Rich Internet Application Review

                                              Rich Internet Application                                                                                               

            A rich Internet application is a Web application that has many of the characteristics of desktop application software. RIA stands for "Rich Internet Application". A rich internet application normally runs on internet but provides the same functionality as a normal desktop application.

Applications that try and interact with users using static html pages, need to constantly talk to a web server to manipulate data and create new web pages for the user.

 Performance of these applications is always dependent on the number of round trips needed to the server and how fast the new pages can be created and displayed to the user.

      Abbreviated as RIA, Rich Internet Applications Development are Web-based applications that function as traditional desktop applications however Web browsers (or clients) are required for access but unlike traditional applications, software installation is not required, however depending on the application you usually will need to have ActiveX, Java, Flash, or similar technologies installed on the client machine.

   

                       Rich Internet applications (RIAs) are web applications that have some of the characteristics of desktop applications, typically delivered by way of a proprietary web browser plug-ins or independently via sandboxes or virtual machines.

           Rich internet application frameworks examples
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                      Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flex/AIR, Java/JavaFX, uniPaaS and 

Difference b/w  Web Application & Rich Internet Application

Content	Web Application	Rich Web Application
Rich Assets	Web application is mainly simple website or application. No matter what kind of site it is like blog, forum, or e-commerce etc, No matter what technology it uses like Static HTML, Java,PHP it is Text-Based.	Rich Internet Application has more assets to deal with, such as Audio, Graphic, Video, State, Transition, and Effect. It is Interaction-Based.
Experience	Web applications have great experience.Now a days web applications are popular than windows applications.	The richness of rich internet application means rich user experience. It is kind of paradigm shift from what we can provide more to how we can help users get more.Thanks to the rich assets and their interaction-based design model, a well-built RIA often creates a WOW Experience for its users.
Functionality	The Web App Server’s design provides a fundamentally secure environment.Web based application provide many functionality like no installation, system configuration requirement . Web based application access globally	Powered by the latest web technologies such as Adobe Flex/Flash, AJAX, or Microsoft SilverLight, A RIA can provide functions way beyond traditional web pages. Just look at PhotoShop Express or Google Docs, you will see they act more like a desktop application. This is unbelievable in the past.
Communication	The traditional way to operate a web application is like: Click a button => Wait for the result page showing => Click another button Whenever users ask for something, the browser has to send a HTTP request to the server, wait for the response back from the server, and refresh the page. This synchronous communication method inevitably creates negative impact on usability.	While rich internet application allows the application to get the data from the server without the page reload. It makes the application faster and more user-friendly.
Security	It applies restricted security protocol and provides security patches as fast as possible.	While we enjoy the richness of rich internet application, it brings more security concerns than a traditional web application. The main reason is rich internet applicationis running on the client side. It tends to have more security flaws. Fortunately, the major rich internet application framework, like Adobe Flex/Flash, has realized this issue for long time.