Web development can be characterized as an ecosystem, a complex system of interrelationships among living and nonliving elements of the environment. These activities can be envisioned at three broad levels.
- The foundational components, such as networking and protocols, operate out-of-sight and make everything work.
- The middle level, includes technologies such as HTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP, and constitutes web development.
- The top level entails such topics as security threats, search algorithms and advanced programming design.