How to build a basic web operating system using HTML5

However, most of the front end of Web operating system is based on the development of Flex, Silverlight, ActiveX plug-in and so on, there are some disadvantages, such as poor support for mobile devices, poor terminal security and great difficulty in development.

HTML5 is the next generation of Web language standards, with good compatibility, high security, rich features, easy to develop and so on, especially for the rich client Internet applications such as Web operating system front-end development. This article will show you how to build a basic WEB operating system using a variety of new technologies offered by HTML5 such as local databases, multi-threaded development, video support, off-line programming, and so on.

Traditional operating systems have some difficult to overcome shortcomings, such as only in the local terminal access, or only to support limited remote access, limited to local terminal resources, computational capacity is weak, limited storage space, lack of a strong firewall and a series of security mechanisms, poor security. In view of the above disadvantages, the Web operating system comes into being-the Web operating system is a browser-based virtual operating system through which users can manipulate applications and store related data. The basic services provided by the WEB operating system include the creation and storage of text documents, playback and storage of audio and video files, support for time information, and more advanced services including instant messaging, mail and even games. The Web operating system overcomes the disadvantage of the traditional operating system, it can be accessed at any time, any place through any terminal supporting the Web, and can use the unlimited computing and storage resources of the server, the user data is saved on the server side, the security is high.

Related technology

At present, the front-end technology of building the WEB operating system mainly has Flex, Silverlight, ActiveX plug-ins and so on, they have some advantages and disadvantages.

Flex

Flex is an excellent rich client application framework, focused on the page display, Adobe Professional maintenance, unified stability, and its scripting language ACTIONSCRIPT3 is object-oriented, very suitable for programmers to use. The disadvantage is that the energy consumption is high, the bandwidth is much, and the support of mobile applications is poor.

Silverlight

Silverlight is a Microsoft-launched RIA (Rich Internet application) solution, with the advantage of hardware-level acceleration, but it is still immature, support for non-Windows systems is not good enough, and learning difficult.

ActiveX Plugin

The ActiveX plug-in is also Microsoft's RIA solution, an open solution that can be compatible with multiple languages, but its drawbacks are obvious, as users need to adjust their browser's security levels and download Plug-ins to run RIA applications, greatly reducing security.

HTML5

To promote the development of the Web Standardization campaign, the new generation of HTML standards-HTML5, supported by a large number of companies, has good prospects. It has the following characteristics: first, in order to enhance the user experience, enhance the performance of Web pages, secondly, in order to adapt to the development of RIA applications, the addition of the local database and other Web applications, and again, due to high standardization and the support of many browser vendors, it is very high compatibility and security Finally, it is a concise language, easy for the vast number of developers to master. More rare, because of energy saving and low power consumption, HTML5 on mobile devices will have a greater advantage. It is therefore more suitable for front-end development of RIA applications such as WEB operating systems.

System Introduction

The system is based on HTML5 development, using HTML5 introduced a variety of new technologies such as drag-and-drop APIs, video tags, local database, Draw API, multi-threaded development, off-line programming, etc. to provide a basic WEB operating system environment, including desktop support, application support, Provides a simple video player and Notepad as well as a clock, and records the system log, as well as providing support for offline status.