Web application technology
This article is about legacy technology no longer used by modern browsers. For its modern equivalent, see
Progressive web application
.
A
Rich Internet Application
(also known as a
rich web application
,
[1]
RIA
or
installable Internet application
) is a
web application
that has many of the characteristics of desktop
application software
. The concept is closely related to a
single-page application
, and may allow the user interactive features such as
drag and drop
, background menu,
WYSIWYG
editing, etc. The concept was first introduced in 2002 by
Macromedia
to describe Macromedia Flash MX product (which later became
Adobe Flash
).
[2]
Throughout the 2000-s, the term was generalized to describe browser-based applications developed with other competing browser plugin technologies including
Java applets
,
Microsoft Silverlight
.
With the
deprecation
of browser
plugin
interfaces and transition to standard
HTML5
technologies, Rich Internet Applications were replaced with JavaScript
web applications
, including
single-page applications
and
progressive web applications
.
History
[
edit
]
The terms "Rich Internet Application" and "rich client" were introduced in a
white paper
of March 2002 by
Macromedia
(now
Adobe
),
[2]
though the concept had existed for a number of years earlier under names including: "
Remote Scripting
" by
Microsoft
in April 1999
[3]
and the "X Internet" by
Forrester Research
in October 2000.
[4]
In November 2011, there were a number of announcements that demonstrated a decline in demand for Rich Internet Application architectures based on browser plug-ins in order to favor
HTML5
alternatives. Adobe announced that Flash would no longer be produced for mobile
[5]
or TV
[6]
(refocusing its efforts on
Adobe AIR
). Pundits questioned its continued relevance even on the desktop
[7]
and described it as "the beginning of the end".
[8]
Research In Motion
(RIM) announced that it would continue to develop Flash for the
PlayBook
, a decision questioned by some commentators.
[9]
Rumors stated that Microsoft was to abandon Silverlight after the upcoming release of version 5 -- this would later turn out to be the case.
[10]
[11]
The combination of these announcements had some proclaiming it "the end of the line for browser plug-ins".
[12]
Rich mobile applications
[
edit
]
A
rich mobile application
(RMA) is a
mobile application
that inherits numerous properties from web applications and features several explicit properties, such as
context awareness
and ubiquity.
[13]
[14]
[2]
RMAs are "energy efficient, multi-tier, online mobile applications originated from the convergence of
mobile cloud computing
, future web, and imminent communication technologies envisioning to deliver rich user experience via high functionality, immersive interaction, and crisp response in a secure wireless environment while enabling context-awareness, offline usability, portability, and data ubiquity".
[15]
Origins of RMAs
[
edit
]
After successful deployment of web applications to desktop computers and the increasing popularity of mobile devices, researchers brought these enhanced web application functionalities to the smartphone platform.
NTT DoCoMo
of Japan adopted
Adobe Flash Lite
in 2003 to enhance mobile applications' functionality. In 2008, Google brought
Google Gears
to
Windows Mobile
5 and 6 devices to support platform-neutral mobile applications in offline mode. Google Gears for mobile devices is a mobile browser extension for developing web applications enriched by a separate, user-installable add-on. These applications can be executed inside the mobile device with a web browser regardless of the architecture, operating system and technology. In April 2008, Microsoft introduced
Microsoft Silverlight
mobile to develop engaging, interactive UIs for mobile devices. Silverlight is a .NET plug-in compatible with several mobile browsers that runs the Silverlight-enabled mobile apps.
Android
accommodated the Google Gear plug-in in the Google Chrome Lite browser to improve the interaction experience of Android end-users.
Technologies
[
edit
]
Adobe Flash
[
edit
]
Adobe Flash manipulates
vector
and
raster graphics
to provide animation of text, drawings, and still images. It supports bidirectional
streaming
of audio and video, and it can capture user input via mouse, keyboard, microphone, and camera. Flash contains an
object-oriented language
called
ActionScript
and supports automation via the JavaScript Flash language (JSFL). Flash content may be displayed on various computer systems and
devices
, using
Adobe Flash Player
, which is available free of charge for common web browsers, some
mobile phones
and a few other
electronic devices
(using
Flash Lite
).
[16]
Apache Flex, formerly Adobe Flex, is a
software development kit
(SDK) for the development and deployment of cross-platform RIAs based on the
Adobe Flash
platform. Initially developed by
Macromedia
and then acquired by
Adobe Systems
, Flex was donated by Adobe to the
Apache Software Foundation
in 2011.
Java applet
[
edit
]
Java applets were used to create
interactive visualizations
and to present video, three-dimensional objects and other media. Java applets were appropriate for complex visualizations that required significant programming effort in a high level language or communications between applet and originating server.
JavaFX
[
edit
]
JavaFX is a software platform for creating and delivering RIAs that can run across a wide variety of connected devices. The current release (JavaFX 12, March 11, 2019) enables building applications for desktop, browser and mobile phones and comes with 3D support. TV set-top boxes, gaming consoles, Blu-ray players and other platforms are planned. Java FX runs as plug-in Java applet or via
Webstart
.
[17]
Microsoft Silverlight
[
edit
]
Silverlight was proposed by Microsoft as another proprietary alternative. The technology has not been widely accepted and, for instance, lacks support on many mobile devices. Some examples of application were video streaming for events including the
2008 Summer Olympics
in Beijing,
[18]
the
2010 Winter Olympics
in Vancouver,
[19]
and the 2008 conventions for both major political parties in the United States.
[20]
Silverlight was also used by
Netflix
for its instant video streaming service.
[21]
Silverlight is no longer under active development and is not supported in
Microsoft Edge
, Microsoft's most recent browser.
Gears
[
edit
]
Gears
, formerly known as
Google Gears
, is a discontinued
utility software
providing offline storage and other additional features to web browsers, including
Google Chrome
. Gears was discontinued in favor of the standardized
HTML5
methods. Gears was removed from Google Chrome 12.
[22]
Other techniques
[
edit
]
RIAs could use
XForms
to enhance their functionality.
[
citation needed
]
[
original research?
]
Using
XML
and
XSLT
[23]
along with some
XHTML
, CSS and JavaScript can also be used to generate richer client side UI components like data tables that can be resorted locally on the client without going back to the server. Mozilla and Internet Explorer browsers both support this.
Security issues in older standards
[
edit
]
RIAs present indexing challenges to
Web search engines
, but
Adobe Flash
content is now at least partially indexable.
[24]
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, 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.
[25]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
McCune, Doug (2009-02-23).
Adobe Flex 3.0 For Dummies
. John Wiley & Sons. p. Chapter 1, "From HTML to RIA".
ISBN
978-0470436820
.
- ^
a
b
c
Macromedia Flash MX?A next-generation rich client
- ^
Clinick, Andrew (12 April 1999).
"Remote Scripting"
.
Microsoft Docs
. Retrieved
2019-07-10
.
- ^
Colony, George F. (October 2000).
"My View: X Internet"
.
Forrester Research
. Archived from
the original
on 2008-05-18.
- ^
"Adobe Flash Player Turfed for Mobile Devices"
. Retrieved
11 November
2011
.
- ^
"Adobe Scrapping Flash for TV, Too"
. Retrieved
11 November
2011
.
- ^
"PlayBook has a Flash-filled future; RIM's worst decision to date?"
.
- ^
"The beginning of the end for Adobe's Flash"
. Retrieved
11 November
2011
.
- ^
"PlayBook has a Flash-filled future; RIM's worst decision to date?"
. Retrieved
11 November
2011
.
- ^
"Silverlight 5 - the end of the line"
. Retrieved
11 November
2011
.
- ^
"Silverlight End of Support - Microsoft Support"
.
support.microsoft.com
. Retrieved
2023-04-01
.
- ^
"Flash, Silverlight and the end of the line for browser plug-ins"
.
- ^
Khan, Atta ur Rehman; Othman, Mazliza; Khan, Abdul Nasir; Abid, Shahbaz Akhtar; Madani, Sajjad Ahmad (2015-04-23). "MobiByte: An Application Development Model for Mobile Cloud Computing".
Journal of Grid Computing
.
13
(4): 605?628.
doi
:
10.1007/s10723-015-9335-x
.
ISSN
1570-7873
.
- ^
Khan, A. u R.; Othman, M.; Xia, F.; Khan, A. N. (2015-05-01). "Context-Aware Mobile Cloud Computing and Its Challenges".
IEEE Cloud Computing
.
2
(3): 42?49.
doi
:
10.1109/MCC.2015.62
.
ISSN
2325-6095
.
- ^
Abolfazli, Saeid; Sanaei, Zohreh; Gani, Abdullah; Xia, Feng; Yang, Laurence T. (1 September 2013). "Rich Mobile Applications: Genesis, taxonomy, and open issues".
Journal of Network and Computer Applications
.
40
: 345?362.
doi
:
10.1016/j.jnca.2013.09.009
.
- ^
McCune, Doug; Subramaniam, Deepa (2009-02-23).
Adobe Flex 3.0 For Dummies
. John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN
978-0-470-43682-0
.
- ^
"JavaFX 2.2 Release Notes | JavaFX 2 Tutorials and Documentation"
.
docs.oracle.com
. Retrieved
2022-11-24
.
- ^
"Microsoft Silverlight Gets a High Profile Win: 2008 Beijing Olympics"
. Retrieved
2010-02-23
.
- ^
"Microsoft Wins The 2010 Olympics For Silverlight"
. Retrieved
2010-02-23
.
- ^
"Microsoft Working to Make Political Conventions Unconventional"
. Archived from
the original
on 2010-05-19
. Retrieved
2010-02-23
.
- ^
"Netflix Begins Roll-Out of 2nd Generation Media Player for Instant Streaming on Windows PCs and Intel Macs"
. Archived from
the original
on 2010-05-29
. Retrieved
2010-02-23
.
- ^
"Chrome Stable Release"
.
Chrome Releases
. Retrieved
2021-04-12
.
- ^
"Transformation"
. 2012-09-19.
- ^
Erick Schonfeld.
"Once Nearly Invisible To Search Engines, Flash Files Can Now Be Found And Indexed"
.
TechCrunch
. AOL
. Retrieved
2 May
2015
.
- ^
Living in the RIA World: Blurring the Line Between Web and Desktop Security, 2008
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
- Features
- standards
- protocols
|
---|
|
|
|
|
|