Real-Time Web Application – Development And Technologies

Real-time web application development isn’t like mobile application development, wherein the company or the brand is needed to develop separate applications for various platforms or at the most develop a cross-platform hybrid application with somewhat limited functionality while being heavy on budget and otherwise. However the real-time web application is not a novel term in the IT industry, it has been in use for over 10 years. The giant social platforms like Twitter and Facebook have been designed using real-time web applications.

Web-Based Applications have become increasingly popular due to the fact that they offer extended capabilities, no need for variation from one user platform to other and a much wider reach than the traditional mobile applications.

Real-time web apps also cater to industries such as the stock market, chat messaging, news segment, political sector, statistics, and other types of sources & urgent notifications in a much more efficient way.

Things to Consider while Developing A Real-Time Web-Based Application

There are a couple of things not much unlike mobile app development that you need to keep in mind while working on the development of a real-time web-based application.

1. UX & UI:

   

   With the web interface, you can offer a greatly enhanced visual look with your apps, but you also need to pay great attention to detail in terms of navigation and page layouts. Make sure that the information offered is easily accessible as such kind of apps often get a much higher level of engagement.

2. Speed and Performance:

   

   As much as a single second delay in site loading can cause million dollars in lost sales for a site doing great sales every day. The technology used should allow real-time data manipulation of large sets along with lessening the load on the main page server.

3. Scalability:

   

   There is no limit on the potential traffic of web applications, as such the developers need to make sure that the programming language used to develop it can support scalability on a large scale. To increase their capacity, you can add either more memory or more processors or extra servers, this clustered approach makes sure at least one server is available at all times.

4. Security Considerations:

   

   Information Age is here and with it, the value of user data especially knows no bounds in terms of its market worth. With the sheer volume of data that gets processed on these type of applications, it becomes crucial to building an extra robust security layer. Service Access Points which allows only legitimate people with verified access to the application are also very much essential.

Real-Time Web Application Development Technologies

Choosing the right technology for real-time web applications isn’t easy, as there are many and each has its own benefits and drawbacks. It essentially depends upon your requirements which one is the best option for you to choose. With a variety of application frameworks available in the market.

There are many tools and startups which are now making it easier for those of us who aren’t that much proficient in otherwise technical programming languages. Below is a list of some of these most popular tools and frameworks for your use.

1. Node JS
2. MeteorJS
3. FireBase
4. PubNub

Node JS

Node JS is a Javascript-based Runtime Environment which is fast, efficient and highly scalable. The time taken during the development of real-time web apps with this is virtually the same as developing a very simple blog via PHP. Due to its many benefits, developers make it their first choice when it comes to web application development.

MeteorJS

MeteorJS is an open source platform based upon Node JS only. With its inbuilt command line tools, you can create new applications while running them locally and deploying on meteor servers if need be to share it with others. You can do that via your own server as well. In addition to that, MeteorJS provides ‘smart packages’ which can be UI components, javascript frameworks, CSS frameworks and more.

FireBase

It’s another startup similarly to the above which comes with an advanced dashboard along with doing configuration for user authentication within the app. They provide support for client side libraries and emphasize mobile app development. Not to be confused with mBaaS companies, FireBase differs from them as it combines real-time data delivery with data persistence.

PubNub

What sets PubNub apart from all of the above that it solely focuses upon real-time data delivery. It consists of an application programming interface which can be easily used by developers to send & receive real-time data. With support for well more than 50 SDK’s such as iOS, Java, Ruby, .Net, Javascript etc it provides no support for user authentication and data storage, unlike others.

There is one other technology that is quite gaining popularity, especially with the mobile app developers due to its being heavily depending upon similar frameworks. Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS) is designed to help the developers with user authentication, social integration, data storage and more. Real-time data, however, lags behind despite being in lieu with the mission of many MBaaS companies.