Custom Web Applications - Things To Consider

The World Wide Web has brought about an enormous amount of functionality that was previously inconceivable. For instance, corporations, small businesses and even individuals today can own a website and reach billions of people all around the world with the click of a button.

HTML is the generic language that is used to create websites on the Internet. While it is quite powerful for creating static web pages, HTML has some inherent limitations. When you need to go past the technical limitations of HTML, you might have to develop your own custom web applications using an appropriate web application development language like ASP.NET or PHP, which probably are two of the most popular languages used for developing custom web applications.



Both ASP.NET and PHP are server-side scripting languages and they run on the server instead of on the client. The server runs the programs, generates the appropriate HTML code, and then sends it to the client. There are a number of advantages in using server-side scripting languages. They are very versatile and can meet a wide variety of needs. Different kinds of custom web applications can be easily developed using server-side scripting languages. In fact, certain applications can never be created apart from using server-side scripting languages. Rather than being advantageous, sometimes they would be the only means to meet a particular requirement.

Apart from ASP.NET and PHP, there are a number of other server-side scripting languages as well. You can choose a particular language based on a few important criteria. First of all, you need to check if the infrastructure for running the application is widely available in most web servers. For instance, applications developed using ASP.NET would not work on Linux servers most often. Likewise, PHP scripts may not be supported on all platforms either. So you need to strike a balance between the platform of your choice and the scripting language that you propose to use for developing your custom web applications.

Secondly, you have to consider the availability of skilled manpower in the language of your choice. If you choose a scripting language that is either too ancient or too recent, you might have difficulty finding skilled programmers to develop your custom web applications. Finally, you need to consider the power and versatility of the language itself to handle the job efficiently. Different web languages have different capabilities and limitations, although the differences are becoming minor as time goes by. So you need to choose a scripting language that is most appropriate for your custom web applications.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6710555