RESTful Rails Development

Chapter 13. Device-Independent Development

When you develop a web app you are in fact developing an application expected to run on a number of different devices, which will interact with it in a way that will feel both web-like and native at the same time. When you access Gmail or Twitter or Facebook, you are still accessing a website and interacting with it in a way that resembles the way you would surf a website, even though it feels like a software application with an interface and functionality that do not really follow the typical website model. Furthermore, the Web is not accessed only by personal computers. There are mobile devices and tablets of all species and form factors surfing and exploring apps and websites, and there are also other kinds of devices and hardware platforms that just consume data. In this chapter we will see how you can easily integrate these classes of devices and have your application not only cover the mobile app space, but also serve customers in the IoT field.

Web Development Is a Broad Term

Web development has evolved considerably over the last few years. In the beginning, we were used to interacting with static websites, but as websites grew in complexity we started to get used to pages that were more like applications than simply browseable text documents.

When you are developing for the Web, you are developing for a multitude of devices that will need to access the same application seamlessly. There are different advantages to developing ...