Changes in web Development on the Programmer's End

            With the rapidly changing trends and expectations of the web pages and applications, web programmers are also expected to change their practices and tool kits accordingly. Here, I would like to examine some of the many transitions that web has went through and consequent changes that web programmers are facing.

Going mobile

The biggest difference in web-related development from few years ago and now is the emergence of mobile devices with the Internet access and the demand for the mobile-exclusive applications.

Taking a look at the dynamics of the mobile market, smartphone with a mobile computing platform was first born as a mixture of PDA and existing mobile phone. The first lineup of the phones with web browsing functionality includes Symbian, Palm, Windows phone, and Blackberry from the late 1990s and the early 2000s. The rapid expansion of application market occurred when iPhone from iPhone and Android backed by Google in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The first application store was Apple’s App Store, which was launched in July 2008, and its success resulted in subsequent emergence of application markets from each of the Operating System (OS) manufacturers. 

Sales Figures of smartphones – from Wikipedia(Smartphone)

            As can be seen in the table above, the total number of smartphones in the market is increasing. Half of the American mobile users are now on smartphones, and it is expected that more than 70% of the population will own smartphones by the next year (Smartphone). There are also lighter laptops, netbooks, and tablets that enable mobile networking, which adds to the importance in developing light and fast but fully-functional webpages and web applications.

            With this shift in web browsing, programmers are now expected to design such webpages, or create a different view or exclusive application for the mobile devices. Specifically, objective C is used for iOS devices, and Android library in JAVA and XML is used for Android devices. This led to the two different venues of web programming – solely web-based and mobile-based.

Also, this trend allowed programmers to work on their own projects instead of client work. For example, Android is open source, meaning that all the code constituting the system is open to the public, and it allows a huge degree of freedom to the developers to roll out application. For iOS, Developer Program can be purchased for $99 per year, which is not so expensive for the impact that one application can have on the users. There are several success stories of small application companies or even one-man start-ups that developed famous mobile applications on the mobile market.

Interactive and dynamic contents

            These days, one of the keys of the successful website and web application is the interactive and dynamic layouts. Especially with the mobile application discussed above and Apple’s success in the market, consumers’ expectation of graphical representation has gone up. Even the regular webpages are now expected to have so-called “mobile-look” – simple, light, and with swift animations. Also, with the prevailing social networking over the web, interactive content that can be modified by several people at the same time became important.

            Such changes demanded web programmers to learn several new technologies that enable interactive and dynamic pages. One of the most mentioned language for dynamically animated pages is jQuery, which is a JavaScript library that simplifies the client-side web programming. It includes interactive UI libraries such as draggable, droppable, sortable, selectable, resizable objects. It also allows the programmers to easily create accordion, date picker, progress bar, slider, and many more without having to invent the wheel (jQuery Documentation). One of the many examples of using jQuery is shown below, which enables the zoom functionality that can be seen in many of the online shopping mall.

 Zoom function made with jQuery – from Mind-Projects

            AJAX is another technology that is mentioned in interactive pages. It is an acronym for “Asynchronous JavaScript and XML,” and just as its name, it is a combination of JavaScript and XML technology that enables asynchronous interactions. Ajax is not a whole new technology but a term coined for the group of all the technologies that allowed such interactive materials. This includes not only HTML/XHTML and CSS but also Document Object Model (DOM) and XMLHttpRequest objects. Especially XMLHttpRequest object allows the asynchronous interaction on the webpages. AJAX is used in virtually all the social networking websites and applications, including Facebook. In other words, the Facebook status that seems to be updated at the same time no matter how many people try to comment on it is in fact refreshed with the new data in order, just in a very fast speed.

            Summing up, the changes in web dynamics and technologies are only accelerating. As the general population is becoming more tech-savvy, the expectation to the web pages and applications is also increasing. Consequently, web programmers are now expected to promptly learn the new trends and technologies that will lead to the appealing products.

Resources

AJAX(Wikipedia) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_%28programming%29)

The Future of Web Development: A Peep through the Possible Changes (http://www.quality-web-programming.com/blog/the-future-of-web-development-a-peep-through-the-possible-changes/)

jQuery Documentation (http://docs.jquery.com/Main_Page)

SmartPhone (Wikipedia) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone)

Technology Advancement Brought a Big Change in Web Development (http://ezinearticles.com/?Technology-Advancement-Brought-a-Big-Change-in-Web-Development&id=4881260)