E-Buy Web Application: Design, Development, and Testing

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WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
LO1.......................................................................................................................................................4
Task 1....................................................................................................................................................4
P1.1. Critically evaluate the functions and advantages of web applications......................................4
P1.2. Critically compare different types of server-side and client-side scripting languages..............5
P1.3. Examine web security concerns and make recommendations for security improvements........7
LO2.......................................................................................................................................................8
Task 2....................................................................................................................................................8
P2.1. Design a web application to meet a given requirement.............................................................8
P2.2. Synthesise client-side and server-side functionality in a web application.................................9
P2.3. Apply a database design for use in a web application.............................................................10
P2.4. Evaluate alternative designs and solutions to meet a given requirement.................................11
LO3.....................................................................................................................................................12
Task 3..................................................................................................................................................12
P3.1. Implement a web application to a prepared design using client-side and server-side scripting
languages.........................................................................................................................................12
P3.2. Implement a web-enabled database management system to store, retrieve and manipulate data
in a web application.........................................................................................................................15
P3.3. Identify and implement opportunities for error handling and reporting..................................16
LO4.....................................................................................................................................................17
Task 4..................................................................................................................................................17
P4.1. Critically review and test a web application using a web-enabled database management
system..............................................................................................................................................17
P4.2. Analyse actual test results against expected results to identify discrepancies.........................19
P4.3. Critically evaluate independent feedback on a developed web application and make
recommendations for improvements................................................................................................20
P4.4. Create user documentation for a developed web application..................................................21
M1. Identify and apply strategies to find appropriate solutions.......................................................22
M2. Select/ design and apply appropriate methods/techniques........................................................23
M3. Present and communicate appropriate findings........................................................................24
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................25
Reference.............................................................................................................................................26
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Introduction
Web application development is the process of creating web applications that resides on
servers and can be accessed by the users according to their requirements by the help of the
internet. It can be accessed by browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera or
Safari. These applications are developed by the process of software development lifecycle.
Various different technologies are used to develop a web application. The organization
selected for this project is Barclays Plc. which is an investment bank whose headquarter is
situated in London, United Kingdom. It deals with its four main businesses, namely
investment management, personal banking, wealth management, and corporate banking. The
aim is to develop an application along with an understanding of all its concepts and features.
Also, testing has to be applied to an implemented application to test its functionalities.
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LO1
Task 1
P1.1. Critically evaluate the functions and advantages of web applications.
The web application is an application on the web that can be accessed by any kind of Web
Browser. Web browsers usually include Google Chrome, Safari, Opera or Mozilla Firefox.
Development of web application has short development lifecycle because of which it is led
by a small team (Ceke and Milasinovic, 2015). Development of web applications includes
developing front-end and back-end. These applications are written HTML5, CSS (Cascading
Style Sheet), and JavaScript. Front-end uses client-side language and back-end uses server-
side language for programming.
Advantages of the web application are:
 Zero installation cost
 Direct access
 Centralized data
 Can reach anyone, anywhere
 Available
 Online training
 Easy updates
 Quick updates
 Always up to date (Fu, et. al., 2015)
Disadvantages:
 Can be slow as dependent on an internet connection
 Security risks
 Have to support various versions and software
 The development process is complex and long (Rosenstein, et. al., 2016)
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P1.2. Critically compare different types of server-side and client-side scripting
languages.
Server and client side languages are used to code the back-end and front-end of the website
respectively. The functionalities of the languages differ.
Server-side scripting language:
It is used at the back-end to provide accessibility to the users. Back-end is used to serve the
requests of the users. Some (Gonzalez, et. al., 2016) languages those are used to code for the
back-end are:
 Python:
It is an interactive and object-oriented language. It eases the work of the programmers as
its syntax allows having a code in fewer lines of code. It supports memory management
that is automatic and also has a dynamic typing system (Horiuchi, et. al., 2017).
 PHP:
It stands for Hypertext Pre Processor used to create web pages that can work with the
database. It is an open source language used for developing web applications.
 Ruby:
It is an object-oriented language that is an open source which supports all the paradigm of
object-oriented programming (Hunag, et. al., 2017).
Client-side scripting language:
These are the programming languages used to develop a front-end of the web application. It
is basically used for the running of the scripts (Joshi and Singh, 2016). Languages that can
help in designing the front-end of an application are:
 HTML5:
It stands for the HyperText Markup Language used to give the description of the web page
structure. It generally provides a framework for the website.
 CSS3:
It stands for Cascading Style Sheet, responsible for handling all the graphic elements.
From CSS elements, the application looks more attractive (Fu, et. al., 2015).
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 JavaScript:
It is a programming language used to create applications that are network-centric. It is easy as
it has integration with HTML (Chess, et. al., 2016). It allows having an interaction with the
server.
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P1.3. Examine web security concerns and make recommendations for security
improvements.
Web security is imposed on web applications in order to secure them from threats and
attacks. Since, cybercrimes are increasing at a very exponential rate, taking security measures
into an account is must (`Shih, et. al., 2017) Web applications should be backed by many
checkpoints so that the data can be recovered from that checkpoint from where it was
attacked or hijacked. Web security ensures the customers that their data is stored in a
confidential place. There are many technologies that can be used in order to prevent the
application from threats (Biagiola, et. al., 2017). This includes fuzzing tools, black and white
box testing tools, password cracking, scanners, and firewalls. There are so many attacks that
can damage the web application like DDoS attacks, malware, blacklisting, etc.
It is important due to the following reasons:
 Customers can be targeted by the website that has been hacked.
 The reputation of business drop
 Website protection is cheaper than its cleaning
 Loss in revenue
 The website gets blacklisted (Ahmed, et. al., 2016)
Strategies that can be taken into account to prevent the application from being attacked are:
 Scanning of the web:
Solutions for this are already in existence that can be downloaded and purchased. This is
good for only well-known threats (Joshi and Singh, 2016).
 Assignment of resources:
It should be carefully done in order to help the developers in detecting the threats.
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LO2
Task 2
P2.1. Design a web application to meet a given requirement.
During the designing of web applications, many things have to be taken into account in order
to develop a high-quality design of the application. Designing is the phase in which web
pages are designed according to the requirements gathered by the clients (Crawford and
Hussain, 2017). Designing is done in basically two parts, namely High-level design and the
detailed design. The high-level design includes the role of the user, conceptual model, and
security architecture. The detailed design of the website includes the actual functionality of
the application. While designing, following things have to be considered like the following
mentioned:
 Design should be simple and consistent. It should not be complex enough and overhead by
many elements. Web pages should contain consistent information to ensure that the web
pages are working in the same manner (Leotta, et. al., 2016).
 The typography should be clear and readable to the person.
 Web application must have the capability to run any device and operating system.
 A good color combination should be used to have an attractive look of the website. Bad
colors will take the customers back.
 The website implemented should be user-friendly and must be easily navigable by the
person.
 Loading time should be minimized. It can be done by compacting the image size, combine
some codes to produce an HTTP request (Hughes and Rist, 2016).
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P2.2. Synthesise client-side and server-side functionality in a web application.
A web application is basically the communication process that takes place between the client
and the server over the HTTP protocol. The server serves the request made by the client
whereas clients make a request for web pages (Shepherd, et. al., 2016). How this function is
explained below:
 Opening of the web browser by the client.
 Starting of browsing.
 For the accessing of a web page, the server gets a request forwarded by the client.
 After receiving the request, the server acknowledges and replies back.
 In the reply, the client receives a source page and renders.
 User types the topic of interest in the search.
 The client submits this to the server.
 Server processes the request again and replies back.
 Client renders it.
 After all this, the user will get the access link (Zhang and Tang, 2016).
Functions of the server side:
 Processes the input from the user
 Interacts with database
 Displays page that has been requested
 Queries database
 Structure websites
 Operations over database
 Interacts with servers and storages
 Encodes data into HTML
Functions of the client side:
 Make web pages that are interactive
 Interact with storage (local)
 Interact with temporary storage
 Data retrieve from the server
 Request sending to the server (Nieminen, 2016)
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P2.3. Apply a database design for use in a web application.
The database is used to store the information for future use so that retrieval of information
can be easy. The design of the database should be easy and not complex so that storing and
retrieving of information can be easy (Ceke and Milasinovic, 2015).
Design process:
 Define the purpose:
The purpose of designing the database should be properly defined.
 Organize and gather information:
Gathering and organizing information is very important.
 Information division into tables:
Divide the information into different entities (Rosenstein, et. al., 2016).
 Allocate a field for each information:
Divide the information according to its subject and allocate it in the right table.
 Determine a primary key:
Each table should have a primary key that can uniquely identify rows.
 Make table relationships:
Decide how data of different tables are interconnected with each other.
 Refine the design:
Design refining is done to see if some changes are essential to make (Horiuchi, et. al.,
2017).
 Apply normalization rules:
This is done to see the table structure is correct or not.
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P2.4. Evaluate alternative designs and solutions to meet a given requirement.
An alternative design of the web application includes some changes in the implemented
application. It does not have a punch line on the opening page (Hunag, et. al., 2017). The
application directly opens the login page so that only the authenticated user can enter the site.
Thus, it provides security and is highly authenticated. It also includes different payment
gateways like payment can be done by any credit card or debit card. Payment is also allowed through
PayPal, Paytm, GooglePay, Phonepe, Mobikwik, etc. Gateways of all these payments are secured with
SSL protocol (Joshi and Singh, 2016).
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