Server-side programming is programming that is done on remote web servers. It is the kind of programming that powers all kinds of applications that you use but that you do not see directly.
A brief definition of server-side programming
Server-side programming is more or less writing code that is meant to run on a server. Server-side programming includes but is not limited to writing the code that powers the insides of websites, system software, databases, file manipulation, automation, and infrastructure management.
What is a server?
A server, at its most basic, is a system running somewhere on the Internet and “serves” a service or data to users who communicate with the server. The server can be physical hardware, a virtual machine, or a lightweight self-contained environment running on a cloud platform.
The word server often refers to the specific software that serves a type of data, like a web server, which serves web pages or data for web applications to consume.
JavaScript and server-side programming
Before Node.js was created, developers could not use JavaScript for server-side programming. Developers had to use different programming languages, like Python, PHP, Perl, Java, or C++ to write code that generated web pages, accessed databases, read and wrote files, and performed other operations end-users do not see directly. JavaScript simply could not run on the servers without Node.js.
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