Web Applications

Thomas Janovic
Info. Tech.
Prof. Vengerov
10/26/11
WEB APPLICATIONS

Web applications have been around before the World Wide Web was popular or heavily used by people throughout the world. Web apps started out quite simple in the beginning during the late 80s, and became much more complex into the 90s. Web applications are applications programs accessed over the internet or extranet. “Web applications are, therefore, computer programs allowing website visitors to submit and retrieve data to/from a database over the Internet using their preferred web browser.”[1] Any application that uses the browser as a client is considered a web application.
Web apps can as simple as a sign-in book on a website, or complex such as a word processor or spreadsheet. The term ‘client’ refers to the program a user utilizes to start the application. Web apps are beneficial to web programmers because they do not have to build a specific ‘client’ for a specific computer. Instead, the client runs in a web browser, allowing people with different computer or operating systems to run the program. “Web applications commonly use a combination of server-side script (ASP, PHP, etc) and client-side script (HTML, Javascript, etc.) to develop the application.”[2] The presentation of information is portrayed using client-side script while the storing and retrieving of the information is designated by the server-script.
Web apps fall into two general categories, presentation-oriented, and service-oriented. Presentation-oriented web apps are applications which create web pages where the user can interact. These types of apps contain many types of markup languages including HTML and XML. Service-oriented web apps “implement the endpoint of a web service.”[3] Common web apps used frequently today are webmail, online retail sales, and wikis.
Many web applications are vital for use in the world of business. Many software-based companies are reaching out to adopt a new strategy in which they provide web access to software previously distributed as local applications. Some of the web apps available may require a whole new browser-based interface or altering it to present the information in a logical manner. These programs are available as a monthly or yearly fee for using these software applications instead of downloading them onto your hard drive, which takes up space. An ASP (application service provider) is a company that uses this type of software strategy. Web applications are Software as a Service when used in cloud computing models. There are many business applications provided as SaaS and require a fee dependant on their usage or can be a fixed fee. However, while some web apps cost money, many of them are free to use.

1. http://openclassroom.stanford.edu/MainFolder/CoursePage.php?course=WebApplications

2. https://www.owasp.org/index.php/What_are_web_applications%3F
3. http://blogs.office.com/b/officewebapps/