Baulkham Hills, NSW -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/31/2010 -- When you think about it for a moment, web application development is not really a mystery or a puzzle. It is development of applications that can be used on the web! It includes a host of software that can be created, deployed, maintained and utilized on websites. Application development is done by coders or programmers who are specialists employing varied development platforms for creating the right set of web applications based on specific requirements. Web development utilizes different types of coding such as HTML, CSS, XML, Flash, JSP, PERL, PHP and ASP. Each platform(s) is distinctive and can be applied based on its unique set of features to generate customized results.

In most cases, coders specialize in a few of these languages and not all. Significantly, the web is quite dynamic as the current structure is still fluid. Consequently, several versions are common in web application development. In fact, application development keeps changing based on requirements of customers and software upgrades. To somebody who is a layperson, this is not always obvious.

Another key aspect of web development is the fact that web pages are displayed differently in different browsers. An example is the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. This is the predominant browser used across the world though there are other browsers in the next rung. However, none of them command the market share like Internet Explorer does. For this reason, most programmers and web developers write web pages and perform application development using Internet Explorer as the primary browser. As such, the developed pages appear in one fashion in IE and differently in other browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera. There are of course many other net browsers out there.

Interestingly, as a result of the differences in various browsers, support for application development also varies. Therefore, some browsers respond much more positively than do other browsers. For this reason, it is possible to develop highly specialized web applications in some browsers. It is therefore crucial for web programmers to be aware of this key variable and take it into account when designing web applications failing which there could be a huge downside. It is important that coders don’t operate by presumptions that predominant browsers should more or less take care of their majority client base. This could be a risk preposition in application development. For example, a major company may choose not to use the predominant browser and this could result in web development companies missing the bus on a big customer.

In web application development, the maxim, “keep it sweet and simple” has higher acceptance since this usually results in higher exposure for web pages. Another point to remember in web development is understanding needs of the customer. Is the customer a business dealing with another business or is it a business dealing with retail customers? This will set the specifications on application development on eCommerce sites for example. eCommerce sites will also involve very high traffic, all kinds of permutations and combinations with respect to customers’ behaviors, high uptime servers and always-on shopping cart.