Rich Internet Applications

Together with about 80 other persons (estimated by a JUGS member) I attended the JUGS RIA event. Bruno started with a short (15′) introduction into RIA for Business. He started with an excursion to the past and showed how the trend moved from terminal to desktop application, then to web applications and now finally to desktop-like Rich Internet Applications. For enterprise applications he listed three major opportunities:

• Highly productive Tools with powerful user interfaces
• Portal environment
• Mobile devices

While generally stressing the importance of interaction design, Bruno clearly explained that rich applications for mobile are not shrinked RIA applications but need to be tailored for the device. (A dedicated IPhone user speaking ).

Then Björn Müller was giving us a reality check for AJAX. In my opinion this was the most surprising talk. Björn presented some hard facts about AJAX which in his (and mine) opinion clearly limit the use of AJAX. Some of the facts to consider when planning an AJAX application:

• Performance. JavaScript is 20 to 50 times slower than Java. Period.
• Frameworks. There are a lot (too many) frameworks around which need evaluating. And each come with KBs of JavaScript code
• Cross Browser Issues. Most of them can be solved but at a severe cost.

The message I take home from this experienced AJAX developer is that he considers it a risk to develop rich applications for power user with AJAX. (Which was my gut feeling for quite some time, but now I have some facts. The slides will be published on the JUGS site for you to judge for yourself). But that AJAX is a very appropriate technology for application with casual users as the target audience.

Finally Ryan Stewart, the Adobe RIA evangelist was speaking. It was very disappointing that he couldn’t show us most of the demos due to the lack of internet connection. In his talk he presented several RIA technologies, well known like JavaFX, Silverlight and Flex and others like Curl etc. One reaction he got from the audience was that they are more confused concerning RIA technologies than before the event. Interesting was that also Ryan sees a big potential in rich application for mobile devices.

All in all a very interesting event, I only hope that other attendees felt the same. Feel free to comment and post your opinion.

JUG Switzerland event on RIA and AJAX

As mentioned in this post, Java User Group Switzerland (JUGS) is organizing an event on Rich Internet Applications and AJAX on November 14th, 2007 at the Technopark in Zürich, Switzerland.

Sign up for this event at the JUGS site. The event is free for first time attendees and JUGS members.

I am really excited that this event is taking place and that Björn Müller and Ryan Stewart are coming. The talks will cover various RIA technologies and help show how these technologies improve business applications. We hope to start a fruitful discussion, which will benefit all attendees and provide a summary of current developments in the RIA space.

BTW, we are taking the RIA Mountaineer to Pilatus for a RIA summit

Ryan Stewart calls himself the RIA Mountaineer. And being in Switzerland, we thought that he must see the mountains while he is here.

We would like to invite RIA enthusiasts to come with us on our excursion to Pilatus on Monday morning, November 12th (further details) and discuss RIA developments. Please contact me if you are interested in coming along.

Further links:

JUGS event on Rich Internet Applications and AJAX
RIA Event in Zurich on 14th November 2007
Pilatus excursion details on Upcoming

Here are a couple of interesting RIA links that I stumbled across during the past week:

Java FX
Javalobby has posted an interview with Tom Ball, lead architect on the openjfx compiler project:

We’ve been interviewing lots of design houses, and the biggest complaint they have with Java-based client applications is how much longer it takes the Swing engineers to turn a design cycle than the designers do — the designers can crack out a design in a week which their developer counterparts take three months to implement.

It is definitely an encouraging sign to see that Sun is moving ahead in this area.

10 Future Web Trends
Richard MacManus lists RIA in his list of 10 Future Web Trends:

As the current trend of hybrid web/desktop apps continues, expect to see RIA (rich internet apps) continue to increase in use and functionality. Adobe’s AIR platform (Adobe Integrated Runtime) is one of the leaders, along with Microsoft with its Windows Presentation Foundation. Also in the mix is Laszlo with its open source OpenLaszlo platform and there are several other startups offering RIA platforms. Let’s not forget also that Ajax is generally considered to be an RIA - it remains to be seen though how long Ajax lasts, or whether there will be a ‘2.0′.

Flex vs. Silverlight
James Ward compares Flex and Microsoft Silverlight in this interview published at InfoQ.

Do you use AJAX, RIA or other Web 2.0?
Eric Chiu asks in this thread on LinkedIn (you’ll probably need to log in to read the thread):

Do you use AJAX, RIA, or other Web 2.0?

Do you think AJAX made the web easier to use? What are some of your favorite AJAX frameworks? I would like to know how companies are using AJAX to improve usability, interaction and collaboration.

Most people in the thread reported that they are using AJAX libraries such as Prototype, JQuery and RIA tools such as Adobe Flex. Perfomance and security are major concerns. While others cite customization and extensibility as being important.

Here are some links on Rich Internet Applications (RIA) that caught my eye during the past week:

James Breeze is looking for research on RIA usability. He lists some articles on usability, but most of these are fairly old from Macromedia times.

The most recent article he points to is:

• The Business Case for Rich Internet Applications, Forrester report by Ron Rogowski.

Needless to say, I am interested in hearing about other research reports as well.

Tim Anderson tried out Tafiti, a search application based on Microsoft’s Silverlight and Live Search.

RIA on Mobile Devices

Ryan Stewart writes:

RIAs can help bring the worlds of desktop, web, and mobile together and that’s going to bring about all kinds of new use cases for applications as well as new business models and modes of communication.

In my opinion, posts such as this one or this one are first indicators that RIA on mobile devices will become important.

Planet RIA

For further blogs, see Canoo’s RIA aggregator at: http://www.planet-ria.org
And feel free to add your favorite feeds.

I attended yesterday’s panel discussion on Rich Internet Application (RIA) technologies in Zurich with:

• Hans-Dirk Walter, Canoo (moderator)
• Michael Renner, Adobe Switzerland
• Johann Kurz, Microsoft Switzerland

Inspired by Stephanie Booth, I decided to take notes while listening. Here is a summary of the discussion in my own words.

Disclaimer: if I get anything completely wrong, please feel free to leave a comment or add your own thoughts.

History of RIA

Hans-Dirk Walter started off the evening with a short general overview on RIA.
He outlined the historic development from fat clients to HTML applications, describing how the situation rapidly changed “back to mainframe” to the point that, in many companies, it was a policy to use HTML only for applications.

Towards the end of the 90s, some people started to recognize that HTML is not enough (for example, Erich Gamma at the OTI labs in Zurich). These activities were not known as RIA at the time, but the focus was to offer ergonomic user interfaces for web apps. In and around 2000, HTML along with Struts and co. was the GUI standard per se. A couple of years later the Eclipse Rich Client Platform and Adobe’s Flex 1.0 helped to create momentum but it was AJAX and Web 2.0 that really brought richer user interfaces back into the limelight.

In a nutshell, RIA offers better interfaces and better performance (for example, partial loading of data). RIA allows companies to build web apps for new uses and scenarios such as Software as a Service (SaaS). Or companies can use RIA to consolidate their widespread application portfolio or automate business processes effectively.

There is a wide spectrum of RIA technologies available and many developers and IT managers are somewhat unsure what technology to select.

This also holds true from an architectural point of view, current RIA technologies may span from rich fat to rich thin (cf this architecture diagram discussed in an earlier post.)

There are various factors to be considered regarding RIA:

• Is it browser-based or standalone?
• Is the GUI programmed or dynamically generated?
• How is the application logic distributed between client and server?
• How is the data accessed?

There are a range of RIA approaches available. Hans-Dirk concluded his short overview by pointing out that developers and decision makers are somewhat overwhelmed by the number of choices. The question being: Which technology to choose?

Microsoft:

Johann Kurz of Microsoft followed up with a short presentation on Microsoft’s Silverlight.

RIA is gaining importance and is part of Microsoft’s “Software and Services” strategy.

Silverlight offers a flexible programming model and various collaboration tools for developers and designers (Expression Studio). It’s based on the .Net framework, which means a wide selection of programming languages are available. Goal is to offer a plugin for all platforms, referred to as a “consistent cross platform experience”. To integrate services and data there is a project called Astoria (I had a quick peek at the Astoria team blog).

Silverlight offers closer collaboration between designers and developers using XAML.

Mr. Kurz showed 2 Silverlight demos:
- Silvervideo
- Silverlight Airlines (see also this video).

Adobe:

Next, Michael Renner of Adobe, presented a short overview on Flex 3 and AIR. He starting off with an interesting slide showing how RIAs will extend from consumer to business applications and from the web to the desktop to mobile devices.

Differences between Flex and AIR (codename Apollo):
Flex is an open source framework for web apps,
while AIR is a runtime environment for RIAs on the desktop: “hybrid desktop internet application”. AIR uses WebKit. Web developers can build desktop apps with their usual toolset (MySQL, Tomcat, etc.) and deploy it on the desktop.

Demos shown:
- Flex Builder for Eclipse
- Harley Davidson website built with Flex
- A simple master detail sample showing how changes in the data are instantly propagated to other browser clients.

Discussion:

Hans-Dirk asked a number of valid questions (paraphrased in my own words):

• Why return back to the desktop?
• Given the various mix of technologies used, cross-browser differences, and the programming model, what is the effort to maintain large corporate applications?
• What about the security issues related to JavaScript?
• What kind of tools are available to support developers?

Questions from the audience:

• How do the tools help designers and developers work together, e.g. a designer might delete a check box and not know that there is code attached to it.
• It seems both tools are delegating security issues to users. What mechanisms are available?

Regarding desktop internet apps, Mr. Renner said that there are various uses where an application needs to have online/offline capabilities: a feature offered by AIR. For Microsoft the desktop will remain a stronghold.

IMHO, the questions on managing complexity and providing adequate security were answered in an evasive manner by both speakers. My guess is that Flex, AIR and Silverlight offer the same security options as other AJAX and HTML frameworks. Flash is set up only to talk with its home server. But I felt the answers were somewhat lacking.

Regarding tools, Adobe plugs into Eclipse, while Microsoft offers a suite of tools around its VisualStudio.

General trends (based on this panel, that is ):

• Some kind of an ongoing convergence between designer and developer tools.
• JavaScript/EcmaScript will be around for a couple more years.
• Building GUIs will become more declarative.

Simsa (short for Swiss Interactive Media and Software Association) is organizing a panel discussion on Rich Internet Applications (RIA) next Tuesday, 21st August, at the Kongresshaus in Zürich. See the Simsa event page for details.

Michael Renner of Adobe and Johann Kurz of Microsoft will discuss what RIA has to offer. Canoo’s CEO, Hans-Dirk Walter has been asked to lead the panel.