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Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) provide a new web experience by combining the power of desktop applications with the broad reach of traditional web applications. RIAs applications are flexible, engaging, and interactive. Web developers have much more power to build, users get much more done, and businesses experience greatly improved productivity and lower costs. Traditional web applications have limited interaction due to the small set of controls such as buttons, checkboxes, drop downs and form fields. Compared to desktop applications, the traditional web application is clumsy and difficult to use. An RIA can validate form fields as users fill them in, highlighting problems before the form is submitted.
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IT / Developer Advantages
- Extend business processes to rich user interfaces
- Create more interactive, dynamic, and engaging user experiences
- Increase user satisfaction and productivity
- Reduce bandwidth consumption and server loads
- Efficiently create rich applications utilizing industry-standard programming languages and design patterns
- Combine rich data controls, visual transitions, and integrated multimedia components
- Multimedia components do not require plug-ins and add-ons
- Provides for customization of look and feel utilizing a CSS-based skinning and styling model
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Business Advantages
- Increase information availability without full screen refresh or page redirects
- Same page feedback, confirmation and error messages
- Direct user interaction with page elements including drag-and-drop, panning a map, and inline editing
- Increase customer satisfaction with reduced user frustration and confusion
- Function as stand alone applications, web applications and handheld devices
- Faster deployment of new solutions and lower maintenance costs
- Increases productivity with fewer clicks and requires fewer screen refreshes
- Improved revenue with reduce process abandonment and intuitive interaction
- Allows users to make informed decisions and respond to changes faster
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| Examples |
The Photo Viewer application is a straightforward photo-viewing application. The first screen shows thumbnails of each photo in the gallery. When you click those thumbnails, the selected image shows in the main part of the screen. The next screen is a different list view, which uses a component that simulates a carousel. If you press the Next and Previous buttons, the carousel rotates so that the selected image is centered. The final view is a slide show. The image shows full-screen, but if you hold the mouse over it, control bars appear that show the details. You can also pause the slide show, move to another image, or change back to other views.
View Photo Viewer
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The chart on the left shows total revenue across all regions on a monthly places. When you click a data point in this chart, Flex updates the chart in the upper-right panel; that chart provides a breakdown of the contributions from each region for the given month. If you select a region in the breakdown of contributions, Flex updates the chart in the lower-right panel, which shows that individual region's revenue compared to the average for the given time period.
View Dashboard |
| *Both examples are located on the Adobe Flex site. To view the examples Flash Player 9 is required. Download Flash Player 9 |
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RIAs represent a chance for businesses to say goodbye to web applications comprised of web pages connected by links. Rich Internet Applications provide the opportunity for enterprises to create personalized, multimedia-rich applications that dramatically enhance user experience, increasing customer satisfaction and making users more productive.
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