1. Transforming the Web into a RealApplication Platform:
NewTechnologies, EmergingTrends and Missing Pieces
Authors - Matti Anttonen, Arto Salminen, Tommi Mikkonen & Antero
Taivalsaari
Review by – Mohanadarshan Vivekanandalingam (148241N)

2. Contents
2
• What is meant by “Web as an application platform”
• Limitations in standalone applications
• History of Web
• Evolution of WWW
• New Technologies in Web
• HTML5, Javascript2, WebGL & etc…
• Other features in the Web
• Shortcoming of the Web
• Real-world examples
• Conclusion

3. Whatismeantby “Webasanapplicationsplatform”?
3
Using the Web as an applications platform means a site has opened its
applications interface -- at least in part -- to let third-party developers create
applets and other programs that make the site more user-friendly. The idea of
using the Web as an applications platform employs the concept of sharing
information to create a better and more useable product. In the case of Facebook,
for example, third-party developers have created thousands of applications that
make Facebook more enjoyable for its users.

4. LimitationsinStandaloneApplications
4
• Platform dependent issues
• Deployment effort is high
• More complex architecture (if multiple users)
• Installation cost is high in some platforms
• Upgrade needed by user

5. Info.cern.ch was the address of the world’s first-ever web
site and web server, running on a NeXT computer at
CERN.
Tim Berners-Lee
History of Web
5
Beginning of Web
First website address - http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
Source - http://www.designjuices.co.uk/2011/09/web-design-evolution/

6. History of Web
6
Stage- 1 (Early 1990)
Form-structured documents with only text and some static images
Mosaic is the only browser, It was the first web browser to allow pictures to appear inline with text, rather
than being opened in a separate tab.

7. History of Web(cont...)
7
Stage- 2 (Mid 1990)
Simple and Basic graphics
• The first hit counters began to appear at the bottom of websites.
• Designers put more focus on text color, which led to seizure-inducing text sites that excited visitors of the time.

8. History of Web(cont...)
8
Stage- 3 (Later1990)
Evolution of Flash
• User-accessible website creation software
• Most Interactive website user ever seen

9. History of Web(cont...)
9
Stage- 4 (In 2000)
Introduction of css & javscripts.
• Top navigation menus
• Drop down menus
• Web forms

10. History of Web(cont...)
10
Stage- 5 (Now)
Web 1.0 was all about connecting people. It was an interactive space, and I think Web 2.0 is, of course, a
piece of jargon, nobody even knows what it means. If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people
to people. But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along.” – Tim Berners-Lee, 2006

11. Evolutionof WWW
11
Source : http://www.evolutionoftheweb.com/

12. Contributionof W3C
12
Founded by Tim Berners-Lee in early 1990
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards
organization for the World Wide Web
• Developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the
Web.
• W3C tries to enforce compatibility and agreement among industry members in
the adoption of new standards defined by the W3C. Incompatible versions of
HTML are offered by different vendors, causing inconsistency in how Web
pages are displayed. The consortium tries to get all those vendors to
implement a set of core principles and components which are chosen by the
consortium.

13. Why weneedstandardsinWeb?
13
• Achieve a More Stable Web
• Reduce Development and Maintenance Time
• Allow Backward Compatibility and Validation
• Increase Search Engine Success
• Graceful Degradation Now, and in the Future
• Common Knowledge

14. TechnologiesUsed
14

15. HTML5
15
HTML5 ~= HTML + CSS + JS
Recommended reading - http://html5-demos.appspot.com/static/html5-whats-new/template/index.html#1

16. Javascript2
16
• OOP - Classes will be fully supported with all the inheritance properties found in classic Java or
C# languages.
• Strong Typing - JavaScript will be strong typed. This translates into the fact that any
declaration will be enforced, and not coerced to the platform engine. This closely resembles
ActionScript 3.0 syntax.
• Compile Time Type Checking - Developers will be able to request a “strict” mode compilation
that will perform several tasks and security checks before executing the code.
• Namespaces - Namespaces have been until now formed of global objects containing all the
necessary data needed for a JS application
• Constants - The “const” declaration has been introduced just to store constants that previously
relied on “var” declarations that could easily have been re-written by accident.
• Program Units - This requirement was introduced to minimize bandwidth usage. A program
unit in JavaScript 2.0 will store amounts of code that won't be used until called upon. It works
similarly to an ActionScript 3.0 library.

17. WebGL
17
• WebGL (Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 3D graphics and 2D
graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins.
• WebGL brings 3D graphics to the Web by introducing an API that closely conforms to OpenGL
ES 2.0 that can be used in HTML5 <canvas> elements. Support for WebGL is present in Firefox
4+, Google Chrome 9+, Opera 12+, Safari 5.1+ and Internet Explorer 11+.
• WebGL does not have the fixed-function APIs introduced in OpenGL 1.0 and deprecated in
OpenGL 3.0. This functionality can instead be provided by the user in the JavaScript code space.
C3DL (http://www.c3dl.org/),
Copperlicht (http://www.ambiera.com/copperlicht/),
CubicVR (http://www.cubicvr.org/),
EnergizeGL (http://energize.cc/),
GLGE (http://www.glge.org/),
Framework that used webGL internally
WebGL specification - http://www.khronos.org/registry/webgl/specs/latest/2.0/
Check browser support - http://get.webgl.org/

18. Jaggaryjs
18
Jaggery is a framework to write webapps and HTTP-focused web services for all aspects of
the application: front-end, communication, Server-side logic and persistence in pure
Javascript. One of the intents of this framework is to reduce the gap between writing web
apps and web services. Importantly, Jaggery is open-source and released under Apache 2.0
More info - http://jaggeryjs.org/ & http://www.slideshare.net/nuwanbando/jaggery-introductory-webinar
A complete Javascript way to write all
parts of Web applications and services as
a way to reduce/eliminate impedance
mismatches across different layers of the
Web application and API development
experience.

19. Other Features inCurrent Web
19
Chrome browser & Chromium OS
• Chromium OS is a Linux-based operating system in which all the end user
applications are web applications.
• The only native application in the system is the web browser itself with support for
extensions and built-in media player. However, native code can be executed within
the browser with sandboxing technology called Native Client
Web Widget Runtimes
• This is different from general purpose web applications that do not require such
installation.
• In addition, web widget specifications have introduced bindings into the underlying
host operating system capabilities (device APIs), which in turn makes it possible to
access device resources, mobile device functions (such as SMS and MMS sending) and
even hardware peripherals and to combine these resources with web content.

20. Other Features inCurrent Web
20
Cloud Computing
• The actual computation takes place partially on the server side and partially on the
client side, depending of the specific needs of the applications and services.
• Cloud computing model makes it possible to utilize computing resources more
efficiently, and allows those resources to be shared between multiple sites
effortlessly, thereby converting capital expenditure into operational expenditure as
the customer does not need to own the hardware.
• Usually the services built on cloud infrastructure are accessed simply with a web
browser

21. Shortcomingsof theWeb
21
• User interaction issues
• Performance issues
• Networking and security issues
• Interoperability and compatibility issues
• Development and testing issues
• Deployment issues

22. IssuesRegardingWebinInitialStages
22
• Internet or network speed it very slow. ??

23. EvaluationoncurrentWeb
23
User Interaction
• The lack of portable programmatic handling of features such as cut/copy/paste and drag-and-
drop used to be a significant problem for many web applications (Supported by HTML – drag
and drop)
• The presence of features that are semantically problematic for real applications, such as the
“back”, “forward” and “reload” buttons, still remains an issue in the web browser. (Alternative
custom-built native web client to access a service)
Performance
• The “browser performance wars”.
• High-performance JavaScript engines, raw JavaScript execution speed has increased by two
orders of magnitude compared to the situation only three years ago
• Availability of hardware accelerated graphics, there are still challenges when implementing
the Canvas API and WebGL efficiently

24. 24

25. EvaluationoncurrentWeb
25
Security
• Yes, no much improvement in security aspect of the web.
• Chrome done a revolutionary here. Each browser tab is executed in a separate native (host
operating system) process. The isolation of individual tabs into different processes improves
browser security considerably, making it virtually impossible for one site to interfere with
code and content loaded from another site.
• Complement the existing domain-based browser security model with security permissions
and policies that would grant trusted sites/applications access to additional JavaScript APIs to
utilize host system capabilities
Compatibility
• Main bottleneck . 
• The scope of the available JavaScript APIs is still limited.
• Standardization has progressed slowly and partly because some major browser vendors have
intentionally ignored the standards.
• Refusing to adopt new technologies.

26. AdvantagesofWebasanRealApplicationPlatform
26
• Reliability of the application - Applications and services consist of data, code and other resources
that can be located.
• Applications require no installation or manual upgrades. The user will simply click (or navigate
to) a link and the application or service will start running in the browser pretty much
immediately.
• Client machine environment will not affect the application much (sometimes browser
dependent).
• Web applications typically require no compilation, linking or static bindings
• Web apps can be tested part by part instead of writing thousands of code to deploy it.
• Development is further complicated by the fact that the JavaScript language was not originally
designed for use in large-scale applications.

27. RealWorldSamples
27
Codenvy

28. Conclusion
28
• Web-based applications open up entirely new possibilities for software
development, and they can combine the best of both worlds.
• Transition towards web-based applications will mark the end of the era of
binary end user software.
• In the future, the use of conventional binary programs will be limited to
system software, while the vast majority of end user software will be
developed using web technologies.
• Web is the Future !. 

29. ThankYou!
Questions?
29