I have seen web applications that have desktop look and feel (e.g those done with flex or extgwt) demo. I have also seen web applications (rich with ajax) that have web look and feel - e.g gmail . My questions is: which ones are more usable? and which ones are the future. I am not talking of websites here but applications, think accounting software or Human Resource management Software.
If there is one thing you can bet on, I think, it would be HTML and JavaScript. Nothing is more ubiquitous. Moreover, with HTML5 it looks like you should be able to do almost anything that the other RIA frameworks provide.
I think this is very general and it depends on allot of factors like:
speed (those web looking tend to be faster)
budget (those web looking are usually cheaper and quicker to implement)
what the users expect, e.g. what they were used to before.
company policy, branding, etc.
| and which ones are the future
Well, if I could see the future ... :). Maybe both? :).
There are valid arguments in favor of both approaches, so it really depends from case to case what solution is the best.
Javascript + HTML5 will be the future. Ext, CrossUI ...
Related
We have developed a small web application for a client. We decided on the Dojo framework to develop the app (requirements included were full i18n and a11y). Originally, the web app we developed was to be a "prototype", but we made the prototype production quality anyway, just in case. It turns out that the app we developed (or a variant of it) is going to production (many months hence), but it's so awesome that the enterprise architecture group is a little afraid.
508c compliant is a concern, as is security for this group. I now need to justify the use of Dojo to this architecture group, explicitly making the case that Dojo does not pose a security risk and that Dojo will not hurt accessibility (and that Dojo is there to help meet core requirements).
Note: the web app currently requires JavaScript to be turned on and a stylesheet to work. We use a relatively minor subset of Dojo: of course, dojo core, and dijit.form.Form, ValidationTextBox and a few others. We do use dojox.grid.DataGrid (but no drag N drop or editable cells, which are not fully a11y).
I have done some research of my own, of course, but I any information or advice you have would be most helpful.
Regards,
LES2
I'm not sure how to answer this question except to point out that you'd be in good company using Dojo. Several large corporations, deeply concerned about security issues have contributed to the toolkit and use it in their own products. Audits have been done on the toolkit, including one recently which did expose a problem which was quickly patched -- in fact, the CDN feature of Dojo, if you use it, means you can pick up patches like this automatically. Other than that, I'm not sure what proof to offer. A toolkit is secure until someone finds a security hole! Also, there are plenty of things you can do with Dojo, or the underlying HTML/JS technology, which are not secure. You need to follow best practices. One example is with JSON. There are a couple of methods to handle JSON. The base one is fast, works on older browsers, but is known not to be secure. It is meant to be used only with trusted data sources, and typically with the same domain policy, that's what you'll be doing. There are alternatives in dojox.secure which you might want to look at, depending on what you're doing, you may be able to provide an extra level of security to your application.
For performance, you can look at the various benchmarks like taskspeed, which focus largely on the dojo.query DOM traversal functionality common to most toolkits. Of course, YMMV depending on your usage of Dojo, but there's healthy competition between the toolkits and continuous improvement with each release.
For accessibility, all Dijit widgets were reviewed and considered to be 508c compliant. There is more precise documentation on Dojo/Dijit a11y requirements. Not all dojox widgets pass this requirement.
HTH
I have a client who has been using WebOffice (from WebEx) for a variety of tasks within their small organization. The problem is that they only really need a small subset of the features WebOffice provides (Contact list, Database, and Document Storage).
They've asked me to develop a website focused on these three features with the rationalization that this should be more cost-effective, since they currently aren't using many of the features of WebOffice they pay for.
What are some open-source alternatives that I could implement for them? Sharepoint sounds like it would be too bloated and Google Apps may not be as collaborative as they would like.
We looked at sharepoint and went like "meh". Anything interesting you want to do with it requires prohibitive licensing, and if you expose any piece of it to the internet then the cost just blows any budget away.
We are piloting a deployment of Alfresco, with KnowledgeTree also being a very decent option, IMO. As for the main site, something like OpenAtrium looks like a pretty decent and flexible fit without much configuration needed. OpenAtrium is based on Drupal.
SharePoint sounds like a good match? Did whoever told you it was bloated also mention why?
You might only need WSS which is free (if you have Windows Server).
My company hosts LumiPortal (www.lumiportal.com) which is similar to WebOffice but with drive letters for storage. If you have inhouse technical expertise, then on the open source side we see Joomla and Drupal, which could be thought of as classic content management systems. If you have in-house technical expertise, you might look at Drupal and their document management component first.
Call WebOffice customer service and tell them. They will probably adjust your payment options to suit your needs.
There's a good roundup of online collaboration/office suites here although it is a bit dated now.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_office_2007_year_in_review.php
Webex WebOffice hasn't been updated in 5 years and has been sunset by Webex with no migration path (confirmed in their forums) so I would get off it ASAP.
With the addition of Wave to Google Apps it would seem to be a much more cost effective and modern replacement.
Let me introduce myself a bit.
I have 7 years of C++ (most MFC) experience, 1 year C#.NET and 2 years Java experience.
I know little about web application, what I did and am doing is Windows desktop applications.
I start to do some (minor) (freelance) side projects in the past half year and uses C# mostly as it's more "rapid" than MFC. But seems there's more web projects in this market than desktop projects. And I do not feel good as long as I do not know web development.
So, should I touch the new web filed for me or just stay focus in desktop application but learn more e.g Python, or Frameworks/Libraries such as Qt or Boost?
My gut feeling is that more and more people/companies are moving their projects to the web. My company, for example, has added numerous web applications since I have been there. Another prime example of this is Microsoft (yes, even them) providing a web-based version of Office, their flagship product.
There will always be a need for desktop applications, but I see more web-based projects in the future. It's always good to learn something new, anyway.
EDIT: Oh, and you don't lose anything by being aware of "desktop-based" processes. You may be doing more server-side programming, even if it is web-based. So, in other words, it doesn't hurt to continue expanding your knowledge in that arena, as well.
There will most likely still be a market for desktop applications for many years to come. However, web development seems to have taken over a large share of the development market from what I can see. I would recommend definitely getting familiar with web development as it definitely can't hurt to increase the number of skills you have even if you never stop writing desktop apps.
Since you have experience with C# you might want to consider doing some ASP.NET work. Or if you feel the need to learn a new technology then maybe consider a framework like Ruby on Rails.
I'd really suggest looking into web development - like you said, there are many more web application projects - and you already know C#.NET and Java, and both of those languages have really good API's / frameworks for web development. ASP.NET for C# and Java Servlets/JSPs.
I'd first suggest learning some really basic HTML to learn how pages are rendered, then try to make dynamic versions using the language of your choice. Then I'd learn some other web technologies like CSS/Javascript/some Javascript libraries - then I'd start looking at frameworks that build on top of the basics in the language of your choice.
Oh, and some further suggestions - there are web frameworks that are component-based rather than request-based - you may be tempted to learn these as a shortcut to web development since most claim that developing in them is similar to desktop development. I really wouldn't suggest this - as in practice you really do need to know how the web works at a lower level to develop custom components, include things that the framework doesn't do, or to debug them when things go wrong even when using these frameworks. If you jump right in you can get lost/confused pretty quickly.
Microsoft Office 2010 will have an online version. To me this is a watershed moment for Web applications. Office apps are an important litmus test as once you can do Office on the Web (which has been the case with Google Documents for some time but Office has important symbolic meaning) you can do most things that most users care about.
Desktop apps won't die but I definitely think they're going to take more and more of a backseat.
I'd highly suggest you read How Microsoft Lost the API War if you haven't already. One of the things that's particularly amazing about this post is that it was written in 2004.
I honestly believe that with maybe the exception of OSs and browsers, everything will be a web app within the next 10 years. Having said that, let me clarify that by everything I mean everything that a) involves a UI of some kind and b) can be guaranteed secure.
User-interfaced apps will always at some point need a backend, which will at some level require code that is not being interfaced by humans and not being executed via HTTP. I am always reminding myself that things like 'cat' in Unix are actually programs that the OS is calling, not just a function built into the OS. MySQL won't be a web app (as far as I know), but app that powers web apps. We may get to a point where these apps are fully developed via a web interface, written, audited, uploaded and called all via a browser, but at some level its still running behind the scenes.
On that second point, about guaranteed security, I can very easily imagine a large corporation or government office running 95 percent of their daily routines via web apps, but mandating that certain high-security operations be done on a machine directly interfaced with some sort of mainframe, after passing through the cool doors with the retinal scans and what not. Or simply because they can't risk moving certain mission-critical apps over to the web, from fear of it breaking our losing data in the process.
But with those two things aside, I honestly believe everything will be web-based. With the advancement of Web Services and XML in general, it will be possible to not only access and interact with our data, but to plug our custom apps into another app and extend that interaction further and in any environment we want.
It's like that Apple ad "There's an app for that." Except once people get the real picture, it won't be an app written for your iPhone, but a URL. "There's a site for that."
I recommend learning the Lift framework. It's as easy to use as Rails, and it's based on a statically-typed language for the JVM, Scala. From the perspective of your background, Scala should be middling to easy to learn, and you'll be more likely to be comfortable with it than with a dynamic language.
In my opinion, you have a good chance of picking it up quickly, learn a lot about good practices in web development, and even expanding your programming horizons a bit.
Are there any tools that go beyond requiring deep and intimate knowledge of every configuration option and nuance and will just setup an application with a minimum of inputs. Something like a wizard that produces the XML configuration based on those simple inputs. I don't care about security I just need the service to work. Ideally the tool would be able to setup IIS6 as well or at least with a given set of options it would produce a list of steps I needed to complete in IIS.
The Microsoft Service Configuration Editor is no better than direct editing of the XMl. I did find a web site that has the right idea but it wasn't able to solve my simple installation. (http://www.noemax.com/support/wcf_binding_configuration_wizard.html).
Is there anything out there that puts some convention into play over this mountain of configuration?
WCF configuration can look very daunting at first, indeed! I like that configuration wizard you linked to - why wasn't it good enough for you?
I don't know of any tool right now, that would solve your problem and help you figure out the proper configuration - it really boils down to learning the ropes and getting to know the ins and outs of it, I'm afraid.
Basically, what I've learned is : don't even start to imagine all the things you could do - try to focus on what you should do (and what you need).
Really, it boils down to about five scenarios as outlined in the excellent book "Programming WCF" by Juval Lowy:
intranet apps (use the NetTcp binding, Windows security)
internet apps (use the wsHttp binding if ever possible, username/pwd or certificates for security)
business-to-business apps (use whatever binding makes sense, secure by certificates)
queue message delivery (MSMQ)
no-security apps (legacy ASMX support, interop with "dumb" webservice clients)
Basically, pick the one you need, and from there, you're pretty much set as to what to do and how to do it. I would definitely recommend checking out Juval's book - excellent excellent resource!
So the question is: which category does your app fit in? Based on that, you can pretty much determine all that's needed from there.
Also, I watched two screencasts that really helped me get over the heaps of configuration options in WCF, and focus on what's really important:
Extreme WCF with Miguel Castro
Demystifying WCF with Keith Elder
Both gave me a good feel for what configuration is really needed - and what is just fluff.
Hope that helps some!
Marc
Can anyone recommend resources to learn how to develop websites, as opposed to web applications?
I am looking to develop a website for a consulting company to be precise. I would be more interested in best practices for creating the layout of a website (user appeal, eye candy, not an eye sore)
Thanks
-M
It really depends upon the language you want to use, your current skill sets, who's going to maintain the site, what OS the site will be hosted on etc etc.
I suspect you need to narrow down your question.
What do you mean by web site rather than web application? Are you talking about the dynamic nature of the content or somethign else?
update
If you're looking for discussions on design of websites (visual design, UX etc) then I'm a great fan of Smashing Magazine.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
It doesn't often speak about MS technologies (ASP.NET etc) but it's a great place to see discussions and papers on "what makes a great website". Some recent examples:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/15/optimizing-conversion-rates-its-all-about-usability/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/14/non-profit-website-design-examples-and-best-practices/
Subscribe to their RSS feed and see what those colouring-in people get up to.
Here's your first port of call.
Unless you're artistically inclined, I recommend purchasing or contracting the template design to someone who is skilled in this area.
For $60 a year, you can have unlimited downloads and unlimited use of all the templates at the following site:
http://www.dreamtemplate.com/
There are many more here:
http://www.templatemonster.com/website-templates.php
http://www.w3schools.com/
for purely informational sites, html, and css will probably be plenty, though I think I would reccomend using wordpress if you're just trying to put content on the internet
If you speak German or French, http://www.selfhtml.org is quite a good resource.
Otherwise, I would recommend http://www.w3schools.com/ or http://htmldog.com/. Both are very good as they really go deeply into the matter and tell about standards from the beginning.
sitepoint.com
Their best content is packaged in their books, but their articles are good, too. Covers design best-practices and web standards, but also has good tips on the business of web design and managing clients.
You may want to look at the alistapart website.
simply the best I have seen for this.
I would also - since I have just been reminded of it use
http://www.webmonkey.com/
http://w3schools.com/
http://www.w3schools.com/ is a good start.