Web Technologies

Abstract

When developing a mashup, different Web standards and languages may be needed and taken into account. Client-side scripting languages are, for instance, largely adopted for Web mashups. In the last decade, they renovated the Web by introducing business logic capabilities at the client-side, and they are among the most important technologies that promoted mashups and can be perhaps considered characteristic for such a class of applications. The adoption of lightweight development practices, based on the integration of resources through client-side logic, is one of the aspects that most differentiate mashups from other integration practices. However, other classes of mashups may also require server-side technologies. This happens, for example, for enterprise mashups where there is a need for integrating enterprise data assets and remote resources, possibly in conjunction with complex workflow systems. This chapter gives an overview of the most relevant technologies and their opportunities and limitations for the development of mashups that are delivered through the Web. It starts by illustrating the basic ingredients of the Web, for example, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and then introduces the different client-side technologies that in the last years have led to the development of rich and interactive applications. The chapter then reviews the most prominent server-side technologies and shortly discusses common data formats adopted for representing data exchanged on the Web.