Datasheet

Improving the User Experience
Based on the preceding issues, several options are available for improving the user experience:
❑ Java — Java applets are cross-platform applications. While being used as a cross-platform mech-
anism to display data and improve the user experience, Java development on the client has not
been accepted with open arms by the development community and is primarily used for user
interface gee-whiz features as opposed to improving the experience of the user application. (As
a side note, Java has been widely accepted for building server-side applications.)
❑ XML-based languages — XML User Interface Language (XUL) and Extensible Application
Markup Language (XAML) are two of several languages that can provide an improved user
experience. The problem with XUL is that it has been used only in the Mozilla/Firefox line of
browsers. Silverlight (formerly WPF/e), an associated product, is an interpreter for a subset of
XAML. Currently, there is support for Silverlight on Windows and the Apple Macintosh.
❑ Flash — Although Flash has been used and there are cross-platform versions, the product has
been used only in the area of graphic UI needs and has not been accepted by the development
community as a whole for building line of business applications. Recently, Adobe has released
a pre-release version of an Internet technology referred to as Apollo. Apollo is a runtime that
allows web skillsets to be used to develop rich desktop applications.
❑ AJAX — AJAX is a set of client technologies that provide for asynchronous communication
between the user interface and the web server, along with fairly easy integration with existing
technologies.
Given the amount of recent discussion among developers regarding AJAX, it appears that AJAX has the
greatest chance among these technologies of gaining market acceptance.
Current Drivers
Interest in web-based development has grown over the past few years. With that interest, Microsoft has
gone from classical ASP to ASP.NET development. ASP.NET development has grown to the point that it
is the most popular development platform for web-based applications. Even with its popularity, it has to
continually improve or it will get left in the dust of a more modern technology.
Over the past few years, building client-side web-based applications has grown in popularity. Users have
liked the applications because of the increased client-side functionality, such as keeping a common user
context during a “post” to the server and drag-and-drop features common to typical client applications.
This functionality was popularized by several applications from Google, including Gmail, Google Suggest,
and Google Maps.
In February 2005, this functionality got the name Asynchronous JavaScript And XML (AJAX) thanks
to an essay by Jesse James Garrett. At about this time, several .NET libraries started to show up. These
libraries hid many of the complexities of interfacing with web services and allowed developers to con-
centrate on the application as opposed to creating the plumbing to talk to the web services.
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Chapter 1: Introduction to ASP.NET AJAX
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