IntroductionThere are many opportunities surrounding Fedora to create user interface experiences. Many times it is preferred that these interfaces be deployed in such a was as they can be accessed via a web browser. One specific example of this is seen in the plan to replace the Fedora Administrative GUI with a web-based solution. This comparison considers the capabilities and benefits of several tools for building rich internet applications. The goal of this comparison is to aid developers in determining the appropriate tool(s) to use when building UIs for Fedora. DisclaimerThese write ups are generally completed after conducting research about the tool and experimenting with using it for a day or two. If you have implementation experience with a particular tool feel free to add notes or comments. Adobe FlexWhat is it?Flex is a framework for building rich internet applications which are run using Adobe's Flash player in the browser, and Adobe's AIR on the desktop How long did it take to create a test application and get things working? How much code was required?Created a test application which allows a user to view an object's Dublin Core metadata, FOXML, and datastream list after entering an object's PID. The user can then click on any of the datastreams that are image files and view the image. This application required about a day to create (including technology ramp time) and the completed code (an XML file) is 77 lines, including comments and whitespace.
How rich does the API/toolkit appear to be, are there obvious limitations?How much documentation/support is available?Did you have to learn a new language? If so, how difficult is it to learn and use?To what extent can the code/work be reused in other interfaces?What are your impressions of the technology in general?What is the deployment scheme?Which portions are open source?What are the client requirements?What is the market penetration?Open LaszloGoogle Web Toolkit (GWT)AJAX libaries (Dojo, Rico, etc) with HTML, CSS |
