Developing the front end and THEN developing the back end is a horrible idea, right guys? I've been placed on my first big project with my employer and this is the way the client is deciding to do it (my employer is not making the backend). I just need to know that I'm not crazy and that this is usually never the way people go about software development. Right guys? Please send help.

In my opinion, building the frontend first has some advantages! You can call this phase usability testing in which you are creating the frontend interacting with the stackholder aka client.

BTW, Welcome to devrant!

@mohammed Thanks! But how are you supposed to correctly set up API calls and handle data if you have no idea what the backend will look like? You will have to go back once the backend is finished and connect everything, correct? Just seems like a waste of time and resources.

In the company i work for we have both setups, one is based frontvfirst where you write down the routes you need in the api route file and one is backend first. I must say that both work nice. If structure is defined good enough. Front first has the advantage of working out what you want to get before you build it. Quick example, a note pannel wich went from one note to multiple. Backend approach first. Give an array. Front end first. Get each note with its id when needed. ( in the end the front first aproach looked cleaner although more time was spend) this experience was also based on an update on an existing platform

IMPO i think that the backend APIs should be hooked up first... Then, the front end should just link it..... Backend does not have frontend as a dependency but the other way around.

We work this way:

UX concepts/wireframes > Design/assets > a mockup of sorts in html/css > backend > frontend js

There's always a bit of double work, and a bit of confusion about other layers, no matter which order you develop in.