Rich Internet Applications: A Brief Look

By Author: Anna Harris
Total Articles: 60
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RIAs or Rich internet applications are the “Crown Jewels” of any browser. These applications help the developers to make a website more attractive, interactive and rich in features. RIAs runs on the user's web browsers in form of lightweight plug-ins and usually does not require software installation on the client side to work. Moreover, they are not only machine independent, but also capable of running over any operating system.

We all know that an RIA runs inside sany web browser. However, some of these applications work on some specific browsers only, and run preferably inside an isolated environment. Those special applications are called sandbox. This is done due to some security specific reasons, so that client systems don't get affected in case of some malicious program being associated with the application. This approach lowers the amount of client-server bandwidth traffic and resource usage. Therefore, these Internet applications are also known as thin clients.

RIAs offer the best from both worlds: PC and the Internet. These applications are distributed online, and boast immensely rich user interactivity. ...
... An RIA can be developed using numerous popular tools like Ajax, Curl, GWT, Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, Adobe AIR, Java, JavaFX, Mozilla's XUL, OpenLaszlo, and Microsoft Silverlight. Similarly, Google Maps and Google Docs are also well known examples of RIAs.

Rich Internet Application development has become the basic marketing philosophy for many businesses, looking forward to utilizing the Internet to the fullest for marketing their business. These applications are changing the rules of business promotion in the online world and giving the businessmen, a sharp edge over their rivals. The biggest benefit of RIA development is that the user can connect to a website and use the application of without installing it on the local system. This capability provides a lot of flexibility to the business processes.

RIAs can change the way of doing business. The technology behind creating such applications can be easily understood and executed in order to develop useful web-based solutions. It will certainly improve the presence of a website over the Internet. In fact, many companies have already doubled their success by implementing rich Internet applications in their web operations. Nearly every type of applications, including word processors, spreadsheets, online games have been developed under RIA.

In today’s business world, most of the companies look forward to acquiring the advantage of RIA technology. YouTube is one of the biggest examples of websites built with RIA technology (Adobe Flash and AJAX). RIA has a huge community of software developers and business people looking forward to use the technology for better results.

These days most of the offshore development companies are offering RIA development services to their clients across the world. These companies also provide great support services after the project delivery. All these services can be availed at a fraction of the price of employing a full time web developer. Those who are looking for software solutions can outsource their custom web development project to these firms.

Article Source: http://www.hiddenbrains.com/articles/rich-internet-applications-a-brief-look.html