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Aweb application (orweb app) isapplication software that is created withweb technologies and runs via aweb browser.[1][2] Web applications emerged during the late 1990s and allowed for the server todynamically build a response to the request, in contrast tostatic web pages.[3]
Web applications are commonly distributed via aweb server. There are several different tier systems that web applications use to communicate between the web browsers, the client interface, and server data. Each system has its own uses as they function in different ways. However, there are many security risks that developers must be aware of during development; proper measures to protect user data are vital.
Web applications are often constructed with the use of aweb application framework.Single-page applications (SPAs) andprogressive web apps (PWAs) are two architectural approaches to creating web applications that provide auser experience similar tonative apps, including features such as smooth navigation, offline support, and faster interactions.
The concept of a "web application" was first introduced in the Java language in the Servlet Specification version 2.2, which was released in 1999. At that time, both JavaScript andXML had already been developed, but theXMLHttpRequest object had only been recently introduced on Internet Explorer 5 as anActiveX object.[citation needed] Beginning around the early 2000s, applications such as "Myspace (2003),Gmail (2004),Digg (2004), [and]Google Maps (2005)," started to make their client sides more and more interactive. A web page script is able to contact the server for storing/retrieving data without downloading an entire web page. The practice became known as Ajax in 2005.
In earlier computing models like client-server, the processing load for the application was shared between code on the server and code installed on each client locally. In other words, an application had its own pre-compiled client program which served as itsuser interface and had to be separately installed on each user'spersonal computer. An upgrade to the server-side code of the application would typically also require an upgrade to the client-side code installed on each user workstation, adding to thesupport cost and decreasingproductivity. Additionally, both the client and server components of the application were bound tightly to a particularcomputer architecture andoperating system, which madeporting them to other systems prohibitively expensive for all but the largest applications.
Later, in 1995,Netscape introduced theclient-side scripting language calledJavaScript, which allowed programmers to adddynamic elements to the user interface that ran on the client side. Essentially, instead of sending data to the server in order to generate an entire web page, the embedded scripts of the downloaded page can perform various tasks such asinput validation or showing/hiding parts of the page.
"Progressive web apps", the term coined by designer Frances Berriman andGoogle Chrome engineer Alex Russell in 2015, refers to apps taking advantage of new features supported by modern browsers, which initially run inside a web browser tab but later can run completely offline and can be launched without entering the app URL in the browser.
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Traditional PC applications are typically single-tiered, residing solely on the client machine. In contrast, web applications inherently facilitate a multi-tiered architecture. Though many variations are possible, the most common structure is thethree-tiered application. In its most common form, the three tiers are calledpresentation,application andstorage. The first tier, presentation, refers to a web browser itself. The second tier refers to any engine using dynamic web content technology (such asASP,CGI,ColdFusion,Dart,JSP/Java,Node.js,PHP,Python orRuby on Rails). The third tier refers to a database that stores data and determines the structure of a user interface. Essentially, when using the three-tiered system, the web browser sends requests to the engine, which then services them by making queries and updates against the database and generates a user interface.
The 3-tier solution may fall short when dealing with more complex applications, and may need to be replaced with the n-tiered approach; the greatest benefit of which is howbusiness logic (which resides on the application tier) is broken down into a more fine-grained model.[4] Another benefit would be to add an integration tier, which separates the data tier and provides an easy-to-use interface to access the data.[4] For example, the client data would be accessed by calling a "list_clients()" function instead of making anSQL query directly against the client table on the database. This allows the underlying database to be replaced without making any change to the other tiers.[4]
There are some who view a web application as a two-tier architecture. This can be a "smart" client that performs all the work and queries a "dumb" server, or a "dumb" client that relies on a "smart" server.[4] The client would handle the presentation tier, the server would have the database (storage tier), and the business logic (application tier) would be on one of them or on both.[4] While this increases the scalability of the applications and separates the display and the database, it still does not allow for true specialization of layers, so most applications will outgrow this model.[4]
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Security breaches on these kinds of applications are a major concern because it can involve both enterprise information and private customer data. Protecting these assets is an important part of any web application, and there are some key operational areas that must be included in the development process.[5] This includes processes for authentication, authorization, asset handling, input, and logging and auditing. Building security into the applications from the beginning is sometimes more effective and less disruptive in the long run.
Writing web applications is simplified with the use ofweb application frameworks. These frameworks facilitaterapid application development by allowing a development team to focus on the parts of their application which are unique to their goals without having to resolve common development issues such as user management.[6]
In addition, there is potential for the development of applications onInternet operating systems, although currently there are not many viable platforms that fit this model.[citation needed]
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