An overview of the web landscape
The web landscape is at its most advanced stage today compared to some years ago. Today, web applications can leverage the unique capabilities of the different web browsers that were simply not available a few years ago. From interaction with location services, cameras, and more to being installed as apps on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop, today, web applications are closer than ever to mobile applications.
With all of this in mind, there are other aspects within the web landscape that are important to understand: web technologies that are available and are constantly changing for web application developers.
Based on Hackr.io (https://hackr.io/blog/web-development-frameworks), web developers have a wide array of choices when building their websites. With ExpressJS, Angular, React, Vue, Ember, and more, developers can choose the most relevant technology for their next web application.
With web technologies growing and running on different omni-channels, the quality and growth of vulnerabilities are also becoming a great challenge. Based on the ongoing monitoring of web trends by the HTTP Archive (https://httparchive.org/reports/state-of-the-web), 59.4% of crawled pages contain at least one known third-party JavaScript vulnerability:
Figure 1.1 – Web pages with vulnerable JavaScript code (source: https://httparchive.org/reports/state-of-the-web)
In addition to the level of growth of web technologies and maturity of browser capabilities, an additional area that has completely changed in terms of both awareness and importance is web application accessibility compliance. Organizations that build web applications today, and in the future, must adhere to strict accessibility rules across desktop and mobile devices. Not meeting these guidelines, such as section 508, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), can result in massive fines and brand damage.
Today, web application developers should be more equipped with the knowledge, tools, and continuous training around web application quality. This is to ensure their apps are solid and don't introduce any kind of business risk to their brand – whether quality-related, security-related, accessibility-related, availability-related, or in terms of compatibility across factors that includes different screen sizes and resolutions.
Now that we've looked at a brief overview of the current web landscape, let's examine the various types of web applications and what each of them mean from a development and testing perspective.