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Posted by Kenneth Downs on 07/29/06 13:57
Vincent Delporte wrote:
> Hello
>
> I'm about to write a prototype for a business application, but since
> this my first real web application, I'm looking for a good book or
> article that sums up the different issues web developers will
> encounter when coming from the world of dedicated applications (VB,
> Delphi, etc.)
>
> I'm thinking of issues specific to web apps like the statelessness of
> HTTP, dealing with the back button, etc.
>
> Any good resource? It'd be even better if they have examples in PHP,
> but a language-agnostic resource is good enough.
>
> Thank you!
Can I assume you come from the world of LAN apps, or Client/Server? If so,
I can share some experience, which I hope may be of use.
Probably the most important thing is to identify the architectural
differences between web and your past experiences and to embrace them
thoroughly in your new designs.
For instance, consider statelessness. My background in desktop and C/S apps
made this incomprehensible to me at first glance. How could anything
possibly work with no memory of the last request? At first I began
investigating sessions and schemes for maintaining state with the idea in
mind of keeping my stateful mindset. Though I learned a lot, this did not
give me a working system. At some point it dawned that statelessness must
be embraced and worked into my entire mindset, at which point the code
flowed and the systems worked.
The same goes for the back button. You can't stop them from hitting it. A
desktop guy will attempt to prevent it by popping up a browser window with
no toolbars. But all such schemes can be defeated because the reality of
the web is that the user is in control of the client, so you have to
embrace that fact in your design and enforce your needs in other ways.
Same goes for input. You can't control what the user sends, they can send
any kind of malicious code imaginable, so you have to code that assumption
in.
Anyway, that's my experince, hope it helps in some small way.
And good luck! Come on in, the water's fine!
--
Kenneth Downs
Secure Data Software, Inc.
(Ken)nneth@(Sec)ure(Dat)a(.com)
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