Web4Desktop, a framework for improving the usability of web applications

Abstract

The cloud computing model leads to the increased penetration of the web applications in the office environment. Designed in many cases to replace traditional desktop software, web applications still lack many of the valuable features present on the desktop that increase usability and productivity. Due to the highly isolated design of the browser, it is currently impossible for web applications to communicate with desktop environment, which usually means sending messages or receiving event notifications. This is often required in order to let the person using the application know about the important events happening in the minimized browser window. By contrast traditional applications can take the control of the desktop at any time. The paper introduces the Web4Desktop framework, a browser/client based architecture designed to overcome these limitations by proving a secure infrastructure that allows web applications to communicate with any desktop software implementing the Web4Desktop API. The framework can be utilized to add desktop integration to existing web applications, a step that requires only minimal changes in the web application's code and greatly improve the user experience because these applications will start to behave more like desktop software. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.