Smart client fan

I have to admit I don't quite get all the enthusiasm about Ajax, I mean:

  1. This technology has been available for years now, Outlook Web Access has used it since I don't know when
  2. Although I understand the *need* to create web apps in several scenarios, if you badly need a highly functional UI what you really want to use is Windows Forms. I do web apps because I have to, not because they are fun.

Now, creating flexible, performing and maintainable smart client applications is far easier said than done, that's why you should read a lot (and do some proofs of concept) before starting that big project. Right now, I'm getting deeply involved with:

  1. The Composite UI Application Block (CAB), great if you want to create composable, plug-and-play-like Windows UIs
  2. The Smart Client Baseline Architecture Toolkit build on CAB to cover a number of aspects (off-line operation, automatic updates, etc.) that go beyond the UI and that are an integral part of any smart client worth its name
  3. Brian Noyes' Data Binding with Windows Forms 2.0 is a great book for those of us who don't only want to know how to get things done but why we have to do it that way.

So there's certainly a lot to read and learn about smart clients but, as much as I like ASP.NET, I find the subject more fascinating than dealing with the idiosyncracies of browsers, Javascript, Ajax, etc.

14 Comments

  • Your reasoning about using Forms for intense UI work is sound. However, in many cases the client dictates that a Web application is the sole option...especially in the case of the U.S. Government when a standalone application would have to go through a full security audit but (for right or wrong) a web application is given a pass.

  • what they call AJAX, is really old, but not many had created cool web applications to really show what is was capable of, that's a fact



    As everything else in life, you just have to use the right tool for each job, you can't always use a web app (and you shouldn't always have to use "AJAX"), and you can't always use windows app, you just have to see what is required for each situation, I think they both have their place



    this hype about "AJAX", is just that, but the truth is it does improve the web experience quite a lot

  • True, XmlHttpRequest exists since a long time, but what the word "Ajax" really brought is the frameworks (like Ajax.Net or Atlas), which make developing such applications much more productive than they used to. Apart from that - it's "yet another buzzword".

  • Rantage: I live in Ecuador, South America, and the situation is similar, many government RFP's demand you to use a Web UI. Now, I'm the first to accept the several scenarios where a Web UI is just right (I would never write an Amazon with Windows Forms :-) ), my rant is about the many intranet scenarios where WinForms would make *their* life (let alone, mine) so much easier.



    Eber: "the right tool for the job", you said it far shorter and better than me.



    fx: The framework issue is a good point you raise and yes Atlas et al. (I particularly like what ComponentArt is doing with their controls) have lowered the bar so more people can create better Web experiences, in that sense the Ajax wave is welcomed. Having said that, I'm still a fan of smart clients.

  • Try doing this blog with a smart client, we'll see how well it does on the web :)

  • Also - why does this page reload every element just to show my post?

  • Steve: actually I read blogs with Omea Reader, a smart client written by the fine guys at JetBrains, Omea Reader downloads all the blogs I'm suscribed to so I later can read them while *disconnected*, do give it a try!



    You're right pointing out that with Ajax this blog site could be more dynamic, and I openly accept that Ajax makes the Web experience better, but Omea Reader proves that a smart client makes for a far better user experience than a Web client.

  • I use a *smart client* to read blogs as well, and I do know that it would be possible to create a Ajax site to do the *same thing* (read blogs), in fact there are a few, but they are not nearly as good as the smart client versions.

    It would take a lot longer to develop such web app, you have to worry about all the latest and greatest browsers, etc, etc...



    and on the end if you think about it, is not the right tool for the job, why?, because you can't read your blogs offline, period, end of the story, it might be cool, it might have other advantages, but it doesn't get the whole job done



    my thing is, don't close yourself to just one option, you can combine them to get the best of all worlds

  • I am frustrated with two categories of people:



    Category 1: People who never used CAB in a BIG system and think CAB is the next big SmartClient ting



    Category 2: People who think that MVC pattern and modular application design ideas never existed before CAB. We can have lots of CAB services without CAB, piece of cake.



    I don’t think dependency injection is a good idea at all. I like the compile time type checking.



    The only thing in CAB that impresses me is the event broker, but I never waste any time to adopt CAB.



    Maxwell

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