Have you heard the term rich internet application or seen the abbreviation RIA? Want to learn more about rich internet applications and how you as a designer or developer can help shape them? Continue reading this article.
What is a Rich Internet Application?
A rich internet application, also known as RIA, refers to a web application that has many of the same features of a desktop application. RIA's are gaining popularity throughout the Internet, as technology increases, so do the demands of the people using it. The applications are developed for the web, or for use with stand alone kiosks. They are highly interactive and feature rich. While it is not yet possible to build and implement RIAs without relying on newer browsers and special plugins, they are still commonly used in variety of situtations.
Rich Internet Application Framework Options
For those who are interested in building their own RIA, there are several different framework options available, including:
- Microsoft Silverlight
- Adobe Flex
- Adobe Flash
- Adobe AIR
- Curl
- Google Web Toolkit
- Mozilla XUL
Before an RIA can be viewed on a computer, the appropriate framework that developed the application needs to be installed on the system. For instance, Flash videos such as those on YouTube cannot be viewed without having the Adobe Flash player installed on the computer system trying to view the vidoes.
Characteristics of Rich Internet Applications
What are some of the common characteristics of an RIA?
- Accessible: The program is highly accessible, especially through Flash.
- Complex: These solutions are more complex than a standard web application, but less complex than a standard desktop application when it comes to development, design, debugging, and deployment.
- Consistent:Elements of the program design are consistent across all operating systems and computer platforms, though the programs are difficult to monitor.
- Communication: The programs are able to communicate with other protocols via a high speed connection. This improves user experience.
- Features: Contains features that are not supported by a standalone web browser.
- Installation: Plugins and other things will have to be installed to get the program to work, however many of these plugins are commonly found on computer systems and will update themselves. The file sizes are much smaller than they used to be and the maintenance is usually automatic as updates work seamlessly behind the scenes.
- Offline Use: Sometimes may be configured for offline use, though will usually require an Internet connection.
- Performance: This will depend on the individual application and its network. Applications that process on the client rather than from the server will move faster.