Shulou(Shulou.com)06/03 Report--

This article mainly shows you "what are the RIA technologies", the content is easy to understand, clear, hope to help you solve your doubts, the following let the editor lead you to study and learn "what are the RIA technologies" this article?

Rich Internet Application (Rich Internet applications, referred to as RIA), a new Web application architecture, which combines the good user experience of desktop software and the advantages of easy deployment of web applications, is quickly favored by enterprises. In recent years, major development platform suppliers have launched new technologies to support the development of RIA, from Ajax to SilverLight, from Apollo and AIR to Flex and Flash, from JavaFX to Laszlo, all kinds of technologies have been put on the stage, in order to become the focus of attention.

However, as application system developers, development teams and developers, in the RIA tide, what kind of technology to choose to better build RIA systems has become a problem that we need to consider carefully.

AJAX

Ajax actually combines some old technologies with new techniques to greatly improve the interactivity of the WebApplication user interface.

In Ajax, XMLHttpRequest is the core and the source of the powerful function of Ajax. This is the difference between Ajax and traditional Web interface technology. Through XMLHttpRequest, the HTML (DHTML) in the browser is separated from the data on the server side. Use JavaScript to manipulate the client access server to get data, and modify the HTML structure to display the data. Classic examples of using Ajax are Gmail and GoogleMaps.

Flash/Flex/Laszlo

Flex is an application framework designed to meet the needs of enterprise applications. Flex provides standards-based, declarative programming methods and processes for developing and deploying a presentation layer of rich client applications. Flex developers use intuitive, XML-based MXML to define rich user interfaces and ActionScript (an object-oriented scripting language) to write program logic.

The language is translated by the Flex server into a client application in SWF format and runs in FlashPlayer. So far, Flex has released Flex 3.0 beta.

Laszlo is an open source RIA development environment. When using the Laszlo platform, the developer only needs to write a description language called LZX (which integrates XML and JavaScript), and the Laszlo platform running on the J2EE application server will compile it into a swf format file and transfer it to the client for display. In future plans, Laszlo can also compile LZX into Java or .NET native code, greatly improving operational efficiency. In the newly released Laszlo4.0, developers can choose whether Laszlo will eventually be displayed as Flash or DHTML.

From the running location, Flex and Laszlo are both server-side technologies, similar to the familiar operating mechanism of ASP,ASP.NET,JSP and PHP. It's just that dynamic web technologies such as ASP parse the interface elements into browsers sent by HTML to the client to display, while Flex and Laszlo parse the interface elements into binary swf files and run them into the FlashPlayer plug-in in the browser.

AIR

AIR, formerly known as Apollo,Adobe, is officially interpreted as a cross-operating system runtime environment that allows developers to use the skills previously developed by Web to create RichInternet Application and deploy it to the desktop to run. Generally speaking, AIR is Adobe that integrates existing technologies, such as Flash, PDF, JavaScript, XML and ActionScript, and provides a client-side runtime environment that allows developers to develop desktop programs that can access Internet resources. In essence, AIR is a desktop application environment that takes Flash (or Ajax) out of the browser.

To develop AIR applications, it is also simple, and there are two technologies to choose from: one is to use HTML+JS technology, and the other is to use Flex+Flash. The available development tools are the tools for developing the above technologies, such as flexbuilder, flash IDE, eclipse, notepad and so on.

The advantages and disadvantages of using AIR to develop RIA are similar to Flex, the biggest advantage is that it can run without browser as a separate desktop program, and is not subject to browser security restrictions, and can have more access to local resources.

At present, AIR is still in the testing stage, and many features are not perfect. I believe there will be more features to look forward to when the official version is released.

WPF

For a long time, the user interface of an application can be developed using different technologies, from MFC to VB, from WindowsForms to HTML+JS. For developers, this requires the use of different interface development techniques for different application types. With the emergence of multimedia 2D or 3D interfaces such as Flash, there are more and more choices. If you want to use one technology, you can develop interfaces for all kinds of applications, which will be a huge challenge.

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), originally codenamed "Avalon", is currently released as a component of .NET 3.0 and is designed to solve this problem.

WPF provides a common foundation for desktop clients and browser clients, greatly simplifying the application development work of both. WPF takes a more modern approach, supporting video, animation, 2D or 3D graphics, and various types of documents, allowing users to process information in entirely new ways. In addition, WPF provides a common foundation for desktop clients and browser clients, greatly simplifying their application development work.

As the next generation interface technology of Microsoft, the most important feature of WPF is to separate the layout description of the interface from the interface logic code. WPF separates the work of professional interface designers from that of professional program developers through XAML (extended Application markup language, a XML-based language that allows user interfaces to be specified declaratively rather than code), making it easier for them to collaborate to develop applications with dazzling interfaces and powerful functions.

At the same time, Microsoft provides different tools for different jobs. For interface designers, Microsoft launches Expression Studio; for program developers and VisualStudio 2008 (RTM is expected to be released by the end of this year).

By providing more powerful graphical support, WPF makes it possible to visualize a range of data that is not possible with Windows Forms or other early technologies. WPF also provides the foundation for XML Paper Specification (XPS), which defines a standard format for viewing, distributing, and printing fixed-format documents.

Silverlight

The original code name of Silverlight is "WPF/E", which means WPF run onEverywhere, which is a subset of WPF. Silverlight is known by the community as Microsoft's Flash Killer.

The official definition is: "Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in that brings the next generation of .NET-based media experience and rich interactive applications to the network." Silverlight provides a flexible programming model, supports AJAX,VB, client, Python, Ruby and other languages, and integrates into the existing WebApplication, which can access the DOM information. With the support of built-in multimedia technology, media files can be played at a very low cost.

Currently, Silverlight has released two versions, 1.0 beta and 1.1alpha. It can run on Windows and Mac platforms. At the same time, the Mono project is also actively developing Moonlight, a Silverlight implementation under Linux.

XUL

XUL is a XML-based user interface language that comes from Mozilla's open source project. It can be used to build forms applications that can run not only on Mozilla browsers, but also on other description engines, such as Zulu (a FlashMX component) and Thinleys (an Java implementation). XUL description engines are very small (less than 100K), which can use XML data or generate XML data. One of the main drawbacks of XUL is that it does not currently have the support of a major business entity. The greatest advantage of XUL is its integration with the Gecko engine (which opens the door to a large number of Web standards) and that it is a very expressive and concise language compared with most other XML user interface description languages.

At present, XUL can be embedded in a Mozilla (or FireFox) browser, or it can be run away from the browser through a XULRunner runtime environment.

JavaFX

"JavaFX is a complete operating environment built on Java technology that can be used to deliver rich Internet applications (RIA) to environments such as desktops, mobile devices, handheld devices and televisions." This is how SUN defines JavaFX. JavaFX is the development technology for SUN to enter the RIA field. It consists of JavaFXScript and JavaFX Mobile. It uses a new scripting language, relies on Java SE/ME runtime, and uses Java2D and SwingAPI to run RIA applications on desktops or mobile devices.

Comparison of three kinds of RIA Technology

Through the introduction of various RIA development technologies above, we can see that they have different ideas and different operating environments. Generally speaking, RIA development technologies fall into three categories:

1. Browser class, the whole RIA runs in the browser, relying on the traditional HTML+CSS+JavaScript technology to achieve the performance and control of the interface.

two。 Browser plug-in class, RIA runs in the browser as a plug-in. The running program is a vendor-specific running format and requires a specific running environment.

3. Desktop class, RIA runs directly on the desktop without the browser. It is similar to common desktop programs, but can access Internet resources and has the characteristics of easy deployment and easy update.

Among the three classified technologies, browser technology has become the most direct technology for developing RIA. This kind of technology is suitable for software developers who have been doing Web applications.

The new desktop technology starts completely from scratch, making full use of the technologies, skills and concepts of desktop development, and combining the advantages of convenient deployment and instant installation of WebApplication. This kind of technology is suitable for developers of Windows applications.

The browser plug-in makes a compromise between the browser technology and the new desktop, which not only uses the new technology to achieve a rich interface, but also partially integrates with the existing Web technology.

Which RIA technology is suitable for you?

RIA is an important direction of application system development in the future. Many software development enterprises, development teams and developers hope to find a technology suitable for them in the future, so that they can get twice the result with half the effort, improve development efficiency and reduce development costs, and at the same time deliver software systems with rich experience and complete functions to customers.

Although we introduced various technologies and their advantages and disadvantages above, and classified them, we still need to consider the following situations to answer the question "which one should we choose?"

The first is our own situation:

◆ your current technical skills are mainly in Web development or Windows development?

◆, are you currently developing applications based on content presentation or transaction processing?

Which vendor or organization's technology is currently being used by ◆? .net or JAVA or other Web technologies?

Is ◆ currently developing RIA or similar RIA?

What RIA development technology does ◆ currently use?

The second is to consider the selection criteria of technology:

◆ learning cost, development efficiency

The suitability of ◆ for application types

Deployment cost of ◆ operating environment

◆ operation efficiency

The perfect functional features of ◆

◆ technology licensing costs and server deployment costs, open source, free or fee-based

◆ official and community technical support

Perfect development tools for ◆

◆ 's complete UI components

Cross-platform characteristics of ◆

Finally, we can make a positioning and ranking of these technologies according to our own specific conditions and the criteria for selecting technologies.

Compare in terms of technology operating environment deployment costs (from low to high):

Ajax > Flex/Laszlo > Silverlight > XUL > WPF > AIR > JavaFX

In terms of technology licensing costs:

Open source: Ajax,Laszlo,XUL,JavaFX

Free of charge: Silverlight,WPF,AIR

Fees are charged by: Flex

In terms of technical support: there is no doubt that Silverlight and WPF will get the best official support, the official technology of Flex is also improving, and other technologies mainly rely on the support of the community.

In terms of development tools: Silverlight and WPF can have the most powerful tools to use, Flex, AIR and Laszlo also have excellent IDE to use, the development tools of JavaFX are not yet clear, Ajax depends on the specific implementation, and the progress of XUL development tools is slow.

In terms of the availability of UI components: WPF and Silverlight need to extend themselves or use third parties; Flex, AIR and Laszlo all provide rich UI components, XUL has a set of UI components that are basically adequate, and JavaFX relies on the UI toolkit that comes with JRE.

We can also get a ranking for cross-platform features and compatibility:

Flex/Laszlo > Ajax > XUL > JavaFX > AIR > Silverlight > WPF

All in all, to choose a suitable RIA development technology, you need to weigh from various aspects. You should not only be clear about your own situation and consider the needs of the future, but also be familiar with the differences, advantages and disadvantages of each technology, so that you can find the right technology.

The above is all the content of this article "what are the RIA technologies?" Thank you for reading! I believe we all have a certain understanding, hope to share the content to help you, if you want to learn more knowledge, welcome to follow the industry information channel!

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.