Introduction to Web Engineering and its

Basic Concepts

What is a Web?

The Web is the common name for the World Wide Web, a subset of the Internet consisting of the
pages that can be accessed by a Web browser. Many people assume that the Web is the same as
the Internet, and use these terms interchangeably. However, the term Internet actually refers to
the global network of servers that makes the information sharing that happens over the Web
possible. So, although the Web does make up a large portion of the Internet, but they are not
one and same.

Web pages are formatted in a language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). It this
language that allows users to click through pages on the Web via links. The Web uses HTTP
protocol to transmit data and share information. Browsers such as Internet Explorer, Google
Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are used to access Web documents, or Web pages, which are
connected via links.

The Web is just one of the ways that information is shared over the Internet; others include email,
instant messaging and File Transfer Protocol (FTP).

What is Website?

A website is a collection of publicly accessible, interlinked Web pages that share a single domain
name. Websites can be created and maintained by an individual, group, business or organization
to serve a variety of purposes. Together, all publicly accessible websites constitute the World
Wide Web.

A website is also known as a web presence.

Websites come in a nearly endless variety, including educational sites, news sites, forums, social
media sites, e-commerce sites, and so on. The pages within a website are usually a mix of text
and other media. That said, there are no rules dictating the form of a website. A person could
create a website of nothing but black and white photos of roses, or the word "cat" linked to
another Web page with the word "mouse." However, many sites follow a standard pattern of a
homepage that links off to other categories and content within the website.
Originally, websites were categorized by their top-level domains.

Some examples include:

• Government agency websites = .gov

• Educational institutions’ websites = .edu

• Nonprofit organizations’ websites = .org

• Commercial websites = .com

• Information sites = .info

Although these top-level domains extensions still exist, they say little about a website's actual
content. In the modern day internet, the ".com" extension is by far the most popular domain,
along with many other country-specific extensions.

What is Web-Based Applications?

A web-based application is any program that is accessed over a network connection using HTTP,
rather than existing within a device’s memory. Web-based applications often run inside a web
browser. However, web-based applications also may be client-based, where a small part of the
program is downloaded to a user’s desktop, but processing is done over the internet on an
external server.

Web-based applications are also known as web apps.

There is a lot of confusion created by the use of terms like web-based, internet-based and
cloudbased when referring to applications. Web-based applications actually encompass all the
applications that communicate with the user via HTTP. This includes light applications like Flash
games, online calculators, calendars and so on, as well as more intensive applications such as
web-based word processors and spreadsheet applications.
What is Web Engineering?
The World Wide Web has become a major delivery platform for a variety of complex and
sophisticated enterprise applications in several domains. In addition to their inherent
multifaceted functionality, these Web applications exhibit complex behavior and place some
unique demands on their usability, performance, security, and ability to grow and evolve.
However, a vast majority of these applications continue to be developed in an ad-hoc way,
contributing to problems of usability, maintainability, quality and reliability. While Web
development can benefit from established practices from other related disciplines, it has certain
distinguishing characteristics that demand special considerations. In recent years, there have
been developments towards addressing these considerations.

“The application systematic and quantifiable approaches to cost-effective analysis, design,

implementation, testing, operation and maintenance of high quality of Web-Applications.”

What was the need of web engineering?

The World Wide Web (Web) was originally conceived in 1989 as an environment to allow for the
sharing of information (e.g. research reports, databases, user manuals) amongst geographically
dispersed individuals. The information itself was stored on different servers and was retrieved by
means of a single user interface (Web browser). The information consisted primarily of text
documents inter-linked using a hypertext metaphor. Since its original inception the Web has
changed into an environment employed for the delivery of many different types of applications.
Such applications range from small-scale information-dissemination-like applications, typically
developed by writers and artists, to large-scale commercial, enterprise-planning and scheduling,
collaborative-work applications. The latter are developed by multidisciplinary teams of people
with diverse skills and backgrounds using cutting-edge, diverse technologies. Numerous current
Web applications are fully functional systems that provide business-to-customer and businessto-
business e-commerce, and numerous services to numerous users.

Industries such as travel and hospitality, manufacturing, banking, education, and government
utilized Web-based applications to improve and increase their operations. In addition, the Web
allows for the development of corporate intranet Web applications, for use within the boundaries
of their organizations. The remarkable spread of Web applications into areas of communication
and commerce makes it one of the leading and most important branches of the software industry.
To date the development of Web applications has been in general ad hoc, resulting in poor-
quality applications, which are difficult to maintain. The main reasons for such problems are
unsuitable design and development processes, and poor project management practices. A survey
on Web based projects, published by the Cutter Consortium in 2000, revealed a number of
problems with outsourced large Web-based projects:

• 84% of surveyed delivered projects did not meet business needs.

• 53% of surveyed delivered projects did not provide the required functionality.

• 79% of surveyed projects presented schedule delays.

• 63% of surveyed projects exceeded their budget.

As the reliance on larger and more complex Web applications increases so does the need for using
methodologies/standards/best practice guidelines to develop applications that are delivered on
time, within budget, have a high level of quality and are easy to maintain. To develop such
applications Web development teams need to use sound methodologies, systematic techniques,
quality assurance, rigorous, disciplined and repeatable processes, better tools, and baselines.
Web engineering aims to meet such needs.

What are the tools, techniques and technologies used in web applications
development?

Tools:

• Atom: Atom is relatively a new kid on the block of code editors. ...
• Sublime Text: The Sublime is among the most popular text code editors out there.
• Notepad++: Notepad++ is a powerful open source text editor, which only works on
Windows.
• Vim
• Visual Code Studio

Web Application Frameworks:

• Django
• Rubby On Rails
• Angular
 • ReactJS
• Vue.js
• MeteorJS
• ASP.NET

Front-End Frameworks:
• Bootstrap
• Semantic-UI
• Foundation
• Materialize
• Material UI

Web Design and Prototyping Tools:

• Figma
• ProtoPie
• Framer
• Toolset
• Affinity Designer
• MockPlus

Techniques:
• Responsive Web Design Strategy
• Maintaining Consistency
• No Stock Photography
• Using Responsive Images
• CSS Media Queries
• Using Responsive Data Tables
• Design a Great Navigation System
• Minimize Flash and Animation
• Make your site accessible
• Usability
• Pay attention to the writing style
 • Minimize user work load
• Use negative spaces
• Conventions are fruitful
• Test early, Test often

Technologies:

Client Side Scripting / Coding: Client Side Scripting is the type of code that is executed or
interpreted by browsers.
Client Side Scripting is generally viewable by any visitor to a site (from the view menu click on
"View Source" to view the source code).

Below are some common Client Side Scripting technologies:

• HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
• JavaScript
• Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
• jQuery (JavaScript Framework Library - commonly used in Ajax development)
• MooTools (JavaScript Framework Library - commonly used in Ajax development)
• Dojo Toolkit (JavaScript Framework Library - commonly used in Ajax development)

Server Side Scripting / Coding: Server Side Scripting is the type of code that is executed or
interpreted by the web server.
Server Side Scripting is not viewable or accessible by any visitor or general public.

Below are the common Server Side Scripting technologies:

• PHP (very common Server Side Scripting language - Linux / Unix based Open Source -
free redistribution, usually combines with MySQL database)
• Zend Framework (PHP's Object Oriented Web Application Framework)
• ASP (Microsoft Web Server (IIS) Scripting language)
• ASP.NET (Microsoft's Web Application Framework - successor of ASP)
• ColdFusion (Adobe's Web Application Framework)
• Ruby on Rails (Ruby programming's Web Application Framework - free redistribution)
• Perl (general purpose high-level programming language and Server Side Scripting
Language - free redistribution - lost its popularity to PHP)
• Python (general purpose high-level programming language and Server Side Scripting
language - free redistribution)

THE END