RIA Link Roundup
In the past couple of weeks I noticed an increase in blog posts discussing possible definitions of Rich Internet Applications (RIA). Not surprising given that companies such as Microsoft, Sun and Adobe are staking their claim.
Java FX Comparison
The above diagram shows Philip’s classification of Java FX versus other UI technologies.
RIA versus AJAX
Redmonk analyst Michael Coté suggests the following criteria to define RIAs:
My simple sieve consists of three parts:
1. Is it something trying to act like a web application (only better!), including connecting to and interacting with the web?
2. Is it trying to go beyond standard web application UI technology using something more than Ajax?
3. Did you have to download a browser plugin or other runtime?
He suggests differentiating between RIA and AJAX. This is indeed interesting, since RIA and AJAX have often been used as synonyms. At Canoo, we are using RIA as an umbrella term to refer to “rich client capabilities in a web infrastructure”. It really depends a lot on your project requirements what technology you should select to offer a better GUI. If one of your requirements is “no browser plugin” then AJAX is a viable option to consider to improve usability. If the web application will run within a corporate environment where a Java plugin is pre-installed, a Java-based approach will probably save you time and money.
I find his discussion of possible areas of application more significant. See also Ryan Stewart’s response, who lists Pownce, Nike+, British library and Finetunes as examples of RIAs.
The Three Religions of RIA
InfoQ provides a summary of a recent blog post by Simon Morris discussing a possible taxonomy.
These attempts to classify RIA are not new. And we’ll probably see many similar posts.
Planet-RIA.org
Canoo has set up a blog aggregator to help you keep up with RIA news and developments:
http://www.planet-ria.org
The feed aggregator is based on work by Glen Smith at http://groovyblogs.org and collects news about RIA. It is a beta version, i.e. if you have suggestions how to improve it, please feel free to leave a comment below.
(update July 19th) Simon Morris takes the discussion further:
“Rich Internet Application” denotes a type of client application which is functionally identical to regular desktop applications, but uses a means of deployment closer to a web page. Physically it is transient, living only at the end of a URL.
