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Technical difference between standalone application and web application

I am reviewing my previous question, this question was asked by my senior engineer, who was not sure of my answer. Q: What is the technical difference between designing a “web host” and a “downloadable standalone application,” for example. wrt HTTP encoding etc.

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Broadly speaking, application-based web applications rely on the following architectural features:

Web application

  • The user interface is displayed on the client machine using a dedicated client (aka web browser)
  • The user interface capabilities on the client machine are limited in that it supports a web browser (including plugins). The programmer usually does not have the ability to implement arbitrary functions on the client, but must work within the capabilities supported by the client.
  • The business logic and data warehouse are not located on the client machine (generally speaking, there may be limited exceptions). Rather, one or more servers fulfill these architectural roles.
  • Communication between the client and server occurs using the standard network communication protocol (HTTP).

Standalone application

  • There are many different architectures for stand-alone applications. Some may be very similar to a web application; others are completely different.
  • The programmer has full control (within the capabilities of the operating system and support for a wide range of user interfaces) over the user interface.
  • The business logic level and data level can be on the same computer or on a remote server.
  • If one or more remote servers are involved in the solution, you can select several different remote communication protocols. There is no need to use HTTP over TCP / IP (and in fact, more efficient protocols are often chosen).
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A stand-alone application uses your resources, a web application runs on a server, and rendering runs on your system.

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Architecturally speaking, there is a world of different. The "Download only stone application" runs exclusively on the client side, and the traditional three-tier web application launches small parts in a user browser (fantastic javascript) and most of it on web application and database servers.

In addition, downloadable applications are platform dependent. If you do not write it in Adobe AIR or Flash, most likely you will have to write once for Windows, Linux, and then Mac.

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It takes a bit of history ...

Microsoft originally tried to modify java, which is not allowed when you agree to the agreement during the installation process. MS paid a fine of $ 1 million and stopped working with Java.

The java plugin must be pre-installed and ...

  • We have Java applications that work like computer programs because we add them to the hard drive.
  • We have web pages with added java applets as a page element, the browser can launch java.
  • We have a Java Web Start that downloads the application from a remote server, verifies that the user has a Java Runtime, offers to install this runtime, and then launches the downloaded application.

The web application deserves that the programmer can support updates. But people also like the feeling of their own software, such as recorded music.

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A standalone application that runs locally on your computer. Example: notepad, text panel, paint ...

A web application that cannot work without a web browser ..... also runs on the web servers hosting the web application. Connection to the web application: launching your browser ..... enter the url into the web application ... after entering the url web appliaction is loaded in the ur browser ..... EX: Yahoo mail Hot mail .......

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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.

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Stand-alone applications are applications that can only work on the system on which it is installed.

  • An application that is developed using c and C ++ is a standalone application because it does not form platform independence.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/899761/

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