Rich Internet Applications – The Future Of Web Development

By Author: Mark Royson
Total Articles: 136
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An RIA [Rich Internet Application] is a web application that behaves same as desktop application and also has features and functionalities similar to them. It provides a total new way to professionals to think, design, and build the next generation internet based apps.

Most of the developers believe that RIAs will be leading the web development area in the near future. RIA combines flexibility and responsiveness. The reason behind considering RIAs [Adobe Flex, Microsoft Silverlight], as the future of web development and the reason behind the likeness of RIAs by developers are -

1] Any traditional website that is, a blog or an ecommerce site or even a forum based website, it is always text based. The main asset of any website is its text, no matter what technology is used to run the site. But RIA has much more assets to deal with like Audio files, Videos, Graphics, State, Transition and Effects. RIAs are based on interactions, that is, it always aims to interact effectively with its users.

2] RIAs are totally based on latest web technologies that include Adobe Flex/Flash, AJAX, and Microsoft ...
... Silverlight, which are useful to provide functions that are beyond the functions present in traditional web pages.

3] The communication done on traditional applications are based on synchronous communication method that inevitably creates negative impact on its usability. But, Rich Internet Applications use asynchronous method of communication which makes the app run faster and more user-friendly. Basically, it allows the app to collect the data from the server without reloading the web page all the time.

4] Most often apps based on other development platforms puts heavy load on server to maintain the user session, to process the request, and to render the results. However, RIAs installs a runtime on client side and executes most of the functions locally.

5] RIAs enhance the user experience for the apps that require more complex interactions or data integration. Some of the apps where RIAs can be helpful to improve user experience are apps having multi step business forms, apps for analyzing and visualizing the data, and many more.

Nowadays, Rich Internet Applications dominate in online gaming world and also amongst the apps that requires continuous access to videos.

Most of the companies today consider RIAs as top priority for their requirements due to following reasons -

- Companies can develop new kinds of apps with features or capabilities that are almost near to impossible to incorporate in a traditional website.
- They can create attractive websites using Audio, Video, text and graphics to generate more leads, increases sales and simplifies the communication.
- The most complex processes of the website like registration, configuration or purchasing can be simplified with RIAs which helps to increase sales, leads, bookings, and repeated visits.
- RIAs are useful to provide an engaging and highly interactive presentation layer to the underlying web services.
- Possibility to build attractive fully-functional website in comparatively reduced cost than other web technologies.

Softweb Solutions is one of the leading Rich Internet Application Development providers offering extensive Silverlight solutions and Flex/Flash solutions with a pool of expert RIA developers. Our RIA developers specialize in developing creative and professional RIA apps with all real business benefits. For more information and discussions, contact us at info@softwebsolutions.com.