RichInternetApplication

A Rich Internet Application (or RIA) uses a proprietary client instead of the web browser as the front end for a ServerSide? software application program or MiddleWare. The result is a desktop-quality UserInterface and application functionality.

An RIA allows the website to provide services to visitors, but these should not be confused with WebServices or ServiceOrientedArchitectures, which provide services to other application programs.

The RIA depends on the new generation of browser development tools like Macromedia Flash, with its ScalableVectorGraphics?, or Microsoft's Avalon/XAML, or perhaps Mozilla XUL (XML-based UserInterface Language).

Macromedia invented the term RIA. They see these tools as the application development platform of choice for distributed applications in the future, with Flash the development FrameWork. Macromedia Central is a "new model for Internet applications, blending the best of a desktop environment with the best of the web."

Java applets, Macromedia Flash, and Mozilla XUL are the basis for more than one cross-platform WysiwygEditor? used in ContentManagement.

Clearly we can expect an RIA front-end for some ContentManagement systems.

Some other RIA tools are from Adobe (Adobe Designer), Altio (AltioLive), and Droplets.

References:
The Open Sourcery
Macromedia
Microsoft
Mozilla

RT - WebApplication, ApplicationServer, UserInterface, InteractionDesign, MiddleWare


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