Flexible web interfaces on the basis of Rich Ajax Platform

I chose this topic as my diploma thesis which concluded my studies in media computer science.
RAP is a framework for developing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). As it is said by [1], RIAs get more popular every day. Their appearance, way of functioning and interacting through their Rich User Interfaces [2] let them strongly be compared to Desktop-Applications. They give the opportunity to augment web applications with multimedia-Components (video, audio, etc.) in some cases they do support collabortive work [3]. Furthermore they use Ajax [Behme, 2007], to improve the application’s intuitivity and usability compared to classic web applications (Web 1.0).

The implemented scenario within the prototype is a flight booking system. In fig. 02 it can be seen how RAP components are embedded within the flight booking’s architecture. The subsequent figure shows how the RAP architecture was augmented to realize the dynamic exchange of other widgets than RAP (e. g. Flash-, JavaScript-Widgets, Google- or Yahoo Maps). The resulting prototype can be seen in fig. 04 and 05. Furthermore, RAP gives an easy way of using internationalzation for your RIA. Depending on with which language your browser is set up the application will be delivered with the appropriate language as far it was programmed for it. I’m excited which opportunities and faciliation RAP will bring in the near future. I wish the developers good luck and very much success for that!

Fig. 01

Fig. 02

Fig. 03

Fig. 04

Fig. 05

Quellen

[1] J. C. Preciado, M. Linaje, S. Comai, F. Sanchez-Figueroa „Designing Rich Internet Applications with Web Engineering Methodologies”, 2007
[2] T. Alby „Web 2.0 – Konzepte, Anwendungen, Technologien“. Hanser Verlag, 2. Auflage, ISBN 3-446-41208-5, 2007
[3] H. Behme „Das letzte Siebtel – Interaktivität und Anwendungsfelder“. In ix
Special „Das Web 2.0 Kompendium“, Ausgabe 1, S. 6-7, 2007
[4] R. Schmelzer „Rich Internet Applications – Market Trends and Ap-proaches”, 2006