Rich Web Applications

TeamQuest IT Service applications provide rich Web-based user interfaces designed for these benefits:

• Easy access and interaction from wherever necessary
• No client-side software installation
• Compatibility with a wide array of client-side hardware and software
• Desktop-quality user interface, including capabilities such as drag-and-drop
• Efficient communications with other TeamQuest software components

What Is a Rich Web Application?

Based on their use of user interface technology, applications can be separated into three basic classes:

1. Thick client applications
2. Traditional Web applications
3. Rich Web applications

A thick client has the potential for providing the most capable and highly performing user interface. A thick client application generally has access to all of the user interface functions available to standard desktop applications, and the communication between the client and server can be optimized for the specific application.

Thick client applications do have disadvantages, however. They require the installation of client software on each machine where the user interface will run, and the more advanced the user interface, the more demanding the client-side software can be on its workstation. It is necessary to ensure that the workstation includes all of the hardware and software capabilities demanded by the client application.

Traditional Web applications have an advantage in that they make use of ubiquitous Web browser software. Web browsers do not make big demands on the client-side infrastructure. Use of a Web application does not usually require any configuration or installation of client-side software. The Web browser is usually already there.

Unfortunately, traditional Web applications provide limited user interfaces hampered by the stateless nature of HTML applications. A user can interact with one Web page at a time, entering information on the page, sending information to the Web server, then waiting for a new page as the result. Developers are unable to make use of the more sophisticated user interface capabilities users expect from everyday desktop applications.

Sometimes the limited capabilities provided by a traditional Web application are sufficient for the task at hand, but it is not necessary to live within the bounds of a traditional Web application. A rich Web application can leverage the ability to run on common browser software while at the same time delivering a user interface on a par with that expected from a thick client.

Rich Web applications make use of JavaScript, Java, Flash, or ActiveX to provide user interface capabilities such as drag-and-drop. The client-side software communicates asynchronously with the host, allowing the server-side software to interact in real time with the user interface.

In Conclusion...

Many of the applications fueling Web 2.0 are rich Web applications, commonly referred to in the industry as rich Internet applications (RIAs). RIA technology frees browser-based applications from the clunky page-at-a-time user interface most people have learned to accept when interacting with applications through a Web browser. Rich Web applications or RIAs offer many of the capabilities people previously thought could only be accomplished using a full-blown desktop application.

Ajax is arguably the most-hyped RIA technology, but Ajax has limitations. The richness of an Ajax application is limited by its dependence on various browsers' implementation of JavaScript. And maintaining browser compatibility can be a challenge with Ajax.

TeamQuest IT Service applications are implemented using Java software on the client side. The client-side software is coded to low-level Java classes, ensuring that TeamQuest software can execute on the widest possible variety of client-side Java implementations. Client-side software can retain state information and minimize network traffic with the server, while at the same time providing a desktop-quality user interface experience.