Re: Traps and pitfalls when writing web apps?


"gerald Zincke" <gerald.zincke@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:44ce6ac5$0$3891$91cee783@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
That's a good answer, Kenneth wrote here.

My experience is, that most people writing PHP are using it just to pep up
their web pages,
which is quite a different task compared to writing a real web
application.

If you get serious with web applications (information systems, complex
data
models, large databases, transactions, and that stuff)
you probably need an application framework with a good metaphor behind it.
For instance it must allow to synchronize
user transactions with database transactions.

If you like the idea that a web application should not re-invent the GUI
wheel
but should support a dialog flow similar to what we are used to at the
desktop,
you may like the GGF Framework (http://de.geocities.com/ggf_team/).

regards
Jerry

"Kenneth Downs" <knode.wants.this@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:346sp3-uer.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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!

If you want a web framework that allows you to write large CRUD applications
then look no further than RADICORE (http://www.radicore.org/ ). This was
invented by someone who spent 20+ years in developing and using frameworks
for the desktop, then translated all that knowledge and experience into a
PHP framework. It deals with database transactions, handles the back button,
has a dynamic menu system, role based access control system, audit logging
without database triggers, a data dictionary, and a workflow engine.

--
Tony Marston

http://www.tonymarston.net
http://www.radicore.org



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