Advance Web Application
Development
Instructor: Syed Ali Raza
Department of Computer Science
GC University Lahore
Lecture 1
Introduction to Web Applications
Course Objectives
⚫ An understanding of development concepts and
technology.
⚫ The skill to build a dynamic user interface and content
using data driven objects.
⚫ The skill to extract, modify and insert data through a web
interface.
⚫ An understanding of the architecture of a distributed web
application.
⚫ The ability to express business logic in terms of data.
Assessment
Assessment type Description Grade
Large web system prototyping
Project + Viva 20%
and development
Mid Term Written Examination (90
20%
Examination Minutes)
Practical
Written Examination (1 hour) 15%
Examination
Final Term
Written Examination (2 hours) 45%
Examination
Web system design and 20% (Will be added in
Assignments/Quiz
development Mid term and Final term)
Motivation
⚫ The word ‘w’ is the most used letter in the alphabet these
days.
⚫ This all stems from the emergence of the World Wide
Web.
⚫ Internet and E-Commerce are highly in demand by the
industry.
Quick Facts: Web Application
Developers
2022 Average Pay $34.15 per hour
Typical Entry-Level Education Associate's degree
Work Experience in a Related
None
Occupation
On-the-job Training None
Number of Jobs, 2021 197,100
Job Outlook, (2021-2030) 23% (Much faster than average)
Applications and User Interfaces
⚫ Most database users do not use a query language like SQL
⚫ An application program acts as the intermediary between
users and the database
⚫ Applications split into
⚫ front-end
⚫ middle layer
⚫ backend
⚫ Front-end: user interface
⚫ Forms
⚫ Graphical user interfaces
⚫ Many interfaces are Web-based
Web Interface
⚫ Web browsers have become the de-facto standard user
interface to databases
⚫ Enable large numbers of users to access databases from
anywhere
⚫ Avoid the need for downloading/installing specialized
code, while providing a good graphical user interface
⚫ Javascript, Flash and other scripting languages run in browser,
but are downloaded transparently
⚫ Examples: banks, airline and rental car reservations,
university course registration and grading, an so on.
The World Wide Web
⚫ The Web is a distributed information system based on
hypertext.
⚫ Most Web documents are hypertext documents formatted
via the HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
⚫ HTML documents contain
⚫ text along with font specifications, and other formatting
instructions
⚫ hypertext links to other documents, which can be associated
with regions of the text.
⚫ forms, enabling users to enter data which can then be sent
back to the Web server
Web Servers
⚫ A Web server can easily serve as a front end to a variety of
information services.
⚫ The document name in a URL may identify an executable program,
that, when run, generates a HTML document.
⚫ When an HTTP server receives a request for such a document, it
executes the program, and sends back the HTML document that is
generated.
⚫ The Web client can pass extra arguments with the name of the
document.
⚫ To install a new service on the Web, one simply needs to create and
install an executable that provides that service.
⚫ The Web browser provides a graphical user interface to the
information service.
⚫ Common Gateway Interface (CGI): a standard interface between
web and application server
Web Applications
⚫ Client/server applications accessed with a Web
browser over a network like the Internet or an
Intranet
⚫ Web applications have become popular because of
the:
⚫ platform-independence of Web browsers and Web
document formats
⚫ ability to update and maintain Web applications without
distributing and installing software on several client
computers
Web applications
⚫ Examples of Web applications include:
⚫ Reservation systems
⚫ Weblogs
⚫ Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG)
⚫ Online shopping
⚫ Online auction
⚫ Games
⚫ Multimedia applications
⚫ Calendars
⚫ Maps
⚫ Chat applications
⚫ Clocks
⚫ Interactive design applications
⚫ Stock tickers
⚫ Currency converters
⚫ Data entry/display systems
Nature of Web Applications
⚫ Web applications:
⚫ have features and benefits of desktop applications
⚫ have some form of programmatic control either on the client
side, or on the server, or both
⚫ emphasize on real data separation as opposed to
markup/style separation
⚫ are usually smaller in file size than desktop applications
⚫ can have rich graphical-user interfaces (GUI)
⚫ have reduced client-requirements
⚫ have portable data
Categories of Web Applications
• Document centric web sites are
static html documents stored on
web server that is sent directly to
the client on request.
• The web pages are manually
updated with the help of respective
tools.
• These applications are static,
simple, stable and take less time to
respond.
• These applications are costly to
maintain (at the time of update),
having inconsistency problem
because of being static, no timely
update of information. Static
Categories of Web Applications
• Interactive web applications are
offered by CGI, HTML Forms.
• It includes radio buttons,
selection menus, forms etc.
• These applications are simple
and fast.
• In this kind of application the
web pages and links are
generated according to user
input. Form
based
Categories of Web Applications
• These kind of web applications
have facility of modification by
user.
• These applications are more
interactive and support structured
queries from database.
• The database system handle data
consistently and efficiently.
DB
Oriented
Categories of Web Applications
• These kind of web applications
are capable of handing the
workflow among companies,
private authorities or public
authorities.
• Web services are included for
interoperability.
E-Commerc
• It is robust, reliable and flexible e
to handle workflow with
autonomy of companies.
• B2B e-commerce solutions are
best example of such
applications.
Categories of Web Applications
• These kind of applications are
mainly used as group
applications where group
communications are important
part.
• Chat rooms, online forums, Group
e-learning websites or websites App
where information are shared
with option of editing like
Wikipedia are some examples of
such web application.
Categories of Web Applications
• This kind of web applications are
those where single access point
is there to separate different
sources of information and
services. SE,
Forums
• Search engines, community
portals etc. are best examples of
portal oriented application.
Categories of Web Applications
• These kind of applications
provides customized facilities for
any device from anywhere at any Location
time. based
• It has limited interaction facility
and support limited device.
• It require advance knowledge of
context where the web
application is being used for
dynamic adjustment.
• Services based on location is an
example of such web
application.
Categories of Web Applications
• This kind of application is used Web
for providing knowledge for both Mining
human and machine.
• The knowledge management is
based on semantic web
technologies.
• Mining the web, linking and
reusing knowledge are a few
examples.
