Rich Internet Application (RIA)
With the emergence of new technologies, such as Rich Internet Applications, a whole new arena has been opened for developers to design more responsive applications that better reflect users' needs. In doing so, some of the designs that have been used in traditional server-based applications can be changed to accommodate a more powerful client interface. The resulting change is evolutionary, however, and much of what is used in current systems still applies in this new model.
The concept of richness in a system application has two aspects to it, richness in the data model and richness in user interface.
- Rich in data means the user interface can represent and manipulate a more sophisticated data model residing inside of the client. This data model can handle client-side computation as well as sending and receiving of data asynchronously.
- Rich also describes a vastly improved interface. Traditional HTML offers a restrictive set of user interface controls, whereas an RIA interface allows for inventive interface controls that can intelligently interact with the data model.