第11章Webアプリケーション開発

Native applications have the benefits of accessing device-specific hardware and sensors (e.g., camera, accelerometer), data (e.g., location, contacts), and are optimized for performance.

However, they have the drawbacks of being device-dependent and available primarily through proprietary app stores (Google Play for Android and Apple’s App Store for iOS). Developers need to learn different languages and libraries for the devices. However, cross-platform development is possible with frameworks (e.g., Flutter, Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile), allowing developers to code in a single language and run solutions on both platforms.

Web apps can also run in a browser on mobile devices. They have the distinct advantage of responsiveness and can run on various screen sizes—thus allowing for a single codebase that can increase productivity and reduce cost. Disadvantages to web apps on mobile devices are limited access to hardware and software features, lower performance than native apps, and web apps may perform differently depending on the mobile browser. Traditionally, web apps didn’t look like native apps. In 2017, Google introduced Progressive Web Apps for Android, allowing web apps to look and feel similar to native apps.

Finally, hybrid apps are web apps wrapped inside a native device framework (e.g., Apache Cordova). These apps have the advantages of using traditional web application development while accessing and utilizing device functions and running on multiple mobile platforms. The drawbacks are reduced speed and potential security vulnerabilities found in the framework.

As discussed in Chapter 9 Software Engineering and Chapter 10 Enterprise and Solution Architectures Management, architectural styles, architectural patterns, and design patterns are typically used to enforce the quality attributes of software solutions. To facilitate the creation and maintenance of web applications and scalable transactional websites, web application frameworks and native application frameworks that leverage applicable patterns, such as MVC, were created and improved over the past couple of decades. Web frameworks are used within web application frameworks to facilitate the use of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript and to publish responsive web pages that can be rendered by modern browsers on all modern target devices. Web application frameworks help process UI-driven requests that result in publishing or updating web pages. Native application frameworks take advantage of capabilities available on specific target devices such as iPhones and Android phones. Organizations in many industries rely on web applications and related frameworks to conduct business daily.

Web 3.0 is the next phase of the Web. It is still being realized, and similar to Web 1.0 and 2.0, it can only be fully understood in hindsight. The technology and uses of the Web overlap between the phases, with newer phases becoming preferred over their predecessor phases. If Web 1.0 was the read-only web, and Web 2.0 was the participation (write) web, then Web 3.0 may be the read, write, and execute web.

Tim Berners-Lee had referred to Web 3.0 as the Semantic Web, a system of autonomous agents, which are software programs that respond to events. That model has shifted over the years. While AI (and other technologies such as AR/VR) will likely form a part of Web 3.0 or Web x.0, the principles that govern the next phase are expected to be around a web that is decentralized, permissionless, and trusted.

Web 3.0 sees a shift from the more traditional client-server model to a peer-to-peer networking model. A peer-to-peer network is one in which devices connect and can share data and processing without needing a centralized server. Peers in this scheme can perform the role of a traditional client, server, or both. This shift will foster a trusted, decentralized, and open web, where large companies don’t own the data, but everyone collectively owns it. Technologies such as a smart contract allow a trusted model that is needed in a decentralized system. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will improve information access through understanding the meaning of content available on the Web. The exemplar apps of the Web 3.0 phase will be defined in the future. Still, if the previous phases of the Web are any indication, it will fundamentally change how we operate in an ever-evolving technological world.

Finally, Web 3.0 apps will run on a web that supports Web 1.0 and 2.0 apps, with the likely result being hybrid architectures that are partially Web 2.0 and 3.0.