While surfing the web have you ever wondered how the website in front of you functions? How do sites like Facebook, BBC iPlayer and eBay, all of which are well known web applications, actually work? The web application development process is complex and highly specialised. This article will summarise the a general strategy for web application development.
Web application development is, in broad terms, the creation of a piece of software that is accessible through a web browser. Web applications can have almost unlimited functionality and they can be developed exactly to the end users requirements.
There are two sides to web application development. Firstly there is the user interface - the user end of the application that generates text, images and information. A user friendly interface is important to ensure users can easily manipulate information and data.
Normally user interfaces for web applications are developed using HTML, CSS and Javascript, sometimes referred to as AJAX (short for Asynchronous Javascript and XML). Recently there has been a trend to develop more complex user interfaces with frameworks and toolkits such as Adobe Air and Qt. These frameworks are blurring the boundary between desktop software and rich web applications.
The second side of web application development is the underlying programming to dynamically manipulate information. Creating a web page, uploading an image, making a printer friendly page, displaying a graph - all of these actions must be created by a programmer.
Developing a web application is a complex process that takes a wide range of skills and in depth knowledge of computing. There is planning, user stories, designing the architecture of the software, the actual programming and a wide range of testing.
Web application development involves user testing, black box testing, case testing, boundary testing, interface testing, security testing and many other tests to ensure every possible way in which the web application can be used produces a correct, error free output in a timely manner. Only once all of these tests are complete can you say that your web application development project is ready to be deployed.
When as web application has been deployed it will require maintenance to ensure the web hosting server and the software is running error free and as quickly as possible - no one wants to wait 2 minutes for a page to load.
The ultimate success or failure of web application development largely depends on having well qualified developers to build the software.
Kaifu Computing help companies gain a competitive advantage by applying their wide ranging knowledge of web application development, Lean Software Development and IT. Visit our website at www.Kaifu.co.uk to talk to one of our fantastic advisors today. The advice is free and we promise a friendly service aimed at meeting, and exceeding, your needs.
