Open web is term being batted around to describe the movement of web technologies to open standards and technologies. The move to Open Web has been gradual, but has now gained sufficient momentum that it will continue into the future. Open Web is more that just a set of technologies, it is also a community and a culture. Today’s web technologies such as HTML4, Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Simple Object Access Protocol [SOAP] web services, Java EE, and .NET are gradually being replaced with open web technologies. While HTML5 is the best known, Open Web technologies also include JavaScript (client and server), CSS3, Representational State Transfer (REST), and mobile frameworks such as jQuery Mobile, among others.
Even though lack of support for Flash on the iPad severely damaged the Adobe Flash market, it appears likely that wide adoption of HTML5 will end Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight for good. Even though at the moment HTML5 may not be as powerful as Flash or Silverlight for digital rights management or video streaming, it will soon catch them. It is clear that HTML5 standards and technologies are advancing rapidly enough to drive the next evolution of cross-platform rich Internet applications
REST (Representational State Transfer ) is a set of principles that define how Web standards, such as HTTP and URIs, should be used. Adhering to REST principles will lead your organization to a broader, resource-oriented architecture and management platform. RESTful APIs are quickly replacing SOAP as the new standard. RESTful APIs embrace the five key REST principles listed below.
- Give every “thing” an ID
- Link things together
- Use standard methods
- Permit Resources with multiple representations
- Communicate statelessly
jQuery has been one of the most popular JavaScript libraries. jQuery is a fast and compact JavaScript Library for rapid web development that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions. jQuery Mobile is a touch-optimized Web framework for smartphones and tablets. It provides a unified, HTML5-based user interface for popular mobile device platforms and is built on the solid jQuery and jQuery UI foundation. Expect to see jQuery Mobile as the new standard for mobile applications targeted at smartphones and tablets.
Cloud computing also plays a key part of the Open Web movement. Cloud platforms play a major role in Open Web because they level the playing field for Open Web developers and provide so many useful services for open Web applications. Most cloud computing applications use RESTful APIs, and support HTML5.
In future posts in this series, I will describe key issues that should be considered as requirements are defined for web and mobile applications. We provide example requirements for a variety of areas such as this in the RequirementCoach™ component of our Enfocus Requirement Suite™ product. To find out more about the Enfocus Requirement Suite,™ please download our product fact sheet below.