'Technical difference between a stand alone app vs web app [closed]
I am reframing my previous question, this question was asked by my senior engineer, who wasnt convinced with my answer. Q: What is the technical difference between designing a 'web hosted application' and a 'downloadable stand alone application' eg. wrt HTTP layer coding etc.
Solution 1:[1]
Broadly speaking, web hosted applications rely on the following architectural features:
Web Application
- The UI is rendered on a client machine, using a specialized client (a.k.a. web browser)
- The UI capabilities on the client machine are limited to what the web browser (including plugins) supports. The programmer generally has no ability to implement arbitrary functionality on the client, but rather must work within the capabilities supported by the client.
- Business logic and data storage are not on the client machine (generally speaking, there can be limited exceptions). Rather, one or more servers take those architectural roles.
- Communication between the client and server occurs using a standardized network communication protocol (HTTP).
Stand Alone Application
- There are a vast number of different architectures for stand-alone applications. Some can be quite similar to a web hosted application; others are quite different.
- The programmer has full control (within the capabilities of the operating system and with support of a broad selection of UI frameworks) over the user interface.
- The business logic layer and data layer may reside on the same machine or on a remote server.
- If one or more remote servers are involved in the solution, many different remote communication protocols can be selected from. There's no requirement to use HTTP over TCP/IP (and in fact, more efficient protocols are often selected).
Solution 2:[2]
Standalone app uses your resources, web app executes on the server, rendering is done on your system.
Solution 3:[3]
Standalone application that runs locally on your computer. Ex: notepad, wordpad, paint...
Web application that can't run without webbrowser.....also run on webservers where the web application is hosted. Connect to web application by: Launching your browser..... enter URL to the web application... after entering URL web application loads in ur browser..... EX: Yahoo mail, Hot mail.......
Solution 4:[4]
Architecturally speaking, there is a world of different. 'Downloadable stone alone app' run purely on client side, and traditional 3-tier web app run small parts on user's browser (fancy javascript) and large part on the web/app and DB servers.
Also, downloadable apps are platform dependent. Unless you write it in Adobe AIR or Flash, chances are you'll have to write once for Windows, Linux, then Mac.
Solution 5:[5]
This takes a small bit of history...
Microsoft originally tried to modify java, which is not allowed when you agree to the agreement in the installation process. MS paid a token $1 million fine and stop cooperating with Java.
The java plug-in must have been previously installed, and...
- we have java applications, which run like computer programs because we add them to the hard drive.
- we have web pages with java applets added as a page element, the browser is capable of running java.
- we have java Web Start, that downloads the application from a distant server, checks the user has the Java Runtime, offers to install that runtime, and then runs the downloaded application.
Web application have merit in that the programmer can maintain the updates. But, people also like the feeling of owning their software, like recorded music.
Solution 6:[6]
A standalone license comes with a hardware security key. The software can be installed on any computer running Windows but only on the computer where the security key is inserted you can work with the software. If you want to work with the software on another computer, you just need to attach the key to this computer.
Solution 7:[7]
the standalone applications are the applications that can run only on the one system on which it is being installed.
- the application which being developed using c and c++ are the standalone application because do not form platform independency
Sources
This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Source: Stack Overflow
| Solution | Source |
|---|---|
| Solution 1 | Eric J. |
| Solution 2 | Krishna Chaitanya |
| Solution 3 | UdayKiran Pulipati |
| Solution 4 | Glorithm |
| Solution 5 | Stevie Whalen |
| Solution 6 | user3497368 |
| Solution 7 | ganesh |