Show me RIA

What is RIA all about? What can it do? You've read [0] about, now let's see it...

1. Information at your finger tips

RIAs are great for building highly tailored user interfaces, specific to your application domain. In the example below an engineering application for product selection is shown. The user interface exhibits a high density of information, something that would be difficult to achieve without an RIA platform like XUI. Lots of information is quickly available in a way that can be easily understood by the target audience, without being visually overwhelming.

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2 Always on, always available

Speed is vital. Having information at hand and when you need it is crucial to most business users, so why cut your self off when you are out of the office. CarouselCRM, a XUI based add-on for the SugarCRM system lets you work off-line so CRM users can work anywhere and at anytime. If data is update when on the road the system automatically synchronizes when back in the office. RIA adds flexibility so you don't have to adapt business to software, instead XUI lets you support business and work in your own way.

3 Integrating with the desktop

RIA platforms like XUI let you build great looking, great performing desktop applications that really boost business, but users still use office applications like Word, Excel and Outlook and seamless integration with these workhorse applications can really make life easier.

4 Add some style

First impressions count. Flexible, power user features sometimes mean appearance can suffer, however with XUI you can build stunning looking applications. XUI includes features that let you completely control the look and feel of your application, allowing you to tailor the user interface and present the perfect picture.

Branding too can be an issue for many organizations. XUI's architecture supports a clean separation of concerns, separating the user interface from the business specific logic and therefore the same application can be served up with different user interfaces for different audiences. XUI's managed styles, data management and localization facilities make rebranding an application easier than ever.

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5 XUI in a connected world

Deploying applications like those shown above via the internet is straight forward with technologies like Java WebStart and some of these applications pull data from the internet when available, but that can take various forms. Working with several international hotel chains Xoetrope delivered a handheld Guest Satisfaction System for rating things like room service. Communications around the world are not created equal and the application uses Carousel's pluggable services to embed adaptable and redundant communication channels that ensure data is available over whatever mechanism is available, from dial-up e-mail, and messaging services to dedicated IP channels.

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Building a RIA

6 Easy peasy, quick and easy...

One of the great things about a Java and XML RIA framework like XUI is that developers can leverage all their existing skills to get started right away. What's more XUI provides plug-ins for the most popular development environments like NetBeans and Eclipse, making RIA development a natural step for IT professional. See the introductory video belowing showing just how easy it is to get started.

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7 Lots of options, lots available

RIA spans a whole lot of things so there's lots to do. The XUI family of products takes care of lots of what you will need, so how does it stack up. For a quick overview of the product family see below:

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