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Slide 1: Extreme RIA Developing RIA Solutions in an Evolving Landscape Christophe Jolif Principal Architect ILOG
Slide 2: Agenda  Requirements  Main Approaches  Demos  Summary ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 2
Slide 3: Agenda  Requirements  Main Approaches  Demos  Summary ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 3
Slide 4: Requirements  People want the “desktop application experience” in a browser environment  They want nice looking, animated applications  They want responsiveness  They want off-line capabilities  They want desktop integration  They want advanced visualization ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 4
Slide 5: Definition  Extreme RIA is advanced visualization on many Web technologies  With these additional requirements  Ability to synchronize a lot of data between client and server  Ability to smoothly display a lot of objects on the screen  Ability to provide complex mouse interactions with the objects ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 5
Slide 6: Requirements Typical Ajax-Based Examples of Extreme RIAs ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 6
Slide 7: Requirements Typical Flex-Based Examples of Extreme RIAs ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 7
Slide 8: Requirements Typical Silverlight-Based Examples of Extreme RIAs ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 8
Slide 9: Requirements  We can't provide the full desktop-like experience yet, but we come closer every year  “They want nice looking, animated applications”  SVG, Flash  “They want responsiveness”  Ajax, client-side updates  “They want off-line capabilities”  Google Gears, AIR  “They want desktop integration”  AIR, HTML 5.0 DnD  “They want advanced visualization”  home grown or 3rd party Extreme RIA components ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 9
Slide 10: Agenda  Requirements  Main Approaches  Demos  Summary ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 10
Slide 11: Main Approaches  Ajax  Ajax + Server-Side Generated Raster Images  Ajax + Client-Side Vector Graphics  Adobe Flex  Microsoft Silverlight  Sun Java(Fx)  Others ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 11
Slide 12: Ajax  Ajax (XHR + XML + HTML + CSS) is not always enough, technically  We need more graphics capabilities than what HTML + CSS can render  Two choices:  The graphics comes from the server (raster)  The graphics is client-side (vector)  Via the browser (SVG, VML, HTML 5)  Via a plugin (Flash, Silverlight, JavaFx) ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 12
Slide 13: Ajax + Server-Side Generated Raster Images  Pros:  No plugin, ok with deprecated & mobile browsers  This works everywhere  Cons:  Limited server-side scalability due to intensive CPU + memory consumption to generate raster images  Limited client-side feedback / interaction  Possible workaround using local feedback with VML or SVG  No true UI Framework & interoperability standards  Any standardizations effort in these areas are welcome (OpenAjax Alliance,W3C WAF WG)  Development tools just starting to emerge or linked to particular frameworks:  Aptana, Visual Studio, Eclipse ATF (not much progress?) ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 13
Slide 14: Ajax + Client-Side Vector Graphics  Pros:  No plugin, works (nearly) everywhere  Cons:  Requires dual code path:  VML (IE) vs SVG or Canvas (Mozilla, Webkit, Opera)  Might be solved using DojoX 2D wrapper  Limited client-side scalability due to poor JavaScript performance  Mozilla is working on it for Firefox with Tracemonkey and Tamarin(?)  Google is working on it for Chrome with V8  Apple has already made improvements with SquirrelFish  No true UI Framework & interoperability standards  Any standardization effort in these areas is welcome (OpenAjax Alliance,W3C WAF WG)  Development tools just starting to emerge or linked to particular frameworks:  Aptana, Visual Studio, Eclipse ATF (not much progress?) ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 14
Slide 15: Adobe Flex  Pros:  "Standard" UI Framework with development tool (Flex Builder)  Greater productivity  Code has better browser portability (versus Ajax)  ActionScript 3.0 has better performance than JavaScript:  Still not as good as Java or.NET, however - Flash Player 10 will improve this with Vector<> class  Long running task management requires custom code  Cons:  Lacks a proper designer tool chain  Will be introduced in Flex 4 with Thermo  Requires plugin installation  But Flash Player is quite ubiquitous: 99% (97.7% for version 9+) of "mature markets" computers according to Millward Brown survey for Adobe. ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 15
Slide 16: Microsoft Silverlight  Pros:  Provides "Standard” UI Framework  Plus a development tool (Visual Studio)  Works with a proper designer tool chain (Expression Suite)  But still quite immature  Like Flex, the code easily ports across browsers  All .NET languages can be used  Threading can be used  Cons:  Still in beta  Contains a limited set of predefined controls  This will improve a bit in the final release  Still lacks a 3rd party platform for deployment and development:  Linux for deployment and MacOS/Linux for development tools  Requires plugin installation  Penetration below Flash Player but should benefit from Microsoft ubiquity ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 16
Slide 17: Sun Java(Fx)  Java Desktop platform power brought to the RIA world  Pros:  JavaFX is a recycling of Java with  More rich client & media APIs  The promise of a faster initial download & plugin installation  "Standard" UI Framework with a good development tool (NetBeans)  As with Flex and .NET, it ports across browsers better than Ajax  Cons:  Still in beta  Limited set of predefined controls  This should improve in final release  Lacks a proper designer tool chain  To come: better NetBeans integration with Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop  Developers must learn a new scripting language  Requires plugin installation:  JRE penetration figures: 85.1% of "mature markets" computers according to Millward Brown survey conducted for Adobe  Plugin initial download to get latest JRE + JavaFX runtimes is quite big  Sun is working on lightning installation with JRE incremental download/installation ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 17
Slide 18: Others  Curl  "Standard" UI Framework with development tool (Curl IDE)  Commercial licensing for the platform itself  Uncommon scripting language  XUL  Mainly based on standard technologies with only limited additions for building UI  Works only on Gecko-based browsers  OpenLaszlo  Choose your deployment target: Ajax or Flash ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 18
Slide 19: Combining Technologies  Extreme RIA Applications often require developers to combine various technologies  Client-side mashups are well known:  Ajax to Ajax  Flex to HTML can be done through the ExternalInterface object  Flex to Ajax can go one step further with Flex-Ajax Bridge  Silverlight to HTML transparent using HtmlPage object  But server-side mashup is also an issue:  Standard JSF versus PPR JSF versus "Ajax-Push" JSF  Ajax requests and Portlet Integration ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 19
Slide 20: Agenda  Requirements  Main Approaches  Demos  Summary ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 20
Slide 21: Ajax Demos  A Flow Diagram Editor  Traffic Monitoring, with a Google Maps Mashup  IceFaces Ajax Push Mashup ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 21
Slide 22: Adobe Flex Demos  Olympics Calendar  Density and Climate HeatMap  Project Schedule ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 22
Slide 23: Microsoft Silverlight Demos  Project Schedule  Organization Chart  CIA Fact Book ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 23
Slide 24: Agenda  Requirements  Main Approaches  Demos  Summary ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 24
Slide 25: Summary  RIA technologies have made great progress  New technologies pop up every year  Should slow down, now that major players are in the field  Choices are difficult to make, based on:  Interoperability with existing HTML/CSS site / Ajax app  How open is the chosen solution?  Development Tools  Designer / Developer workflow  Is extensibility needed?  Project release date (can't rely on beta)  Deployment issues  Development team background ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 25
Slide 26: For more information Ajax:  http://www.openajax.org/  http://ajaxian.com/  http://www.asp.net/ajax/  http://dojotoolkit.org/  http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/ Adobe Flex:  http://www.adobe.com/flex  http://flex.org/ Microsoft Silverlight:  http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/  http://silverlight.net Sun JavaFx:  http://www.javafx.com/  http://openjfx.org RIA sites:  http://www.riasphere.org/ (coming 10/28)  http://www.insideria.com/ RIA demos were build using:  http://jviews.ilog.com  http://elixir.ilog.com My blog:  http://blogs.ilog.com/elixir/author/cjolif ILOG S.A. © 2008. All rights reserved. 26
Slide 27: Questions & Answers Thank You