Some background: currently working on an application at work, and it is a Java application. We're adding a bunch of stuff that just doesn't fit into the GUI very well. Creating reports, sending them to the server to run, displaying currently submitted reports, viewing the results, that kind of stuff. I spent all last week just trying to figure out how to get everything into the tab on the GUI. So far I have been unsuccessful.

I think all these things, because they live on the server, should be in a webpage and not the application. My boss doesn't think so. Because there is no editor for creating the report on the web (and it would be too costly) then the report stuff should live with the app.

OK. My questions:

What is the difference between a webapp and an applications? I couldn't express my views very well, but I know that the web is better suited for some tasks than a web page. He argued that you can stick anything in an app that you can on a webpage, and it's easier, plus you don't need a server.

I can't put my finger on why this wrong, but having done both webapps and applications, I know this isn't true.

Anyone have a better way of expressing this so he'll understand? Or maybe I'm crazy, and he's right. Tell me why.

On a side note, he uses a Mac for everything. It occurred to me that mac apps are more like web pages than Java programs. For example, the App store on my mac has links at the top, and forward/back buttons, and an unlimited vertical canvas to display everything.

Is there some kind of GUI toolkit for this stuff I missed?

Outside of that, I'm less sure what you're getting at.

I'm not concerned with the technology. It is more of a philosophical answer I'm looking for. Something like:

All things being equal, a solution that will [insert requirements] is better as an application, a solution that will [insert requirements] is better suited as a bunch of web pages, and a solutions that will [insert requirements] doesn't really favor one or the other.

I feel like the current requirements would be better suited for a web app, but it is just a feeling. I don't have a good argument.

Pros:
- requires internet access at all times (except if you do advanced stuff like html5 application cache)

Sounds like a con to me.

Cons:
- javascript

It is extremely debatable whether that's a pro, a con, or just irrelevant. Especially given that a great many web apps _aren't_ written with JavaScript these days but rather CoffeeScript or TypeScript or ES6 (Traceur) or Java (GWT) or some other transpiler; you can even use C++ if you really want thanks to projects like Emscripten.

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Ultimately, web apps are just apps that use the browser as their platform instead of Qt or Java or whatever "native" platform you'd choose otherwise. From a technical standpoint, it's all about the features of the platform you want.

Modern browsers are extremely rich and capable of doing many of the things a native app can do at near-equivalent speeds. If you don't already have a concrete technical reason why a native app is better, the overwhelming odds are that the web app approach will save you time and money in the long run, as the Web is cheaper and easier to develop for than almost any native app framework (save maybe the HTML5 app frameworks).

From business' perspective, the lack of a need to install is the killer feature of Web apps. Metrics show that only a small fraction of the people who come to your website will bother to download any app, and then only a small fraction of the people who download it run an installer (on mobile devices downloading == installing, but not on the PC), and then only a small fraction of the people who install it actually run it. I've seen metrics for a few different sorts of apps showing these same trends.

Flash games took off so well in the early days of the F2P Web Game market precisely because there were zero barriers between a user showing interest in the product and being inside the app. HTML5 apps are the modern incarnation of that. (1) User clicks link, (2) user is in app, (3) ???, (4) profit.

I'd go for a web page if there is some framework/application/service that is designed to do what you want to do. Say, Oracle's APEX is made for that sort of "business" stuff, reports, client lists, inventory lists, etc. So if you know your way around it, you might get something working real fast (disclaimer: I hate it and I think its awful, but its a good example).

That said, if the application required isn't something that could be catered from a known framework/application, and requires quite a bit of custom functionality, I'd go for a desktop app. I'd prefer it in Java + JavaFX/Swing so you can get OSX/Linux compatibility without much further thought and using standard GUI toolkits. If you target only Windows, .NET with WPF is probably a better choice.

For server connections, report generators and "enterprise frameworks", both Java and C# got plenty of options for whatever database/environment you're working afaik.

If you need also mobile compatibility, you could roll a desktop Java application restricting yourself to whatever Dalvik supports only so make Android deployment possible, or just use one of the several frameworks out there that support exporting to Adroind/iOS/etc.

With web sites this aspect isn't as tough since pretty much any web site framework out there is kinda prepared to provide you the tools to have a mobile version of the website working if the mobile device doesn't supports the full site as it is already.

I wouldn't do any "heavy" app in a web site. There could be plenty of time/work lost if the work being done through the app needs lots of interaction and/or the internet connection in the place isn't good enough.