HTML5 in Action

Part 2. Browser-based apps

For a very long time developers were processing everything—form validation, file management, storage, messaging, and other vital application functionality—on the server. Server-side processing was a great idea for security reasons, lack of user processing power, and many other issues. There were workarounds through technologies such as Flash and Java, but the mobile market explosion revealed unanticipated limitations that HTML5 is aiming to fix.

Thanks to major advances in JavaScript processing power and new W3C standards, you can now perform server-side tasks through a user’s browser (aka client-side). Performing complex tasks through browsers saves tons of money on server costs, allows startups to easily create ...