Web gurus believe that rich internet applications are the future of web development. This new trend is quickly gaining acceptance by web developers, and different tools and technologies are being developed to create such applications. Rich internet applications are more CONNECTED, more ALIVE, more INTERACTIVE and more RESPONSIVE, which will make software more natural for users.

The discovery of RIAs is a relatively new trend because it is new technology. People are quickly making themselves familiar with it. Let’s discover it in detail and see if it will be able to bring some revolutionary changes to web development.

Rich internet applications – an overview

Rich internet applications are web applications that function like traditional desktop applications. These applications feature rapid development with low cost, low delivery and maintenance cost, platform independence, flexibility and efficiency. Since RIAs work like traditional desktop applications, they also feature no page reloading, greater user interactivity, support for animation, video and audio application and other complex applications (Tom, Shawn, 2005).

The concept of rich internet applications is as old as the idea of “thin client.” The term “rich internet applications” was first introduced in a white paper by Macromedia in March 2002. The development of different web and internet technologies popularized the Rich internet applications idea and developers started to build RIAs. High-speed internet connections, top-quality video and audio technologies and web service technology played an important role in the development of this domain. Some of the RIAs are Broadmoor Hotel, A9, St. James’s Place Bank, Sherwin-Williams and Brocade.

Rich internet applications give users applications that are more responsive, interactive and natural to use. With general web application benefits like easy installation, automatic updates, consistency and flexibility, RIAs offer some unique benefits too. Rich internet applications offer great user-interface features like drag and drop, using slider to change data, etc. As RIAs employ client engine techniques, RIAs are more responsive as compared to simple web applications.

RIAs ensure balance between server and client resources and enable the server to handle more client sessions concurrently. RIAs improve user experience through asynchronous communication that lets client communicate with the server without any interface action.

Since RIA technologies are still in the development stages, rich internet applications are subject to many drawbacks and restrictions. For example, RIAs run using Sandbox, so they get restricted access to system resources. Performance of RIAs heavily depends on the speed of the internet. Therefore, high-speed internet connection is mandatory. To run RIAs, the user needs to install a client engine. There is a possibility that script download time can be longer. Search engines are unable to index such applications.

RIA Technologies – Silverlight, Flex, Java, OpenLaszlo:

The success of RIAs has attracted big-name software providers. Companies like Microsoft and Adobe are focusing on RIAs and developing different RIA technologies to efficiently build rich applications. Like RIAs, these technologies are also new and in the development stages. Despite that, they offer compelling and competitive features. Let’s have a look at different RIA technologies.

Microsoft Silverlight: Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-platform web browser plugin for Silverlight based RIAs. It provides features, such as animation, vector graphics, and audio-video playback. Two versions, Silverlight 1.0 and Silverlight 2, have been released so far. Silverlight 2 introduces support for .Net framework to add more interactivity to applications. Silverlight includes Deep Zoom technology for images, new and enhanced media features, and limited file system access to Silverlight applications. “The powerful .Net framework and Microsoft’s ability to push products to its PC users will see Silverlight gaining more adoption,” says Vikrant in his post, Which Rich Internet Application (RIA) Technology Will Lead the Pack.

Adobe Flex & AIR: Adobe Flex and AIR are RIA technologies by Adobe. Adobe Flex is an open source cross-platform technology that requires a Flash plugin to deploy applications. Adobe Flex is a relatively old and established technology and mainly used to develop rich internet applications. The Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) is a runtime environment for building traditional, desktop-like rich internet applications using Flash, Adobe and AJAX. AIR applications operate both offline and online. “With ubiquitous presence of flash plugins and slick GUI development features, Flex and AIR will provide big market share of RIAs to Adobe,” says Vikrant.

JavaFX: JavaFX is the RIA technology by Java that is used for building immersive media and content enriched internet applications. JavaFX helps to create interactive applications for desktop, mobile and television. It is a cross-platform technology and is available in JavaFX Script. It is anticipated that JavaFX will compete with Adobe and Microsoft for Desktop applications; however the technology is not as established as Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flex &AIR.

AJAX: Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is another group of technologies for developing RIAs. AJAX includes technologies like XHTML, CSS, Document Object Model and JavaScript. AJAX applications can be deployed to any browser, so it is being widely adopted. However, there is no consistent and controlled runtime environment for AJAX applications, which makes it an unsecure technology due to varied behavior.

Rich internet applications and the year 2008

It has been predicted that the rest of 2008 will be great for rich internet applications. All the tech gurus like Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle and SAP are working hard on this domain and the result of these efforts is the development of some great applications. Ryan Stewart on the ZDNet blog has made some predictions. He believes that 2008 is the year of ‘Rich Internet Applications.’ He describes the reasons in his post, Rich Internet Application Predictions for 2008.

1.  Silverlight will get to 200 million installs by the end of June, but it won’t be for 2.0.
2. AIR changes how people think of the web.
3. The browser rides tall with the help of plugins.
4. Collaboration becomes a big battle in the RIA space.
5. Ajax gets closer to the rich internet application platforms.
6. The designer/developer workflow gets a quality overhaul.
7. The days of smaller RIA technologies are numbered.
8. Apple makes a land grab for rich internet applications but no one realizes it.
9. Real time data becomes an important selling point for RIAs.
10. There will be a fight for HD video on the web.

These predictions give some very healthy signals about the future of rich internet applications. The client engine technique is quite powerful and makes rich internet applications richer in functionality, more responsive and more network efficient. On the other hand, RIA technologies like Adobe Flex & AIR, Microsoft Silverlight, AJAX and JavaScript are rapidly growing and helping to build rich and responsive internet applications. RIAs are still in their development stages, however, by looking at different RIAs like Broadmoor Hotel, A9 and Brocade, we can claim that RIAs will definitely change the way web development is being made.

 

References:

Wikipedia (2008). Retrieved Sept. 10^th, 2008 from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Internet_application

Tom Noda, Shawn Helwig. (2005). Rich Internet Applications. Retrieved Sept. 10^th, 2008 from http://www.uwebc.org/opinionpapers/archives/docs/RIA.pdf

Vikrant. (2008). Which Rich Internet Application (RIA) Technology Will Lead The Pack. Retrieved Sept. 10^th, 2008 from http://www.betadaily.com/2008/03/07/which-rich-internet-application-ria-technology-will-lead-the-pack/