CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE
REVIEW
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
It is nowadays quite undeniable that the internet has
revolutionized the world since its effects will soon spread into the lives of
everyone at all levels. The explosive growth of the Internet has given place to
the creation of new businesses that have relied on a plethora of services on
the powerful programming languages as well as web application development
quality steadily to accustom user needs to.
Web applications are about to revolutionize the way we
communicate throughout the world. The communication rules are thus upset
because the distance is no longer one of the key factors. And besides, internet
through web applications is one of the major communication tools to promote a
considerable time, a variety of services, and easier access to information.
Thus, the construction of a reliable web application involves the fairly clear
understanding of what a web application on the one hand; and secondly a look
will be devolved to the principal that has been identified for the construction
of web portal. This chapter begins with an overview of web applications, and
finishes with some ideas coming from dissertations.
1. OVERVIEW OF WEB APPLICATIONS
A web application also called a dynamic website (since a
static website is more like a tool of communication which do not allow
interaction with users) is a software application manipulated through a web
browser. In the same way that web sites, web application is usually placed on a
server and handles by activating widgets using a web browser via a computer
network (Internet, intranet, LAN).
The Webmail, content management systems (CMS), blogs are web
applications. Search engines, e-commerce software, online games, forum software
may be another form of web application. Network devices including routers, for
example are sometimes equipped with a web application in their firmware. Thus a
web application aims to accomplish specific task like when we make a research
on Google. The impact of web applications on how to operate a business, to
transmit and receive information, and even on people's lives, is considerable
and in more than four decades programmers have tried to jump the barriers
between traditional applications and web applications.
It is important to note that the success of web applications
is due to many advantages that can be summarized through several points:
· In terms of time, the implementation and deployment of
a web application is faster, the flow and sharing of data between users as
optimized as much as we enjoy the most intuitive applications and easier to
handle (to through the web browser).
· In terms of accessibility, access can be done through
many types of devices (PC, phone), operating systems constraints do not exist
here; work or access can be done from anywhere in the world and as a bonus the
data is accessible 24hour / 24 and 7days on7.
· In terms of costs, access to web applications at a cost
entirely predictable based on the subscription chosen by the customer and many
features are free of charge.
· In terms of security, user data is stored in large
processing centers (Data Center) very reliable.
· As bonus, web applications are steadily increasing and
dynamism they have shown is unparalleled.
1.1. History of web applications
The interactive web applications slowly revolutionized the way
we use the Internet. The concept of web application is not recent. Indeed, one
of the first programming languages for web application development was the
"Perl". It was invented by Larry Wall in 1987 before the internet became
accessible to the general public. But it was in 1995, when the programmer
RasmusLerdorf made the PHP language available to all that the Web application
development really took off. Today, even most of the famous of these web
applications are developed in PHP including Google, Facebook and Wikipedia.
A few months later, Netscape, ancient and popular web browser,
announced a new technology, JavaScript, allowing programmers to dynamically
change the content of a Web page that was, until now, static text. This
technology allowed a new approach in the development of Web applications, which
were now, and still today, much more interactive for users. For example, the
Google Instant feature for displaying search results even as the letters of the
word is typed, makes heavy use of JavaScript.
The following year, in 1996, two developers, Sabeer BHATIA and
Jack Smith, launched Hotmail an online messaging service. This allowed (for the
first time) to the general public to access and check e-mail anywhere users
could be on the planet and thus away from their workstation (computer).
Then came the famous Flash platform for adding interactive
content to websites. Flash came on in 1997 under the name of Shockwave Flash.
Later, after being acquired by Macromedia and now by Adobe, Flash became a
development platform for interactive Web applications.
Subsequently the use of web applications will know many
bouncing including online journalism beginning that will place internet as an
entire media. So, things were greatly facilitated by Google in 1998, when the
company launched its first online search engine which by its new way to index
Web pages, greatly facilitated the search for information on the internet.
Google continued to innovate and became one of the most prolific companies in
terms of Web applications, listing the popular Google Maps, Google Docs, Gmail
and others.
However, it is until 2004, at a conference on "Web 2.0" that
appears for the first time the concept of "Web as a platform." This innovation
paved the way for future web applications, that is to say, the software that
takes advantage of the internet and moving away from the traditional use of the
desktop.
| 
