How do you transition from desktop application development to web development and back again?

Question

I've worked on several desktop application projects, however whenever I'm faced with a web application project, I don't know where to begin. I have a grasp of the technologies I need to build an app - Rails, PHP, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, various SQL databases - but when it comes to actually building the app, it feels like I'm always stuck.

If you have made the transition from desktop to web development - how did you do it?

If you are in the process of transitioning - how are you doing it?

For those who do both desktop and web development - how do you transition between the two as necessary?

Answer 1

You might want to consider reading this thread:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22072/from-desktop-to-web-browser-considerations#22075

Marked answer:

Sessions! HTTP is stateless. Consider how you will store data across page jumps.

ASP.NET State management: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/y5y3c2c5(VS.71).aspx

PHP Session Management: http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/ref.session.php

Cross site scripting. Take a look at this link for the kind of lengths people will go to to attack your site:

http://ha.ckers.org/xss.html

Answer 2

I switch back and forth all the time. All .Net based usually so that helps in the transition. Here are some points I can think of off the top of my head. If I think of more, I'll come back and edit.

1. Architecture. Regardless of platform or technology, you can start building architecture. Business objects, data-access layers, interfaces, class hierarchies, patterns, etc. can all be built while you work out the differences.
2. I tend to design web apps with a client app feel to them. AJAX and thoughtful user interaction design can make a web app not that much different from a similar desktop app. Yes, you have different technologies to work out, but by thinking of the UI in terms of how the user will interact instead of how I will code it always makes it easier.