82 | DECEMBER 2017 | OPEN SOURCE FOR YOU | http://www.OpenSourceForU.comDevelopers OverviewE
ver wondered why different commercial software
applications such as eBay, Amazon or various social
platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc, were initially
developed as Web applications? The obvious answer is that
users can easily access or use different Web applications
whenever they feel like, with only the Internet. This is what
helps different online retail applications lure their customers
to their products. There is no need to install Web applications
specifically on a given system and the user need not even
worry about the platform dependency associated with that
application. Apart from these, there are many other factors
that make Web applications very user friendly, which we will
discuss as we go along.
A Web application is any client-server software
application that makes use of a website as its interface or
front-end. The user interface for any Web application runs
in an Internet browser. The main function of any browser is
to display the information received from a server and also
to send the user’s data back to the server. Let’s consider theinstance of Microsoft Word and Google Docs. The former is
a common desktop based word-processing application which
uses the MS Word software installed on the desktop. Google
Docs is also a word processing application, but all its users
perform the word processing functions using the Web browser
on which it runs, instead of using the software installed on
their computers.
Different Web applications use Web documents, which
are written in a standard format such as JavaScript and
HTML. All these formats are supported by a number of Web
browsers. Web applications can actually be considered as
variants of the client-server software model, where the client
software is downloaded to the client system when the relevant
Web page is visited, using different standard procedures such
as HTTP. There can be different client Web software updates
which may take place whenever we visit the Web page.
During any session, the Web browser interprets and then
displays the pages and hence acts as the universal client for
any Web application.Web development tools allow developers to test the user interface of a website or a
Web application, apart from debugging and testing their code. These tools should not
be mistaken for Web builders and IDEs.A Peek at Popular and Preferred
Open Source Web Development Tools