A web application is an application that is accessed through net or over a network such as internet or intranet. The term refers to as use of a web browser and Java Applets. Web applications are used to implement web mail, online retail sales, online auctions, discussion boards, web blogs and many other functions.

Web applications reside on a server; it can be modified or updated on a given point of time without any distribution or installation of software. It runs entirely from within the browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer. Online shopping is the most common example of web application. It offers many advantages over traditional software.

From a technical aspect, web is a highly programmable environment that allows mass customization through the immediate deployment of a large and a diverse range of applications, to a lot of users. Web applications provide businesses with the means necessary to communicate with the customers.

Web Applications is commonly structured as a three tier application. In its most common form, a web browser is the first tier an engine using some dynamic. Web content technology (such as ASP, ASP.NET, CGI, JSP/Java) is the middle tier and database is the third tier of the web application. The web browser sends request to the middle tier which services them by making queries and updates against the database and generates a user interface.

Technical Considerations

Web applications support a standard browser. Another approach used in web application technical aspects is providing user‘s with a special interface. Flash and Java based technologies are the major technologies used at this level to implement the interface with same ease of deployment. They allow the programmer a greater control over the interface; they bypass many browser- configuration issues, although incompatibilities between Java or Flash implementations on the client can introduce different complications. The alternate term for web applications is ‘Rich Internet Applications’.

Benefits of Web Applications

• Improved sales and lower sales overheads.
• Lower customer support overheads.
• Improved metrics and customer profiling.
• Enhanced communication with customers.
• Improved interactions with partners and suppliers.
• Always up to date
• Familiar interface encourages use.

Web Applications Working

Web Application is a third layered model. The first layer is normally a web browser or the user interface; the second layer is the dynamic content generation technology tool such as Java Servlets (JSP) or Active Server Pages (ASP), and the third layer is the database containing content (e.g. news) and customer data (e.g. usernames and passwords, social security numbers and credit card details).

The initial request is triggered by the user through the browser over the Internet to the web application server. The web application accesses the databases servers to perform the requested task updating and retrieving the information lying within the database. The web application then presents the information to the user through the browser.