Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development

Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development Google I/O 2008: Alek Davis Copyright © 2008 Topics • • • Report from Google I/O 2008 Emerging standards and technologies Rich internet applications (RIA) 2 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Google I/O 2008 • About – May 28-29 – San Francisco – Official site • http://code.google.com/events/io/ – Alek Davis: Technoblog • Overview, impressions, links • Recommended videos, slides • Tracks – – – – – – AJAX & JavaScript (APIs, Web 2.0, HTML 5.0, Gears, GWT, search, offline) APIs & tools (GWT, Google App Engine, Python) Maps & geo (Flash, Mashups, Map API) Mobile (Android, Gears, Mobile Apps) Social (OpenID, OAuth, OpenSocial) Code labs, tech talks, fireside chats 3 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Miscellaneous • • • Travel – Parked at Berkeley's Ashby station ($5/day), took BART – Stayed at St. Francis Drake Keynotes – Learn about technologies covered at the conference (Vic Gundotra) – Learn about Google (Marissa Mayer) Informal chats – From the Google IO Conference blog (by Intel's Karun and Andy): • "We had a chance to talk to a tech lead on Google Gears about how they develop and elevate application efficiently. His answer is simple - they do not follow any software development methodology or approach. They have [best coding] practices. On the top of it, the hiring bar is so high, the engineers generate good quality code and constantly find ways to improve it by peer reviews. Some parts of the organization follow SCRUM, but they are not crazy about it. What they believe is: less process more room for innovation." 4 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Trends and buzzwords • • • • Web 2.0 – Internet as a platform – Hosted services, social networking, wikis, RSS, RIA, … Cloud computing – Apps run somewhere in the "cloud" (intranet or Internet) RIA (rich internet apps) – Web apps which look and perform like desktop apps JavaScript – Not as lame as it once was; optimization in new browsers • • • Offline, desktop integration – Enabling Web apps to run offline Mashup – Web app that combines data from multiple sources into a single tool HTML 5.0 – Not coming any time soon 5 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Rich internet applications (RIA) • Two primary technologies – JavaScript (AJAX) • Built-in browser support – Google AJAX APIs – jQuery, Prototype, script.aculo.us, MooTools, Dojo, … – Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI) – ASP.NET AJAX – Virtual machines (plug-ins) • Require installation (plug-in/runtime) – Gears – Java / JavaFX – Flash / Flex – Curl – BrowserPlus – Silverlight 6 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Open source AJAX libraries • Hosted by Google – http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxlibs/ – Versioned, documented – Will be there "forever" • jQuery • Prototype • script.aculo.us • MooTools • Dojo 7 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 More AJAX libraries • Google – Specialized • Maps, search, RSS feed, language, visualization, blogging, … – Two families of APIs • Google Data (GData) APIs (calendars, contacts, notbook, …) • Google AJAX APIs (search, maps, language, …) • Yahoo! – The Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI) • Drag and drop, auto-complete, menu, tree view, tab view, … • Samples (demos) • Microsoft – ASP.NET AJAX • Built into .NET 3.5 (add-on for .NET 2.0) – Auto-complete, menu, accordion, masked edit, … • Samples (demos) 8 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Google RIA tools • Google Web Toolkit (GWT) – Open source Java software development framework that allows web developers to create AJAX apps in Java • Compiles Java app to optimized JavaScript (AJAX) code • Not designed for desktop apps • Gears (former Google Gears) – Not released to public, yet (developer-only preview release) – Browser extension that enables the browser scripts to access the local data store; designed mostly for offline support, but not only – Three main components • Local server that caches app resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, …) • Database (powered by SQLite) that stores the data for offline use • Worker thread pool that synchronizes data in the background – Apps that use Gears • Zoho (online office suite), Remember the Milk (to do list), Google Reader (RSS feed reader), … 9 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Sun RIA tools • JavaFX Not available yet (developer preview by invitation) Based on JavaFX Script (new scripting language) Targets desktop and Web Runtime, browser plug-ins, development tools Advantages (or "advantages") • "Built on Java [platform] (Java SE and Java ME)" ● "Sun will leverage its unrivaled reach to distribute the JavaFX runtime across all devices and screens" ● "Competing platforms are just beginning to provide early SDKs that provide relatively rudimentary capabilities for building browser and desktop resident applications" – Confusing: • "JavaFX is a different technology, product and brand than the Java platform. JavaFX is not dependent on any particular JVM or runtime environment, and JavaFX is not built using the JVM specifications. JavaFX leverages the appropriate runtime for each platform - on the desktop it leverages the JRE and is co-bundled with it, while on mobile it leverages the Java ME runtime, and similarly it can run on top of other VMs." – – – – – 10 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Adobe RIA tools • Flex – Next generation of Flash – Uses declarative XML (MXML) and ActionScript • Supports JavaScript and CSS – Requires Flash 9 (or later) browser plug-in • AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) – Desktop apps built using • Flash • Flex • HTML, CSS, JavaScript (AJAX) – Requires installation • Top 10 Apps Worth Installing Adobe AIR For – Example • SitePoint: Tech Times: Issue 187: Adobe Air 11 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Mozilla RIA tools • Prism – – – – Converts Web apps into desktop apps Uses mini-browser Simple Example: • SitePoint: Tech Times: Issue 187: Mozilla Prism 12 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Yahoo! RIA tools • BrowserPlus Limited availability (only works from sites operated by Yahoo!) Browser plug-in (a'la Gears) Desktop integration Handy functionality (promised) • Drag-and-drop • Desktop notification • File uploader – Does not work on my computer – – – – 13 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Microsoft RIA tools • Silverlight Browser plug-in (a'la Flash/Flex) Subset of .NET runtime (full .NET Framework is not needed) Rich media capabilities (images, HD video, …) Version 2.0 is in beta (version 1.0 is very limited) Installation issues • "Message ID: 1638: Another version of Microsoft Silverlight is already installed on your computer. Please remove the existing version (see instructions) before reinstalling Silverlight." – No drag-and-drop (between processes) – Demo: Microsoft Health – – – – – 14 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Other RIA tools • Curl – Most mature RIA technology • 10 year old • Originated at MIT • 300 customers, 40 partners (mostly Japanese) – Best suited for enterprise apps • Business focused • Data analysis • Reporting graphics – Curl Nitro • Desktop integration (a'la Google Gears, Adobe AIR) – Demos: Enterprise Software • More RIA tools are available – Wikipedia: List of RIA Platforms / Approaches 15 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 RIA technology war • Who is winning? – The most ubiquitous • Flash players are present on ~90% of client systems – The least disruptive • More than half of users do not follow links to install plug-ins – Things to consider • Platform support (Windows, OS X, Linux) • Internet vs. intranet 16 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 More from Google • Google Apps – Communication and collaboration apps (a'la Office Live Small Business) • Mail, calendar, messaging, office docs, home page, web sites • Google app engine – Private preview – Python language (runtime) 17 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Emerging technologies • OpenID – Identity service, which allows Internet users to log on to many different web sites using a single digital identity. OpenID is a decentralized, free and open standard. • Coding Horror: OpenID: Does The World Really Need Yet Another Username and Password? • OAuth – Open protocol for secure API authentication which gives users access to their data while protecting their account credentials. • Dare Obasanjo: OAuth: Standardizing Authentication and Authorization for Web APIs • OpenSocial – Set of common (Google) APIs for building social applications across many (social) websites. OpenSocial consists of both (Google) JavaScript APIs and Google Data APIs. 18 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009 Additional references • Rich Internet Applications – – – – Wikipedia: Rich Internet Application Eweek: RIA War Is Brewing AJAX, Flash, Silverlight, or JavaFX: Must We Choose? How and Why AJAX, Not Java, Became the Favored Technology for Rich Internet Applications – Why did Ajax beat Java in the RIA market? • Miscellaneous – How Cloud & Utility Computing Are Different 19 of 19 Google I/O 2008: Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development 4/1/2009