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Introduction
A web application or “web app” is a software program that reside on a web server. Unlike traditional desktop applications, which are launched within operating system, web apps are usually accessed through a web browser (Christensson, 2014). Data-Driven Web Application on the other hand is an enhanced online platform or web-app that was developed mainly to handle, transfer, manipulate and share data from one entity to another entity. (Alfat, Triwiyatno, & Isnanto, 2016; Louridas, 2016; Vora, 2009).
In today’s society, humans rely more and more on data-driven web application to complete daily tasks or to fulfill desires on all aspects from business, education, government, entertainment sectors, industry, even to human personal lives. (Doğan, Betin-Can, & Garousi, 2014). Web applications such as E-Commerce, Online Booking System, Online Banking System and Online Bill Payment System allow end user or consumer to interact with business entity conveniently at anytime and anywhere. In retails, Online Point of Sales System (POS), Online Retail System, Real Time Inventory and Supply Chain Management Systems (SCM) help to ensure business processes and operations run smoothly.
Doğan et al. (2014) claimed that web has been proven to be a powerful medium for delivering software service over the internet. They also pin-pointed four major reasons why web application is way much better and acceptable as compared with traditional desktop application from end user perspectives. The first one being no installation is required for the end user. Web application is normally deployed on the server in which end users could easily access or interact with it through web browser. Due to its deployment on the server, the application will be automatically updated for all users when new features are developed and deployed. Thus, there is no need for end user to perform any updates when accessing the new version of web application. The third reason Doğan et al. mentioned was web applications are accessible from any machine i.e. computer, tablet and mobile phone, which is connected to the Internet and finally, web applications are interoperable regardless of operating system even on mobile devices. Unlike traditional desktop application which are not universally compatible with all kinds of operating systems.
Background
In line with the evolution of web technologies, many web application development frameworks were introduced and well accepted by web application developers (also known as web-app developer) in the past decade (German, Salmeron, Ha, & Henderson, 2016; Graziotin & Abrahamsson, 2013; Li et al., 2016; Prokofyeva & Boltunova, 2017; Samra, 2015). Front-end JavaScript framework (JSF) such as AngularJS, BackboneJS, EmberJS, ReactJS, MeteorJS, and VueJS. are commonly used and employed due to its efficiency, safety and open-source (DA-14, 2017; Malhotra, 2017). CSS framework such as Bootstraps, Foundation, Semantic UI, Material UI are among the contemporary framework for UI Design or decoration. While for the back-end, PHP framework such as Symphony, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Yii, and Laravel are commonly used. Table 1 shows the classification of some widely used frameworks and their year of initial release.
Table 1.
Year release among well-established and contemporary web application development frameworks
| Category | Framework | Initial Release Year |
CSS
(Front-end) | Bootstraps | 2011 |
| Foundation | 2011 |
| Semantic UI | 2013 |
| Material UI | Beta |
Javascript
(Front-end) | AngularJS | 2010 |
| BackboneJS | 2010 |
| EmberJS | 2011 |
| ReactJS | 2013 |
| VueJS | 2014 |
PHP
(Back-end) | Symphony | 2005 |
| CakePHP | 2005 |
| CodeIgniter | 2006 |
| Yii | 2008 |
| Laravel | 2011 |