Web Applications

Webapps are applications that are accessed with a web browser over a network such as Internet
or Intranet. They are popular because of the ubiquity of the browser as a client (thin client).
Similarly, the popularity is equally due to the possibility of updating and maintaining the
application without necessarily distributing and installing it on every available client. Webapps
are used to implement services such as webmail, online retail sales, online auctions, discussion
boards and weblogs among others. Web developers often use client-side scripting to add
functionality to the webapps by creating an interactive site that does not require page reloading.

3.3.1 Basic WEBAPPS Architecture

The web works based on the Client/Server Architecture. That is both the server (web server or
middleware) and the client (web browser) applications are responsible for some sort of
processing. Web application is structured as a 3-tier application. That is web browser constitutes
the first tier, a middleware engine using some dynamic web content technology such as: common
gateway interface (CGI), hypertext preprocessor (PHP), java servlets or java server page (JSP),
active server pages (ASP) constitute the middle-tier and the database being the third tier. Figure
3.1 depicts the structure of web application with example of tools at work in each tier.

The Web Browser (Client)

The web browser constitutes the client. It is a software application that enables a user to display
and interact with text, images and other information. Browsers are used for quick and easy
access to information contained in the web pages or at some websites by traversing some links.
Similarly,browsers can be used to access information on web servers. Examples of web browsers
are MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Netscape and Opera. Web browser
works by communicating with web servers using the HTTP protocol. The protocol allows web
browsers to submit information to web servers as well as fetch web pages from them. The
primary language of browsers is the HTML, which consists of tags that are used to describe a
web page. Most browsers also have some level of support for scripting languages like JavaScript
and markup languages like extensible markup language (XML).

The Web Server (Middleware)

All Web transactions take place on the servers. The web server is responsible for communicating
with the browser while the database server is responsible for storing the required information.
The web server takes all requests from the clients, responds to the requests and serves the
appropriate web pages back to the clients. There are several web servers but the most prominent
of them are Apache HTTP Server and the Microsofts Internet Information Services (IIS)

1. Apache HTTP Server: This is most popular web server. It is a free

software/opensource. Apache runs on Unix, Linux, MS Windows, Novell Netware and
some other platforms.
2. Internet Information Services (IIS): This is a major component of the Microsoft Server
operating system, particularly, a component of its active server pages (ASPs). IIS is
recommended if both the middleware (ASP) and the database Server (SQL Server) are
Microsoft products. IIS is the worlds second most popular Web server after Apache. The
middleware is composed of languages such as PHP, ASP, ColdFusion, JSP and Perl.
These languages work with web servers to interpret requests from clients, process the
requests and interact with other programs that may be needed to fulfill the transactions
and indicate to the web server the actual page to serve the client.
Database Server
This is a program that provides database services to other computer programs or computers.
Database Management Systems (DBMS) provide functionality to database servers. They are
responsible for storing, retrieving and manipulating the data in the database or other repositories.
Some popular DBMSs include: Oracle, Sybase, Informix, SQL server, Db2 and Interbase.

3.4 Common Web Applications

All web applications communicate via protocols. In addition to the TCP/IP
and DNS protocols, other common protocols include:
• HTTP This is known as hypertext transfer protocol. It is a connectionless text-based
protocol through which clients (web browsers) send requests to the web server for certain
web pages and images to be displayed. After servicing this request, the connection
between the client and the server across the Net is disconnect. However, for another
request from the client to be serviced, another connection is sought.
• Telnet This is an application layer protocol that enables users to execute terminal
 sessions with remote hosts. That is, it allows a user to login to another host at remote
location.
• FTP This stands for file transfer protocol. It enables transfer of files between two hosts
that are at remote locations to each other. It performs basic file transfer between hosts.
• MIME - Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions is an Internet standard that extends the
format of email to support more than 7-bit ASCII characters.
• SMTP This stands for simple mail transfer protocol. This is a protocol that is used for
exchanging electronic mail. It is used for basic message delivery.
• SNMP This is known as simple network management protocol. It is a protocol that is
used to manage the network. It is used to collect information from the connected devices
on the network for management purposes.

Common web application in our daily life include:

Blogs
Blogs are discussion or informational sites published on the World Wide Web and consisting of
discrete entries (\posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post
appears first). In Tanzania, a good example is Michuzi blog available at http://issamichuzi.
blogspot.com/ [Accessed August 2013]

The WiKi
According to wikipedia [3], a wiki is a website which allows its users to add, modify, or delete
its content via a web browser usually using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor.
Wikis are powered by wiki software.

Web Search Engine

A Web Search Engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web.
Best example is google, and Bing. You can find an updated list of all web search engines
at http://www.philb.com/webse.htm [Accessed August 2013].

Emails
Electronic mail, commonly referred to as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital
messages from an author to one or more recipients. Email types include:
• Web-based email (webmail) - browser is the client for accessing emails.
• POP3 (Post Office Protocol) email services - when accessing emails, thay are
downloaded from the server to the mail clients, no copy is left at the server - similar to
Posta office.
• IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) email servers - when accessing emails, a
 copy is always left at the server until you explicitly delete it. The protocol used for
sending out email Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).

Internet Business Models

The following terms and/or definitions are associated with the Internet business models.
Dynamic pricing
Pricing of items based on real time interactions between buyers and sellers that determine
what an item is worth at any particular moment.

Portal
Web site or other service that provides an initial point of entry to the web or to internal
company data.

Banner ad
Graphic display on a web page used for advertising. The banner is linked to the
advertisers web site so that a person clicking on it will be transported to the advertisers
web site.
Syndicator
Business aggregating content or applications from multiple sources, packaging them for
distribution, and reselling them to third-party web sites. Pure play: Business model based
solely on the internet. Clicks-and-mortar: Business model where the web site is an
extension of a traditional bricks-and mortar businesses.

Changing Economics of Information

• Information Asymmetry: Situation in which the relative bargaining power of two parties
in a transaction is determined by one party possessing more information essential to the
transaction than the other party.
• Richness: Measurement of the depth and detail of information that a business can supply
to the customer as well as information the business collects about the customer.
• Reach: Measurement of how many people a business can connect with and how many
products it can offer those people.

Electronic Commerce
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, is a type of industry
where the buying and selling of products or services is conducted over electronic systems such as
the Internet and other computer networks. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile
commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online
transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and
automated data collection systems. When shopping online, the buskets for carrying goods are
known as shopping carts. Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is the use of wireless devices, such
as cell phones or handheld digital information appliances, to conduct ecommerce transactions.

BASIC Types of e-commerce

1. Business-to-Consumer(B2C): Electronic retailing of products and services directly to
individual consumers.
2. Business-to-business(B2B): Electronic sales of goods and services among
businesses.
3. Consumer-to-consumer(C2C): Consumers selling goods and services
electronically to other consumers.

Payment systems for E-commerce

• Digital wallet: Software that stores credit card, electronic cash, owner identification,and
address information and provides these data automatically during electronic commerce
purchase transactions.
• Micropayment: payment for a very small sum of money, often $1.00 or less.
• Electronic cash (e-cash): Currency represented in electronic form that can be exchanged
with another e-cash user or retailer over the Internet.
• Smart card: A credit card-size plastic card that stores digital information and that can be
used for electronic payments in place of cash.

Cookies and Privacy in E-Commerce

Cookies are simple text files created for the main purpose of helping your browser process the
special features of websites that use cookies. Cookies help website servers remember you as you
navigate from page to page. This simple feature makes e-commerce possible since you don’t
have to reload your shopping cart every time you leave a page.

Cookies serve the following purposes:

1. Protection to make sure you are who you claim to be and not another person who
managed to get a copy of your password.
2. Quickly determine your identity from page to page and remember the items you put
in your shopping cart. This feature is essential for any type of e-commerce.
3. Settings cookies help the website you’re visiting remember the settings you selected
on a prior visit. This includes themes and language preferences as well as remember
login names and passwords for easier entry on future visits.
4. Limit advertising cookies prevent \ad serving" scripts from showing annoying popup
ads again and again. They also remember your previous pages so you don’t see ads
geared for first time visitors to those pages again during a session.