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Web development is all about communication and data exchange. This communication takes place via two parties over the HTTP protocol.

Server

The Server is responsible for serving the web pages depending on the client/end user requirement. It can be either static or dynamic.

Client

A client is a party that requests pages from the server and displays them to the end user. In general a client program is a web browser.

The main difference between server-side programming and client-side programming is that the server side programming involves server for its processing. On the other hand, client-side programming requires browsers to run the scripts on the client machine but does not interact with the server while processing the client-side scripts.

Server-side is a technique of programming for producing the code which can run software on the server side, in simple words any scripting or programming that can run on the web server is known as server-side scripting.

The operations like customization of a website, dynamic change in the website content, response generation to the user’s queries, accessing the database, and so on are performed at the server end.

The server-side constructs a communication link between a server and a client (user).

The server-side involves three parts: server, database, API’s and back-end web software developed by the server-side scripting language.

When a browser sends a request to the server for a webpage consisting of server-side scripting, the web server processes the script prior to serving the page to the browser.

Here the processing of a script could include extracting information from a database, making simple calculations, or choosing the appropriate content that is to be displayed in the client end.

The script is being processed and the output is sent to the browser. The web server abstracts the scripts from the end user until serving the content, which makes the data and source code more secure.

It processes the user input
Displays the requested pages
Structure web applications
Interaction with servers/storages
Interaction with databases
Querying the database
Encoding of data into HTML
Operations over databases like delete, update.

After the advent of CGI, multiple programming languages were evolved such as PHP, Python, Ruby, ColdFusion, C#, Java, C++ and so on for server-side scripting among which some of them are described below:

PHP: It is the most prevalent server-side used on the web which was designed to extract and manipulate information in the database. The language is used in association with SQL language for the Database. It is used in Facebook, WordPress and Wikipedia.

Python: The language is fast and contains shorter code. It is good for beginners as it concentrates on the readability and simplicity of the code. Python functions well in the object-oriented environment and used in famous sites like Youtube, Google, etc.

Ruby: It contains complex logic which packages the back-end with database utility which can also be provided by PHP and SQL.

Client-side is performed to generate a code that can run on the client end (browser) without needing the server side processing. Basically, these types of scripts are placed inside an HTML document.

The client-side can be used to examine the user’s form for the errors before submitting it and for changing the content according to the user input. As I mentioned before, the web requires three elements for its functioning which are, client, database and server.

Makes interactive web pages
Make stuffs work dynamically
Interact with temporary storage
Works as an interface between user and server
Sends requests to the server
Retrieval of data from Server
Interact with local storage
Provides remote access for client server program

There are many client-side languages too.

JavaScript
VBScript
HTML (Structure)
CSS (Designing)
AJAX
jQuery etc.

HTML: It is the fundamental building blocks of web programming which provides the frame to the website. It describes the arrangement of the content.

CSS: CSS provides the way to design the graphic elements which help in making the appearance of the web application more attractive.

JavaScript: It is also a client-side scripting language which essentially devised for the specific purpose, but currently there are various JavaScript frameworks used as server-side scripting technology.

Server-side is used at the backend, where the source code is not viewable or hidden at the client side (browser). On the other hand, client-side is used at the front end which users can see from the browser.
When a server-side is processed it communicates to the server. As against, client-side does not need any server interaction.
The client-side involves languages such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. In contrast, programming languages such as PHP, ASP.net, Ruby, ColdFusion, Python, C#, Java, C++, etc.
Server-side is useful in customizing the web pages and implement the dynamic changes in the websites. Conversely, the client-side can effectively minimize the load to the server.
Server-side is more secure than client-side as the server side are usually hidden from the client end, while a client-side is visible to the users.

Client-side and server-side works in a coordinated manner with each other. However, both the scripting techniques are very different, where the client-side emphasize on making the interface of the web application or website more appealing and functional. Conversely, server-side emphasizes on the data accessing methods, error handling and fast processing etcetera.

Server side and Client side Programming