Next Generation RIA Is Old .Net News
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Hope you had a relaxing Labor Day Weekend.
While reading the eWeek article, 5 Steps To Next Generation Web Applications, 8/27/07 issue and also available online here, I had to stop and think about just how tough it is to be Microsoft. Here's an article about "next generation, rich Internet applications" and they get a mention, in the WPF vein...only, while this "new concept" is actually old news to those who live and breath .Net - yes, I'm one of them.
This concept of dis-connected web applications, yes, that's what they really are, isn't new, nor next generation at all. This is the Microsoft .Net mantra, being regurgitated...into some cool sounding acronym like, RIA (Rich Internet Application) or "gears" (Google Gears) or AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) thingamabob. I think it's another groundhog day/flashback of how evil proprietary extensions like Microsoft.XMLHTTP are...until it's re-branded/regurgitated into AJAX. Although I believe RIA has been around for some time and in fact used by Microsoft marketing flak extensively....why it wasn't "cool" then is anyone's guess...oh yeah, I forgot, it was "evil proprietary stuff" then...sigh.
Note to IT Planners: Yes, you can wait for these new technologies to mature and become available. Or, you can build them today, with a robust, tested, production framework that's been around since 2003...that is if you have the heart to consider something from a company named Microsoft.
Personally, built my first one in 2004, and more in early 2006 to take advantage of newer technology brought on by the latest incarnation of the framework and Visual Studio 2005. No need to wait for WPF. The application is in production use by Sales personnel who are almost always on the road, without Internet access, connects as needed (synchronize, update, etc.) and at will. Work whenever, wherever....the only caveat? Well, it's a Windows only application. So if you actually have Sales personnel with non Windows capable laptops (huh?) or tablets, maybe this doesn't work for your environment.
Did I need some bleeding edge stuff? Nope. Just .Net 2.0 (Windows application + ASP.Net Web Service), and SQL Compact, formerly SQL Server Everywhere, a free runtime that gives you SQL server-like client database...more than enough to meet the offline storage needs of business.
Don't get me wrong, I too am eager to see how AIR goes, and Gears....and Silverlight (I believe is what WPF/Everywhere is). But please don't wait if you have a pressing need to provide Rich Internet Applications, aka, disconnected web/desktop applications to your users. The technology has been here for quite some time.
While reading the eWeek article, 5 Steps To Next Generation Web Applications, 8/27/07 issue and also available online here, I had to stop and think about just how tough it is to be Microsoft. Here's an article about "next generation, rich Internet applications" and they get a mention, in the WPF vein...only, while this "new concept" is actually old news to those who live and breath .Net - yes, I'm one of them.
This concept of dis-connected web applications, yes, that's what they really are, isn't new, nor next generation at all. This is the Microsoft .Net mantra, being regurgitated...into some cool sounding acronym like, RIA (Rich Internet Application) or "gears" (Google Gears) or AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) thingamabob. I think it's another groundhog day/flashback of how evil proprietary extensions like Microsoft.XMLHTTP are...until it's re-branded/regurgitated into AJAX. Although I believe RIA has been around for some time and in fact used by Microsoft marketing flak extensively....why it wasn't "cool" then is anyone's guess...oh yeah, I forgot, it was "evil proprietary stuff" then...sigh.
Note to IT Planners: Yes, you can wait for these new technologies to mature and become available. Or, you can build them today, with a robust, tested, production framework that's been around since 2003...that is if you have the heart to consider something from a company named Microsoft.
Personally, built my first one in 2004, and more in early 2006 to take advantage of newer technology brought on by the latest incarnation of the framework and Visual Studio 2005. No need to wait for WPF. The application is in production use by Sales personnel who are almost always on the road, without Internet access, connects as needed (synchronize, update, etc.) and at will. Work whenever, wherever....the only caveat? Well, it's a Windows only application. So if you actually have Sales personnel with non Windows capable laptops (huh?) or tablets, maybe this doesn't work for your environment.
Did I need some bleeding edge stuff? Nope. Just .Net 2.0 (Windows application + ASP.Net Web Service), and SQL Compact, formerly SQL Server Everywhere, a free runtime that gives you SQL server-like client database...more than enough to meet the offline storage needs of business.
Don't get me wrong, I too am eager to see how AIR goes, and Gears....and Silverlight (I believe is what WPF/Everywhere is). But please don't wait if you have a pressing need to provide Rich Internet Applications, aka, disconnected web/desktop applications to your users. The technology has been here for quite some time.
posted by EdSF at
9:02 AM
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