for ones working with more than just pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. There are several reasons for you to use npm in your web development:
Automated Package and Dependency Management
The project transfer made easy with npm. Just run the npm install command to download and install all required packages and dependencies from the package.json file.
Package Hosting
Store and share your development packages with npm. The package name is all your contributors and users need to download and install your modules, libraries, and even frameworks.
On the whole, the Node Package Manager is a robust solution for automating your development modules management.
4. Postman
Postman is a collaboration tool for web API developers. It simplifies the whole API development lifecycle: from creating and debugging to testing and deployment.
Postman is a perfect tool for API-first development, game testing automation, and even product management. It is a comprehensive app for developing and supporting API-driven technologies.
5. Grunt
Grunt is a JavaScript task runner. It is a famous and popular tool for task automation. Here’s why Grunt is worth your attention:
Intuitive Workflow Setup
Grunt exposes a convenient interface for the workflow configuration.
Task Automation
Grunt makes repetitive task automation a no-brainer.
Transparent Processes
Grunt offers a traditional date structure (JSON config and JS tasks). That makes working with Grunt straightforward;
Development Acceleration and App Performance Improvement
A grunt is also an optimization tool. It substantially speeds up the development process and improves your project performance.
Enormous Ecosystem
With all features Grunt has to offer, it is possible to automate any task in no time and effort, regardless of its complexity.
Error resistance
A grunt is an error-resistance tool meaning it’s far less likely to get an error while running repetitive tasks with Grunt.
On balance, Grunt is a reliable tool for running and automating back-end tasks in your web applications.
6. Jasmine
Jasmine is a web development tool for testing your JavaScript code. Taking a tremendous amount of software testing tools into consideration, here’s why Jasmine is the tool you should prefer:
Full-Featured
Jasmine is full-featured right out of the box. There is zero need for additional package installations. Install and download it, and you are good to proceed with testing.
No External Dependencies
Jasmine requires no external dependencies. It is OK for JS packages to be dependant on other modules and libraries on the nowadays market.
Nonetheless, Jasmine has no external dependencies. It’s a lean tool suitable for a broad range of testing purposes.
No Rely on DOM
Jasmine does not rely on DOM. This means web browsers are not the only environment you can test. With Jasmine, you can use the same testing tool for both front-end and back-end JavaScript (Node.JS, for instance).
If you seek for versatile and lightweight web testing tool, consider Jasmine.
7. Chrome Development Tools
No jokes here, Chrome Dev Tools are far beyond console logging and DOM exploration. It is a rich set of debugging tools with awesome features. These include but are not limited to the following:
Modifying HTML, Custom CSS
Modifying HTML and adding custom CSS. No need to refresh the page every time you add a pixel to the margin rule. Do it right in the browser.
Mobile Device Emulator
Wonder how your website looks like on the mobile? Chrome Dev Tools allow you to emulate mobile device resolution right inside your browser window. There are numerous presets of mobile resolution for the popular models, as well as the responsive frame.
Editor Features
Why stop at tweaking CSS, when you can modify all project files, including JavaScript? Edit your code right in the browser with Chrome Editor Tools.
The only drawback of this development tool is its ecosystem limitations. Chrome Dev Tools work only in Google Chrome. They are quite useless outside this browser scope.
Bottom Line
Picking the best web development tools has always been a matter of personal preference. We’ve included technologies of multiple categories (IDE, version control, software testing services, package management, dev framework). So you can have a full arsenal of tools for creating outstanding web apps.
Don’t lose your passion for making IT-world a better place and remember that those are just tools. What matters is your motivation to innovate and bring revolutionary apps to life.