  Companies developing Web applications have faced an increasing demand for
high-quality products with low cost and production time ever smaller. However,
developing such applications is still considered a time-consuming and
error-prone task, mainly due to the difficulty of promoting the reuse of
features (or functionalities) and modules, and the heterogeneity of Web
frameworks. Nowadays, companies must face ever-changing requirements. Software
product lines emerged as an alternative to face this challenge by creating a
collection of applications from a core of software assets. Despite the
potential, the current literature lacks works that propose a product line for
Web applications. This paper, therefore, presents WebSPL, a product line for
Web applications that supports the main features found in Wed applications in
real-world settings. The proposed WebSPL was evaluated by comparing it with a
Web application developed based on a traditional approach. A case study that
involves the development of two Web applications enabled data collection. Two
Web applications were developed -- one with and another without the support of
the proposed WebSPL. We compared these two applications using software design
metrics, including complexity, size, duplicate lines, and technical debt. The
initial results were encouraging and showed the potential for using WebSPL to
support the development of Web applications.
