Rich Internet application

Rich Internet application

A Rich Internet Application (RIA) is a Web application that has many of the characteristics of desktop application software, typically delivered either by way of a site-specific browser, via a browser plug-in, independent sandboxes, extensive use of JavaScript, or virtual machines.[1] Adobe Flash, JavaFX, and Microsoft Silverlight are currently the three most common platforms, with penetration rates around 96%, 76%, and 66% respectively (as of August 2011).[2] Although new Web standards have emerged, they still use the principles behind RIAs. Users generally need to install a software framework using the computer's operating system before launching the application, which typically downloads, updates, verifies and executes the RIA.[3] This is the main differentiator from JavaScript-based alternatives like Ajax that use built-in browser functionality to implement comparable interfaces. As can be seen on the List of rich Internet application frameworks which includes even server-side frameworks, while some consider such interfaces to be RIAs, some consider them competitors to RIAs; and others, including Gartner, treat them as similar but separate technologies.[4] RIAs dominate in online gaming as well as applications that require access to video capture (with the notable exception of Gmail, which uses its own task-specific browser plug-in).[5] Web standards such as HTML5 have developed and the compliance of Web browsers with those standards has improved somewhat. However, the need for plug-in based RIAs for accessing video capture and distribution has not diminished,[6] even with the emergence of HTML5 and JavaScript-based desktop-like widget sets that provide alternative solutions for mobile Web browsing.

Major platforms
The following platforms have over 50% market penetration on the desktop.[7]

Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash manipulates vector and raster graphics to provide animation of text, drawings, and still images. It supports bidirectional streaming of audio and video, and it can capture user input via mouse, keyboard, microphone, and camera. Flash contains an object-oriented language called ActionScript and supports automation via the JavaScript Flash language (JSFL). Flash content may be displayed on various computer systems and devices, using Adobe Flash Player, which is available free of charge for common web browsers, some mobile phones and a few other electronic devices (using Flash Lite).

Java
Java applets are used both to create interactive visualisations and to present video, three dimensional objects and other media. Java applets are more appropriate for complex visualizations that require significant programming effort in high level language or communications between applet and originating server. Oracle's new JavaFX is considered as another competitor for Rich Internet Applications.

Microsoft Silverlight
In recent years, Microsoft Silverlight has emerged as a potential competitor to Flash. While not yet as prevalent on websites as Flash, Silverlight has been used to provide video streaming for many high profile events, including the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing,[8] the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver,[9] and the 2008 conventions for both major political parties in the United States.[10] Silverlight is also used by Netflix for its instant video streaming service.[11]

Rich Internet application

History
The term "rich Internet application" was introduced in a white paper of March 2002 by Macromedia (now merged into Adobe),[12] though the concept had existed for a number of years earlier under names such as: Remote Scripting, by Microsoft, circa 1999 X Internet, by Forrester Research [13] in October 2000 Rich (Web) clients Rich Web application

Design, distribution, cost

Rich Internet applications use a Rich Client deployment model (deployment of a compiled client application through a browser) rather than a thin-client-server model (where the user's view is largely controlled from the server). Flash, Silverlight and Java are application platforms accessed by the user's web browser as plug-ins. These application platforms limit the amount of data downloaded during initialization to only what is necessary to display the page. The browser plug-in is only downloaded once, and does not need to be re-downloaded every time the page is displayed; this reduces application load time, bandwidth requirements, and server load. Proponents of RIAs assert that the cost of RIA development and O&M is typically lower than that of HTML-based alternatives due to increased developer productivity and standardized, backwards compatible nature of the application platform runtime environments. A 2010 study conducted by International Data Corporation demonstrated an average savings of approximately $450,000 per application in the case of Flash platform development (in conjunction with use of the open source Flex SDK), a 39% reduction in cost over a three-year period.[14]

Characteristics
RIAs present indexing challenges to Web search engines, but Adobe Flash content is now at least partially indexable.[15] Security can improve over that of application software (for example through use of sandboxes and automatic updates), but the extensions themselves remain subject to vulnerabilities and access is often much greater than that of native Web applications. For security purposes, most RIAs run their client portions within a special isolated area of the client desktop called a sandbox. The sandbox limits visibility and access to the file-system and to the operating system on the client to the application server on the other side of the connection. This approach allows the client system to handle local activities, calculations, reformatting and so forth, thereby lowering the amount and frequency of client-server traffic, especially versus client-server implementations built around so-called thin clients.[16]

Decline
In November 2011 there were a number of announcements that demonstrated a decline in demand for rich internet application architectures. Adobe announced that Flash would no longer be produced for mobile[17] or TV[18] (refocusing its efforts on HTML 5). Pundits questioned its continued relevance even on the desktop[19] and described it as "the beginning of the end"[20] . RIM announced that it would continue to develop Flash for the PlayBook, a decision which has been described as "RIM's worst decision to date"[21] . Microsoft also announced that Silverlight 5 was to be the last release[22] . The combination of these announcements had some proclaiming it "the end of the line for browser plug-ins"[23] .

Rich Internet application

References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] RIA War Is Brewing (http:/ / etech. eweek. com/ content/ application_development/ ria_war_is_brewing. html) Rich Internet Application Market Share (http:/ / www. statowl. com/ custom_ria_market_penetration. php) Laszlo: An Open Source Framework for Rich Internet Applications (http:/ / today. java. net/ pub/ a/ today/ 2005/ 03/ 22/ laszlo. html) Gartner: MarketScope for Ajax Technologies and Rich Internet Application Platforms (http:/ / www. gartner. com/ DisplayDocument?doc_cd=164266) Gmail Voice and Video Chat (http:/ / mail. google. com/ videochat) HTML5 Isn't Ready For Primetime, YouTube Says. Flash offers video streaming capabilities that HTML5 just can't match yet. (http:/ / www. informationweek. com/ news/ hardware/ desktop/ showArticle. jhtml?articleID=225701855& subSection=News), Information Weekly, Thomas Claburn, June 29, 2010 "Rich Internet Application Market Share", Data from StatOwl. http:/ / www. statowl. com/ custom_ria_market_penetration. php -- StatOwl data is from ~28m unique visitors per month.; This data is consistent with that reported from RIAStats.com, which is based on ~4m daily visitors http:/ / riastats. com/ . These statistics clearly indicate consistent evidence that Flash, Silverlight, Java, and HTML5 are available to over 50% of web users as of summer 2011. See also "Rich Internet Applications: The Next Frontier of Corporate Development" by Larry Seltzer. 2010-08-25. eWeek. http:/ / www. eweek. com/ c/ a/ Security/ Rich-Internet-Applications-The-Next-Frontier-of-Corporate-Development-732651/ "Microsoft Silverlight Gets a High Profile Win: 2008 Beijing Olympics" (http:/ / techcrunch. com/ 2008/ 01/ 06/ microsoft-silverlight-gets-a-high-profile-win-2008-bejing-olympics/ ). . Retrieved 2010-02-23. "Microsoft Wins The 2010 Olympics For Silverlight" (http:/ / www. businessinsider. com/ microsoft-wins-the-2010-olympics-for-silverlight-2009-3). . Retrieved 2010-02-23.

[7]

[8] [9]

[10] "Microsoft Working to Make Political Conventions Unconventional" (http:/ / www. microsoft. com/ presspass/ features/ 2008/ aug08/ 08-19conventions. mspx). . Retrieved 2010-02-23. [11] "Netflix Begins Roll-Out of 2nd Generation Media Player for Instant Streaming on Windows PCs and Intel Macs" (http:/ / netflix. mediaroom. com/ index. php?s=43& item=288). . Retrieved 2010-02-23. [12] Macromedia Flash MXA next-generation rich client (http:/ / download. macromedia. com/ pub/ flash/ whitepapers/ richclient. pdf) [13] http:/ / www. forrester. com [14] Adobe Flash in the Enterprise: The Case for More Usable Software (http:/ / www. adobe. com/ enterprise/ pdf/ idc. pdf) [15] Once Nearly Invisible To Search Engines, Flash Files Can Now Be Found And Indexed (http:/ / www. techcrunch. com/ 2008/ 06/ 30/ once-nearly-invisible-to-search-engines-flash-files-can-now-be-found-and-indexed/ ) [16] Living in the RIA World: Blurring the Line Between Web and Desktop Security, 2008 (http:/ / www. isecpartners. com/ files/ RIA_World_BH_2008. pdf) [17] "Adobe Flash Player Turfed for Mobile Devices" (http:/ / www. theinfoboom. com/ articles/ adobe-flash-player-turfed-for-mobile-devices/ ). . Retrieved 11 November 2011. [18] "Adobe Scrapping Flash for TV, Too" (http:/ / allthingsd. com/ 20111110/ adobe-scrapping-flash-for-tv-too/ ). . Retrieved 11 November 2011. [19] "PlayBook has a Flash-filled future; RIM's worst decision to date?" (http:/ / www. zdnet. com/ blog/ perlow/ without-mobile-adobe-flash-is-irrelevant/ 19247). . [20] "The beginning of the end for Adobe's Flash" (http:/ / money. cnn. com/ 2011/ 11/ 10/ technology/ adobe_flash/ ). . Retrieved 11 November 2011. [21] "PlayBook has a Flash-filled future; RIM's worst decision to date?" (http:/ / www. zdnet. com/ blog/ btl/ playbook-has-a-flash-filled-future-rims-worst-decision-to-date/ 63118). . Retrieved 11 November 2011. [22] "Silverlight 5 - the end of the line" (http:/ / www. i-programmer. info/ news/ 89-net/ 3314-silverlight-5-the-end-of-the-line. html). . Retrieved 11 November 2011. [23] "Flash, Silverlight and the end of the line for browser plug-ins" (http:/ / www. geekwire. com/ 2011/ adobe-flash-microsoft-silverlight-sunset-browser-plugin). .

External links
Accessible rich Internet applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0 (http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/) - W3C Working Draft 15 December 2009 The W3C Rich Web Clients Activity (http://www.w3.org/2006/rwc/)

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

Rich Internet application Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=460125147 Contributors: Adaniels.nl, Adoniscik, Alai, Aleksandar unjar, Alexandre Hubert, AlphaEngineer, Amikael, Amitchaudhary, AndrooUK, Angela, Apophos, Arcturus4669, Artmaster, Artw, Asmitford, Beetstra, Belmond, Bhadani, Bircha, Bobo192, BrianRecchia, Brianreading, Bruce404, Burns jay, C3o, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, CapitalR, CapitalSasha, Catamorphism, Chelentano, Chipuni, Chris the speller, ChrisLoosley, Chrisgarty, ChristopheS, Christopher norton, Cjanime, CodeAdams, Codehawk, Creol, Ctkeene, Cvielma, DarkElf109, Davemck, DavidBolter, Dawnseeker2000, Dcioccarelli, Delfuego, Dgirard, Dgruber, Dillard421, Diotti, Dnaposse, Doug Bell, Dreftymac, Drjonesgp, Drrngrvy, Dynaxis, ESkog, EdgeOfEpsilon, Effectiveui, Eiyuu Kou, Elixon, Enric Naval, EphemeralJun, Escape Orbit, Euyyn, ExilorX, Fastnetria, FatalError, FayssalF, Fernandoacorreia, Fish and karate, Flashsupporter, FleetCommand, Fred Birchmore, Freshraisin, Funandtrvl, Furrykef, Fusiondeveloper, Fxhomie, GENtLe, GKBrown, Gail, Garoad, Gert7, Glenn4pr, Goffrie, Grshiplett, Gudeldar, Haakon, Hateless, Heycam, Htmlism, Hu12, Iavram, Ike-bana, Invisifan, Ixab, J.delanoy, JCLately, JLaTondre, JRocketeer, Jamelan, Jamesontai, Jeffq, Jerryobject, Jlin, John Seward, JonFerraiolo, Jordanbeltz, Joshiesurber, Jouk pleiter, KTyson, Kaihsu, Kentor7, Kevinwells, Khalid hassani, KnowledgeOfSelf, Krilnon, Learnhub, Leonard G., Lkcl, Luano, MaNeMeBasat, Maarten Hermans, Macrakis, Madlener, Maheshcamath, Marcika, Martianxo, Mdrain, Minghong, Mortense, MrOllie, Mrjoshua, Multi Wire Branch, Muz7, Neil Smithline, Neon white, Nicolae Coman, Ohconfucius, Ohnoitsjamie, Ohstudio, OssDev, PantherSocks, Pavel Vozenilek, Perfecto, Pgan002, PhilKnight, Pleiter, Pnm, Prof.LDF, Pwt-wsu-np, Rabbt300, Radagast83, RandomAct, Reinthal, Rhystague, Ria100, RichAlger, Rjwilmsi, Robina Fox, Rohan Jayasekera, Ruud Koot, Ryanstewart, SMcCandlish, Sae1962, Sakurina, Sam Korn, SamJohnston, Sand13w, Sanpedro10, Saxifrage, Sergey Spatar, Simonmartin74, Sina2, Sintaku, SiobhanHansa, Slashme, Sleepnomore, Sleepyhead81, Soumyasch, Stephan Leeds, Stephen B Streater, Stevietheman, Subversive.sound, Swerdnaneb, TFOWR, Taeshadow, Taka, Tankerdawg, Terrifictriffid, TheSmartDoccer, Tobrown779, Toussaint, Trappleton, Travelbird, Trbdavies, Twanneman, URPradhan, Van der Hoorn, Viriditas, WH Coordinator, Wagnermr14, WalterGR, Wikiajax, Winkin, Winterst, Wxidea, Xdream, Yworo, Zeh, ZuluPapa5, 225 , anonymous edits

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