I want to create a program that runs on iPads, Playbooks, and Windows computers that will allow me to create a user database and have user send messages between each other. I only need this to run over a LAN and due to who the users are do not want people on the internet to be able to access what is happening on the LAN. The goal would be to send simple chat and status updates between people playing a game.
As far as I can tell HTMl5 will allow me to create a program that can run on the devices and has some existing messaging capabilities and more to following in the next year. Can this be done and can it be done without a web server?
I am not sure are looking at this way.However, there is a protocol called WebRTC that is free and open source which will enable browsers Real-Time communication capabilities via Javascript APIs.More information can be obtained from the following site:
http://www.webrtc.org/
It can be leveraged using HTML 5 as well.
Hope this will help you.