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consider such interfaces to be RIAs, some consider them competitors to RIAs; and others, including Gartner, treat them as similar but separate technologies.

RIAs dominate in [[online game#Browser games|browser es iref> Web standards such as HTML5 have developed and the compliance of Web browsers with tose standards has imroved somewhat. However, the need for plug-in based RIAs for accessing video capture and distribution has not dminished,Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and the 2008 conventions for both major political parties in the United States. Silverlight is also used by Netflix for its instant video streaming service.

HTML5/JavaScript

GWT

Google Web Toolkit is an open source set of tools that allows web developers to create and maintain complex JavaScript front-end applications in Java. Other than a few native libraries, everything is Java source that can be built on any supported platform with the included GWT Ant build files. It is licensed under the Apache License version 2.0.

ExtJS

ExtJS is a pure JavaScript application framework for building interactive web applications using techniques such as Ajax, DHTML and DOM scripting.

Vaadin

Vaadin is an open source Web application framework for rich Internet applications. In contrast to JavaScript libraries and browser-plugin based solutions, it features a server-side architecture, which means that the majority of the logic runs on the servers. Ajax technology is used at the browser-side to ensure a rich and interactive user experience. The client-side portion of Vaadin is built on top of Google Web Toolkit and can be extended with it.

History

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The term "rich Internet application" was introduced in a white paper of March 2002 by Macromedia (now merged into Adobe), though the concept had existed for a number of years earlier under names such as:

• Remote Scripting, by Microsoft, c. 1999
• X Internet, by Forrester Research 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.

Characteristics

RIAs present indexing challenges to Web search engines, but Adobe Flash content is now at least partially indexable.

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.

New trends

In November 2011, there were a number of announcements that demonstrated a decline in demand for rich internet application architectures based on plug-ins in order to favor HTML5 alternatives. Adobe announced that Flash would no longer be produced for mobile or TV (refocusing its efforts on Adobe AIR). Pundits questioned its continued relevance even on the desktop and described it as "the beginning of the end". Research In Motion (RIM) announced that it would continue to develop Flash for the PlayBook, a decision questioned by some commentators. Rumors state that Microsoft is to abandon Silverlight after version 5 is released. The combination of these announcements had some proclaiming it "the end of the line for browser plug-ins".

See also

• HTML5
• List of rich Internet application frameworks
• PIGUI

References

1. Gartner: MarketScope for Ajax Technologies and Rich Internet Application Platforms
2. "Microsoft Wins The 2010 Olympics For Silverlight". Retrieved 2010-02-23.
3. "Microsoft Working to Make Political Conventions Unconventional". Retrieved 2010-02-23.
4. "Netflix Begins Roll-Out of 2nd Generation Media Player for Instant Streaming on Windows PCs and Intel Macs". Retrieved 2010-02-23.
5. (see also, Rich Internet application
6. Macromedia Flash MX—A next-generation rich client
7. Adobe Flash in the Enterprise: The Case for More Usable Software
8. Once Nearly Invisible To Search Engines, Flash Files Can Now Be Found And Indexed
9. Living in the RIA World: Blurring the Line Between Web and Desktop Security, 2008
10. "Adobe Flash Player Turfed for Mobile Devices". Retrieved 11 November 2011.
11. "Adobe Scrapping Flash for TV, Too". Retrieved 11 November 2011.
12. "PlayBook has a Flash-filled future; RIM's worst decision to date?".
13. "The beginning of the end for Adobe's Flash". Retrieved 11 November 2011.
14. "PlayBook has a Flash-filled future; RIM's worst decision to date?". Retrieved 11 November 2011.
15. "Silverlight 5 - the end of the line". Retrieved 11 November 2011.
16. "Flash, Silverlight and the end of the line for browser plug-ins".

External links

• Accessible rich Internet applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0 - W3C Candidate Recommendation 18 January 2011
• Rich Web Client Activity Statement, W3C

• Rich Internet applications
• Cloud computing
• Software architecture
• Web 2.0