Rich Internet Applications (RIA) » Rich Internet Applications

Java Business RIA redefined!

Felix Schrape — Sun, 02 May 2010 10:00:23 +0000

The future belongs to Rich Internet Applications (RIA) – they are increasingly replacing the classical desktop application. And it is no wonder, as this latest generation of web applications offers a totally new kind of interactivity. Furthermore, RIAs spare your budget thanks to their operating system independence and the fact that they can be used without installation. According to the market research organization Forrester Research, RIA technology will be deployed in around 60% of all software development projects in the coming years.

The disadvantage of most of today’s RIA frameworks is that they were developed for the optimization of web sites. They rapidly reach their limits, therefore, with complex business applications. Canoo Engineering’s Canoo RIA Suite with its modular design provides a remedy. It’s heart is ULC (UltraLightClient), a proven and stable component for the development of RIAs – optimized for the performance requirements of business applications. Thanks to the 100% java-based homogeneous programming model, ULC reduces the complexity of RIA projects to a minimum. RIAs developed with ULC score highly due to their low development and maintenance costs, and are more than a match for classical desktop applications in user-friendliness, functionality, attractiveness, robustness and performance.

Since March 31, 2010, ULC Core is available as a Beta Release. The Canoo Ria Suite will be released officially just before Pentecost 2010. The advantages at a Glance:

Up to 50% reductions in development costs
Puts business functionality on to the web without quality losses
Lower operational costs thanks to server side maintenance and standardized technology
Maximum security thanks to standard conformity
Straightforward and rapid development due to uniform Java basis
Robust and scalable architecture
No longer time-consuming client-side deployment
Enables highly interactive and user friendly interfaces
No browser adaptation required
Optimal user productivity due to rapid response times
Lower project risk thanks to well engineered, tried and tested technology
Impressive prototypes in minimal time

“We switched to ULC in the middle of a large software project, as we were not able to implement all the requirements with the technology we were using at the time. ULC then enabled us to at least double our productivity, in turn allowing the project to be completed on time.”

Greg Hutchinson, Principal Developer of a large Canadian financial institution

Swiss RIA SIG Talk: “Share business logic between Eclipse and Web Applications”

Felix Schrape — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:59:34 +0000

4/29/2010, Technopark Zurich. By Michael Schneider, IBM Rational Research GmbH.

This talk presents a JavaScript execution engine that allows seamless integration of Dojo-flavored JavaScript code in an OSGi based Java runtime. Doing so allows sharing JavaScript code between Web and Eclipse applications, while still providing distinctive user interfaces using HTML and SWT, respectively. As this technology is already deployed in the latest releases of Rational Team Concert, experiences using this approach are shared.

Additionally, a novel approach to develop and evolve large Dojo-based Web 2.0 applications, called JDojo, is introduced. It brings the Eclipse JDT tooling to the JavaScript language to provide typed API, compile time error checking, refactorings and much more, by using the Java syntax. However, in contrast to other approaches, its design is built around the JavaScript language rather than the JDK. It comes with built-in support for interacting with existing JavaScript code. JDojo works perfectly with the JavaScript engine, thus simplifying the development of Web and Eclipse Applications even more.

RIA Forum on GUI Technology

Felix Schrape — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:29:23 +0000

We are happy to announce the second RIA forum which will take place in Darmstadt (close to Frankfurt), 23rd of April 2010! This time, with Canoo Engineering AG as premium sponsor, four well known speakers will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of four different ways to create effective user interfaces (especially in business contexts).

Instead of giving details here I recommend to visit the forum page directly: http://www.riaforum.com (in German). Please be aware that we can only provide entrance to a limited audience, so if you want to join, make sure you sign up quickly.

When is it worth deploying RIA technology?

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:30:52 +0000

Excerpt of ”Rich Internet Applications for Business”, an article by Hans Dirk Walter, CEO Canoo Engineering AG (in print).

Even if RIA technology continues to expand steadily in the future and the number of purely HTML based applications does decline, it is nonetheless not recommended to resort to an RIA framework or library for technology’s sake alone when developing online applications. Instead, the decision depends on the user interface requirements.

Figure 1 provides a schematic illustration of various categories of application depending on usage, and shows the dependency of these applications with regard to interactivity requirements and interface richness (UI functionality, drag & drop, graphics).

Typical web applications such as online shopping or rail timetables, that are only occasionally visited by their customers, need to be self explanatory and easy to operate. Speed and sophisticated interaction are of secondary importance in these cases. This type of application is best implemented using form based “wizards”. The functionality offered by HTML is generally more than sufficient in such cases. This does not apply, however, to productive systems, whose users often spend several hours per day with the application. The interface need not necessarily be self explanatory, while training is normally worthwhile. These kinds of application should be developed using RIA technology. The final types of program identified are games, which place the most demanding requirements of all in terms of interactivity (extremely speedy program reaction times in response to rapid successive inputs), as well as sophistication (3D animations, film sequences, etc.) Such application have so far scarcely been realised in satisfactory quality as RIAs.

The renaissance of user-oriented interface designs

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:15:10 +0000

Excerpt of ”Rich Internet Applications for Business”, an article by Hans Dirk Walter, CEO Canoo Engineering AG (in print).

Alongside the ascendancy of the World Wide Web (WWW) as global information platform, its technology has increasingly been employed as the basis for enterprise applications in the course of the last 10 years. Web based application have successively squeezed out the previously widespread client-server applications. Ever more IT managers have recognised the operational advantages of centralised application management (re-)enabled through this technology and have placed a total emphasis upon HTML in their application development. This trend has rather conveyed the impression in recent years, therefore, that page based user interfaces were the last word, while user-oriented layout and design appeared consigned to oblivion.

In the wake of the euphoria surrounding HTML there were always organisations who expressed their dissatisfaction at the shortcomings of pure HTML interfaces. Meanwhile, a significant number of middle sized IT companies made their money developing RIAs for such organisations. Publicly, however, these efforts scarcely attracted attention. It was not until the Eclipse project, with its popular Rich Client Platform (RCP)[1] several years ago, that the ordinary developer was once again reminded of the far more ergonomic interfaces of the client-server technology of the 1980s and 1990s.

The term “rich client” now became newly synonymous with this technology. Since RCP is a “fat client” technology it did not correspond to the centralised “zero footprint”[2] approach of classical HTML applications. These benefits, in which no application specific code whatsoever was of installed on the client, thus employed so called “rich thin client” technology, which in turn however merely represented a transient niche. It was not until Jesse James Garrett coined the phrase “Ajax”[3] in 2005, thus bestowing respectability on JavaScript based Internet technology that the idea of “Rich Internet Applications” became familiar to a broader public, who has since been demanding the same level of interface interactivity in online connections as that of pure desktop applications.

This trend has been reinforced to now by discussions about the fuzzy, yet enigmatic term “Web 2.0”[4]. According to this “hype”, the hitherto largely passive bulk of internet users would become highly active web content authors in the coming years or even site “programmers”. Thus, “Web 1.0 was commerce. Web 2.0 is people. [...] 2015, everyone alive will [..] write a song, author a book, make a video, craft a weblog, and code a program” (Kelly, Wired[5]). However, in order to motivate and enable the average surfer not just to consume but also to actively contribute new content, the web needs to be equipped with a suitable interactive interface, with whose help the user can rapidly and easily become active. RIAs bridge this gap perfectly with respect to the dizzying expectations of Web 2.0. They represent the technology, without which the entire aspiration and utopia would evaporate.

However, RIA technology offers so many advantages not only for the Web 2.0 community but also for everyday enterprise applications, that the demise of exclusively HTML based “poor ugly web applications” (PUWA) is foreseeable in the not too distant future.

[1] Jeff McAffer, Jean-Michel Lemieux: Eclipse Rich Client Platform; Addison-Wesley, 2005.

[2] “Zero footprint” means that no additional Software needs to be installed on the client in order to launch an application

[3] Jesse James Garrett: AJAX: A New Approach to Web Applications; www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php

[4] Tim O’Reilly: What is Web 2.0;

[5] Kelly, K.: We are the Web. In: Wired 13.08 (08/2005)

Fix release for ULC ‘08 update 4 available

marcel — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:02:24 +0000

We are pleased to announce that new maintenance releases for UltraLightClient is now available for download.

This is a maintenance release for UltraLightClient ‘08 that fixes the issue
UBA-7852 introduced by update 4.
In addition we have fixed three other issues

[UBA-7573] – ULCComponent.add/removeNotify() does not work inside ULCTabbedPane and ULCCardPane
[UBA-7580] – Missing column selection event for ULCTableTree with expansion listener
[UBA-7760] – [Mac OS X 10.5.7, JRE 1.5] Installing shortcuts on the dock messed up the dock

Please see the ULC ‘08 update 4 release notes for the complete list of implemented feature requests and fixed problem reports.

Please note: the UltraLightClient ‘08 license key is valid for all software releases labeled UltraLightClient ‘08. If you already have a ULC ‘08 license key, a new license key is not required.

Maintenance release,ULC Visual Editor for Eclipse 6.1.2 is now available.

marcel — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:27:44 +0000

We are pleased to announce that the maintenance release ULC Visual Editor for Eclipse 6.1.2 is now available.

Installation from the update site: http://update.canoo.com/ulcve is easily done using the eclipse built in software installation and updating mechanism

This is a maintenance release for ULC Visual Editor for Eclipse. Please see the release notes for a list of implemented feature requests and fixed problem reports:

Please note: the ULC Visual Editor 6.1 license key is valid for all software releases labeled ULC Visual Editor 6.1. If you already have a ULC Visual Editor 6.1 license key, a new license key is not required.

Maintenance Releases ULC ‘08 update 4 and ULCLoad 3.0.2 available

marcel — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:17:37 +0000

We are pleased to announce that new maintenance releases for UltraLightClient and ULCLoad are now available for download.

These are maintenance releases for UltraLightClient ‘08 and ULCLoad 3.0. Please see the ULC ‘08 update 4 release notes and the
ULCLoad 3.0.2 release notes for a list of implemented feature requests and fixed problem reports :

Please note: the UltraLightClient ‘08 license key is valid for all software releases labeled UltraLightClient ‘08, the ULCLoad 3.0 license key is valid for all software releases labeled ULCLoad 3.0. If you already have one of these license keys for your product, a new license key is not required.

The Framework behind CATS: UltraLightClient

Felix Schrape — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:01:14 +0000

You want to know more about the framework behind CATS, the soccer betting tool which just won the W-Jax developer challenge? Take a look on a video which presents the advantages of Canoo’s RIA technology in a nutshell:

Jazoon ‘09: RIA and Security

Mike — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:54:50 +0000

Session title: RIA Security: Broken by Design
From: Joonas Lehtinen, CEO IT Mill

IT Mill is the creator of Vaadin: A 100% Java tool for RIA.

Joonas outlines a spectrum of complexity from Basic site to 3D games examples:
Web Sites (Wikipedia), AJAX Sugar (Facebook), Full RIA

He divides „Full RIA“ divide into client side vs. Server driven. Gives a crash course in GWT.

Vaadin: Apparently 100% Java and server driven, which sounds an awful lot like ULC at this stage… But here’s a difference: It builds on GWT and relies on JavaScript on the client-side.

He goes on to present a bunch of development rules:

Rule #1: Don’t trust the browser
Rule #2: Complexity is a hiding place for bugs
Rule #3: Large surface give more opportunities for attack. This surface has increased with Web 2.0.

Difference between GWT and Vaadin architectures is that GWT relies on the client invoking a server-side Web Service API, whereas Vaadin renders the client’s view on the server.

Erm… he then offers the cures for the problems (Rules above)… which I miss because the explanation is compressed into around 5s.

I’m starting to dislike this presentation at this point. Because here comes another artificial security issue scenario… which guess which product solves. And I thought product placement in Hollywood movies was irritating.

The issues he raises are legitimate, but the lack of objectivity is obscuring the message. And as I write the presenter is debugging JavaScript which depends on analysing the DOM on the client side – I’m not sure if he’s now analysing the problem or trying to fix it!?

I am formally declaring myself lost at this stage. At least I hope the other attendees are getting something out of this presentation, which has lost focus IMO.

He continues with a discussion about attacking at the transport level, inserting new data on the fly. But come on: A secure transaction in this technical setting will operate under HTTPS, which in most instances will deal with this kind of attack. Unless, of course, that’s something else I missed.

I think I need a coffee!!!