Since the term world wide web was coined in the year 1990, web application development has grown dynamically; it has moved from delivering static HTML pages to entirely complex yet dynamic enterprise-level applications.
Today, robust documentation backs the development of web applications. There are all sorts of instructions and strategies available on the internet for developers to check out and implement their projects. The development environments can intelligibly find and fix any errors that trouble developers regularly.
You’ll be surprised to know that there’s an availability of many different platforms that can turn static HTML pages into highly responsive applications.
All these development platforms and techniques share one thing in common: the vulnerabilities they may encounter due to web apps’ very nature.
The purpose of this write-up is to throw some light on the most common mistakes developers make while developing their web applications. This article can prove extremely advantageous for a developer who wishes to grow and become a better version of themselves.
So let’s begin!
Common Mistake 1: Incomplete Input Validation:
It would be best if you validated your user input on the client-side as well as the server-side. This is crucially important since it is not wise to blindly trust the user input since mistakes stemming from validation is more common than you think it is.
A validation mistake can result in your web application getting exposed to SQL injections.
It would help if you remembered that almost every front-end development framework offers validation rules that are out-of-the-box yet are remarkably simple to use. Moreover, many back-end development platforms utilize necessary annotations to ensure that the data acquire adheres to the set rules.
There are high chances that you will find implementing validations a bit hectic and time-consuming, but that will just save you a lot of effort in the end. Therefore, no matter how much effort or time you will have to put in during validation, you must make it a routine while you code.
Common Mistake 2: Unable to Scale:
The world is quickly digitizing. Many web app development companies and other businesses aim to match the rapidly evolving digital pace to escalate to their optimum growth. Therefore, entrepreneurs prefer developing their web applications with their Minimum Viable Product (MVP) as soon as possible to outstand any competitor.
However, this constant need to develop within the perfect and set time increases developers’ pressure, and they end up becoming prey to common mistakes. One of the things often taken for granted is scaling. The MYP concept is definitely great, but pushing it too far can get you in some real trouble.
Unfortunately, it is not enough just to set up a scalable web server and database that can separate all application layers on individual, scalable servers. You will have to consider many details if you need to avoid coding significant parts of the app later (which can become a major problem in the future).
For example, you have fabricated your app in a way that your user’s profile pictures are directly uploaded on the web server. This solution is perfectly valid- you can easily access the app. There’s an availability of file handling methods. These images can be served as static content, which will lessen the load your app encounters.
But what will happen when you need to grow your application? You will have to add more web servers behind the load balancer. Even though you managed to nicely scale up your web servers, database storage, and session rate servers, your application can still fail in terms of scalability because of a simple thing such as profile images.
Thus, you will have to integrate a synchronized service or some other workaround to ensure all files are spread to each part of your web server.
Common Mistake 3: Not Optimizing Bandwidth Usage:
Mostly, the development and testing of a web app are done in a local network environment. If you are downloading 4-5 background images each of 3MB or more, you will not encounter any issue with a 1Gbit connection speed in the development environment.
But if your users try to load a 15MB home page with 3G connections in their smartphones, you should be ready to hear your users complaining about various issues they faced during the process.
It is important to optimize your bandwidth usage when performing web application development if you need your app to function at its best.
Few things a good developer should do by default:
- Magnification of all CSS
- Magnification of all JavaScript
- Optimization of image and resolution
- Compressing the server-side HTTP
Common Mistake 4: Not planning portability:
Assumption can be the end of a start. In terms of portability, this might be the perfect definition.
Let us ask you something- how many times have you encountered issues such as database connection string, hardcoded file paths, or assumptions that a particular library will be made available on a server?
Assuming that the environment you are developing on will align with your local development computer would be wrong.
Every web app development company believes that an ideal set-up of web applications should be free of cost:
- Allow clear and simple configuration- possibly in one file containing all configurations.
- Ensure that the app you develop can run and scale on load-balanced various server environments.
- Manage exceptions if web server configuration is rejected.
Conclusion:
Web application development is an extensive term, to be honest. It can encompass the creation of a web service, website, or a complex web app.
There are many things that you must do, and many that you should avoid. A developer needs to understand the right balance between the dos and don’ts before moving further to develop her/his application.
This write-up’s main aim is to remind you that you must always be careful while building up your application, as simple mistakes can turn the project into a blunder you don’t want to experience.
