A new architecture of web applications — The Widget/Server architecture

Abstract

In the past two decades, the demands for web applications grow dramatically. The Client/Server architecture and the Browse/Server architecture are widely implemented into web applications. But some shortcomings are revealed in practical using, especially when many applications are run at mobile terminals nowadays. The information efficiency of B/S, which is indicated by the information quantity per bit, is low, while C/S applications are not flexible enough and often require annoying, unfriendly, time-consuming installation and update procedures. At the same time, widgets, as a light-weighted and flexible representation form, are providing excellent user experiences to more and more people. This paper is aimed to propose a new software architecture — the Widget/Server architecture. It combines merits of the information efficiency and light-weighted flexibility. Widget platforms' job can be divided into two layers: the representation layer and the service interaction layer. Web servers' jobs can be divided into three layers: the service providing layer, the information processing layer and data convergence layer. Some interfaces are defined to make the communications among layers standardized. A prototype project was also implemented to show the validity of the W/S architecture.