Topical Analysis: Animation, JavaScript, and Rich Internet Applications

Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) are Web based applications that similarly to desktop applications have the same flexibility, ease of use, and graphic intensity. Some of the major Rich Internet Applications technologies that emerged in recent years and changed the Web development are Flash and Ajax.

Flash is an important and powerful tool for building interactive Web sites. It has vast capabilities in the interface design, aesthetics and functionality (Grosvenor, p.1). Flash uses vector-based animation and ActionScript, a programming language, to build animations that can range from creation of a simple animation to building the whole Website. It also has capabilities of building robust SQL and XML data-feeding Web applications. The content created within Flash movie is browser independent and is rendered the same way across all browsers. To play the Flash movie, however, the plug-in is required. Plug-in is found in 90 percent of all Internet enabled computers. Flash originally used for creating marketing banners; has grown with the development and maturation of ActionScript and transformed the visual appeal of the Web. ActionScript is an object-oriented programming language that uses very similar syntax to JavaScript. A programmer can access and update any element within the application using ActionScript. Flash can be used to build forms where ActionScript reads user input (textual input) and respond to it. Forms created in Flash use text field, combo-box, check-box, label, buttons or radio buttons. Application created in Flash can make calls to the server and update information. Some of the fundamental functions in Flash include drawing, working with layers, creating symbol, instances and creating time-line animations with motion and shape tweening.

In the last few years, Ajax technology became a key approach in creating Web applications. Ajax uses a specific JavaScript object called XMLHttpRequest combined with Java Script events and dynamic HTML (DHTML). By using the XMLHttpRequest object (XHR), developers have a bigger control over the HTTP requests to retrieve data. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has released the first specification for the Ajax standards in 2006. Some of the Ajax rich user interfaces include drag and drop effect, navigation, event handling, form entry validation, interface for opening APIs, and state management. Several practical uses of Ajax technology focus on creating mash-ups pages that re-use more than one Website content in a single page.

The essential characteristics of RIA are:
- Accessibility
- Advanced communications
- Complexity
- Consistency
- Performance
- Security
- Richness

Dojo and jQuery are open source JavaScript libraries that help make DHTML tasks. jQuery contains common Events, DOM, Effects, CSS, and Ajax functions and is linked from a Webpage similarly to JavaScript:

Dojo widgets that consist of JavaScript, HTML and CSS are used to enhance websites with interactive features such as menus, tabs, 2-D drawings, forms, animations and drag-and-drop.

JavaScript is an object-oriented scripting language mostly used on the client side (integrated component of the browser) that is not related to Java programming language. JavaScript is one of the most popular languages used on the Web. Functions that are written in JavaScript are embedded or included in HTML, and are interacting with DOM. Examples of JavaScript use includes: validation of Web forms, building applications that enhance user interfaces, building dynamic applets and interactive games, opening a new resizable window, changing images on the mouse over and creating security passwords. The potential security risk in JavaScript and Ajax includes the following:
- Client-side security controls
- Increased attack surface
- Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
- Connecting the gap between users and services

References
Booch, G. (2007). Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications. Addison-Wesley.
Grosvenor, S. (2004). The Flash Anthology: Cool Effects & Practical ActionScript. SitePoint Pty. Ltd.