What is web application development?

What is Web application development?

Web application development refers to the development of Web applications, which is the development of B/S architecture applications. Web applications are applications that can be accessed through the Web. The biggest advantage of the program is that it is easy for users to To access the application, users only need a browser.

Steps to develop a web application

Step 1: Analysis

The first step in developing a web application is to analyze your needs. You should now define as comprehensive a list of features as possible that your application should provide. If you're doing this for a client, you need to understand what they want (and make sure you both know what the other is talking about). From your discussion, you can summarize the requirements and software specifications. Even if you are developing it for yourself, I recommend that you write down the functions you want the web application to do.

Step 2: Design

Once you figure out what the web application needs to do, you can start designing. This step is usually repeated many times, each time the design is refined. The first thing you need to do is draw a page flow diagram (on paper, or use a software tool, whichever you prefer. I like using paper so I can make changes more quickly). Page flow diagrams are usually very abstract black and white drawings of what the web application you will implement will look like (you can add some color, but try to keep it simple).

This step allows you to know what your application will eventually look like. Contrary to what 37signals advocates, I suggest using some word descriptions and being moderately detailed. When I get a good idea, or an idea of ​​how something should be done, I'll mark it on paper (for example, when this button is clicked it should cause another element to change or hide, I'll write this down in the process on the picture).

When you are satisfied with the sketch, you can start making the physical model.
The physical models are still patterns, but with colors and details. The final mockup should look like a screenshot of the web application you will implement. If you develop for a client, he will look at these things and give you his approval. However, many people like to skip this step (mostly non-designers) and they like to go straight to the web prototype.

Prototypes are developed in HTML and rendered using CSS (and sometimes Javascript). The page layout needs to be made, links can be clicked, colors, fonts, and font sizes need to be set (this will be easy if you make a physical model). This step is very important because everything here can be used in your final application. If possible, do some usability testing on your prototype. This will save you a lot of mistakes in the long run.

At the end of this step, you basically know how your web application is organized together. What is the login page and how does the user go from the homepage to each page?

Step 3: Implement and select a framework

We already know what we want to develop, so we must make it. This part is a lot of work and you will spend most of your time on it. The first decision you have to make is how to start, what technology and what framework to use. You have many options to choose from, and you need to choose the one that suits you. Here is a list of the most commonly used frameworks:

ASP.NET

Framework for any process on PHP

Python with Django

Ruby on Rails

There is no clear standard that says which framework is best. They are all different and each has its own strengths. The most important thing you need to know is that any of them will allow you to develop useful web applications.

Development

Once you know how to develop, it’s time to get started. This development work can be seen as having many pieces, but at the end of the day, these are standard programming activities. Behind the scenes, you create classes, objects, services, procedures, and persistence layers to save these objects to the database. The background is the core of the entire application. For any application, it is no different from ordinary programming. Next is the development of the front desk. The code you write is the real operating interface for users. You integrate the background program and prototype interface, and integrate all parts of the system together. You can also use JavaScript to implement some cool little functions that you think of during the development process.

Again, there are many ways to implement background programs. It is recommended that you read the information related to the framework of your choice to figure out how to implement this part of the work. Typically, this knowledge will be related to object-oriented programming, but some frameworks are slowly moving towards domain-driven design.

Step 4: Polishing

The application has been developed and the individual modules have been integrated. You need to test to ensure that the requirements and software specifications you defined in step 1 are implemented (this question should be kept in mind throughout your development process). You want to make sure that stupid users can't break your application by trying to do something you haven't implemented yet (see white-box and black-box testing). You also need to ensure that your program can run correctly in various browsers (hopefully not IE6).

This is also the time to make some small tweaks to improve the feel of your app and make it perfect.

Step 5: Publishing and follow-up work

This last step (but not the end) is to publish your application so that users can actually use it (if this application is a publicly developed application, Don’t forget to do press promotion). If you want, release a beta version first so that only a small number of users can find big problems in your application (because there will definitely be bugs in your program), and they will help you improve the quality of your program. Don't rush to add features, focus on making your program solid.

When you have passed the beta stage and your program has become very stable, listen to user feedback and try out your application yourself, you can start thinking about how to make the application better. Find the discordant areas and eliminate them. Each subsequent iteration will go through the five steps mentioned above, but like I said initially, you already have a running application, it is easy to complete these steps directly in your mind and go directly to the code Test your functionality here.

Recommended tutorial: "PHP Tutorial"

The above is the detailed content of What is web application development?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!