An Approach for Building Rich Internet Applications

1. An Approach for Building Rich Internet Applications withPalestinian Encyclopedia as a Case Study August 08

2. Agenda Study Introduction Evolution of the Web Web 2.0 Rich Internet Applications RIA Technologies Technical Comparison Recommended Usage Scenarios Palestinian Encyclopedia Conclusion and Future Work

3. Statement of Problem In light of the emergence of various Rich Internet Application (RIA) technologies that address various aspects of user and business demands, the problem of this study is to determine what technologies are appropriate to meet such demands, what type of interactive as well as visual presentations do these technologies provide, and what limitations do these technologies have.

4. Objective To propose a basis for selecting the appropriate RIA technologies that can be used to address a broad range of web applications. These technologies must support high interactive and rich interfaces with desktop-like look and feel applications that meet user satisfaction and business needs.

5. Specific Objectives To bring to light, new developing web technologies that provide rich applications with great interactivity that in most cases would be extremely difficult or impossible for a developer to create using traditional Web technologies. Present a technical comparison between the different technologies used in the RIAs. Find whether RIA technologies provide appropriate solutions to problems of the traditional web. Evaluate these technologies and recommend some techniques to implement a framework of Encyclopedia of Palestine (PalPedia) as a case study.

6. Significance of the Study (1/2) The study suggests solutions that support the web developer and designer choices. To our knowledge, there are no existing similar comprehensive studies that cover the most of RIA technologies. Open a new area of research that enables a number of features that can be used to develop a new wave of web applications. Empower developers to create wholly new kinds of applications with features or capabilities that overcome the limitations of traditional Web technologies. Empower developers to create applications that deliver a variety of substantial business benefits including: increased sales, increased brand loyalty, longer stays on sites, more frequent repeat visits, reduced bandwidth costs, reduced support calls, and deepened customer relationships.

7. Significance of the Study (2/2) The case study’s framework of Encyclopedia of Palestine “PalPedia” leads a new trend of web sites that are talking about Palestine by moving from the classic presentation of information to new interactive presentation with photos and videos. It contains different examples to illustrate the features and drawbacks of different RIA technologies.

8. Scope and Limitations of the Study This study will focus on web development technologies and will not discuss desktop applications. It will depend on some of the current RIA technologies. This study will not propose any new technology to solve the imitations of current technologies. Our criteria of comparison will be limited to most important characteristics of each technology and framework based on demos and case studies. Our study will test our choice of the technology to design and develop a framework of Encyclopedia of Palestine “PalPedia”. Encyclopedia of Palestine will be a case study, so that, it will not be an actual encyclopedia that cover all of the Palestinian issues and aspects. It is not a final product used commercially. To our knowledge, there are no existing guides to develop and design encyclopedias using RIA technologies.

9. Methodology Introduce RIA as a solution to traditional web Choose Examples: build our own examples or use existing ones Examples tested and analysis against certain complexities Understand the structure of the examples Compare the most important features of different RIA frameworks The study questions answered Recommend usage scenarios Develop case study and Implement usage scenarios

10. Evolution of the Web Source: Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2006

12. Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) Source: Macromedia, 2003

15. Why Rich Internet Applications (1/5) Process Complexity: Complex Web Application often require that the user navigates through a series of pages to complete a single task. Source: Broadmoor, 2008

16. Why Rich Internet Applications (2/5) Data Complexity : they do not support interactive explorations of the data. Source: Brocade, 2008

17. Why Rich Internet Applications (3/5) Configuration Complexity : many web applications require the configuration of a product/system from multi-criteria choices. Source: Sherwin-Williams, 2008

18. Why Rich Internet Applications (4/5) Scale Complexity: Shopping sites provide immediate, dynamic visual feedback showing the results of the search filters. Source: Iokio, 2008

19. Why Rich Internet Applications (5/5) Feedback Complexity: They do not allow a continued and ordered interaction without page refreshments. Source: PalPedia, 2008

20. How can RIAs Improve the User Experience

21. The RIAs Technologies (1/5) AJAX Adobe Flash Microsoft Silverlight Java-Based RIAs

22. AJAX (2/5) AJAX is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Source: Site Point, 2006

23. Adobe Flex (3/5) Source: Adobe Systems, 2004

24. Microsoft Silverlight (4/5) Source Microsoft, 2008

25. Java-Based RIAs (5/5)Nexaweb Source: Nexaweb, 2005

26. Technical Comparison (1/6) User Experience

27. Technical Comparison (2/6) Performance

28. Technical Comparison (3/6) Development Environment (1/2)

29. Technical Comparison (4/6) Development Environment (2/2)

30. Technical Comparison (5/6) Compatibility

31. Technical Comparison (6/6) Unique features

32. Recommended Usage Scenario (1/3) Use AJAX: To make incremental usability enhancements to an existing web site. For building “widgets” that do not need a team larger than a couple of developers. When you have existing, internal JavaScript and HTML expertise. For smaller RIA deployments and for deployments where performance is critical. If you are willing to use an open source environment. For developing applications that keep Browser behaviors.

33. Recommended Usage Scenario (2/3) Use Flex: When you need to develop applications that require a robust, scalable rich Internet application. Where you require sophisticated and interactive data visualization. When video & audio playback or web camera / microphone capture is a requirement. Where you require complex animation or bitmap manipulation. When the graphic design is core critical to your business needs. When u are willing to use safe choice to build your application. When you want to get rid of all headache result from the browsers’ war. When you want to use fairly rich user experince and trusted IDE with debugging facilities. When have good Flash designing skills.

34. Recommended Usage Scenario (3/3) Use Both: When SEO and rich user experience are equally important. When neither meets all of your needs (for example: video playback and HTML rendering are both requirements).

35. Best Practices in Developing PalPedia Encyclopedia (1/4) User Experience and Usability

36. Best Practices in Developing PalPedia Encyclopedia (2/4) Performance

37. Best Practices in Developing PalPedia Encyclopedia (3/4) Development environment

38. Best Practices in Developing PalPedia Encyclopedia (4/4) Compatibility Unique features

39. Conclusion We open a discussion for a new area that increases the potential choices for developers and designers for creating elegant, robust and responsive web applications. We proposed to designers and developers an approach to assets them in selecting the best RIA technologies that meet user and business demands. We introduce a framework for Encyclopedia of Palestine “PalPedia”

40. Future Works We compare between the most famous RIA technologies (Adobe Flex and Ajax), however, we may include other technologies like Microsoft Silverlight and JavaFX. Comparison needs further analysis, for example security concerns had been discussed concisely. Other criteria were subjected to our views and they are still open to further discussions. Several enhancements have to be added and new components have to be build on encyclopedia in future.

41. Thanks