David Lewandowski
Mobile Communication Devices

Unit 7 Assignment 1 Mobile Application

A Static Web Application is any web application that can be delivered directly to an end user’s browser without any server side alteration of the HTM, JavaScript or CSS content. Static web applications generally refer to rich sites that utilize technologies in the browser instead of on the server to deliver dynamic content. The primary difference is that a traditional web app, the server is the one responsible for fetching the data and compiling it all into the HTML that the user then can see, while the static web application, the browser is responsible for doing that.
Static Web Application: 1. The user agents browser sends a request to a static web server at a specified address 2. The Server receives the network request and maps the address to “barebones’ HTML file is stored on the server 3. The server sends the HTML file to the user agent, which will then render it and display it to the user 4. The JavaScript in the HTML pages uses the browser to connect to the data services and then fetches the information it needs to construct the content of the page you are on 5. The JavaScript in the web page, takes the data and manipulates the HTML of the page, updating it with the data the it fetched (Step 4)
Advantage of Static Web Application: * Cheaper to Build * Quick to Build * Easier for Search Engines to Index * Quicker Load Times
Disadvantages of a Static Web Application: * More expensive in the Long Run * Limited Functionality * Requires a Web Development Expert

A mobile web application is a web application that is formatted for smartphones and tablets and can be accessed through the mobile devices web browser. A mobile web application is built with three core technologies, HTML (defines static text and images), CSS (Style and presentation), and Java Script(interactions and animations) A Mobile web application is normally downloaded from the central web server each time the application is running.
Advantages of Mobile Web Application: * Cross Platform Compatibility * Relatively Cheap, Easy, Fast to Build * Ubiquitous Access (don’t need to download the app, can simply access by the URL in the Mobile Browser)
Disadvantages of Mobile Web Application: * Limited capabilities compared to that of a traditional desktop browsers * Web apps generally cannot access the on board hardware and software on the devices * Most times, heavy/complex custom graphics, also cannot be supported * Web apps (in general) require a connection to be able to function