Inkriti

AJAX (shorthand for "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML") is a development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user requests a change. This is intended to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, functionality, and usability.

Adobe Flash is another way to build Rich Internet Application. This technology is cross-platform and quite powerful to create application UI. Adobe Flex provides the option to create Flash user interface by compiling MXML, a XML based interface description language. Flex comes with various components and features that make capabilities such as web services, remote objects, drag and drop, sortable columns, charting/graphing, built in animation effects, and other interface interactions simple. Since the client only loads once, application workflow is significantly improved versus HTML based applications (eg. PHP, ASP, JSP, CFMX) which require executing templates on the server with every action. Flex's language and file structure are seeking to decouple application logic from design.

Java applets run in standard HTML pages and generally start automatically when their web page is opened with a modern web browser. Java applets have access to the screen (inside an area designated in its page's HTML), as well as the speakers, keyboard and mouse of any computer their web page is opened on, as well as access to the Internet, and provide a sophisticated environment capable of real time applications.

Java based RIAs can be launched from within the browser or as free standing applications via Java Web Start. Java RIAs can take advantage of the full power of the Java platform to deliver rich functionality, 2D & 3D graphics, and off-line capabilities, but at the cost of delayed startup. Numerous frameworks for Java RIAs exist, including XUL-like XML-based frameworks such as XUI and Swixml

Sun Microsystems has announced JavaFX, a family of products based on Java technology designed to provide a consistent experience across a wide variety of devices including desktops, (as applets and stand-alone clients) set-top boxes, mobile devices, and Blu-Ray players. The JavaFX platform will initially comprise JavaFX Script and JavaFX Mobile. Invented by Sun Software Engineer Chris Oliver as a skunk works project, JavaFX Script enables rapid development of rich 2D interfaces using a declarative syntax similar to SVG. Sun plans to release JavaFX Script as an open source project, but JavaFX Mobile will be a commercial product available through an OEM license to carriers and handset manufacturers.

Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of Microsoft .NET–based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.

With the .NET 3.0 Framework, Microsoft introduced Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) which provides a way to build single-platform applications with some similarities to RIAs using XAML and languages like C# and Visual Basic. Silverlight, recently announced by Microsoft, may eventually provide a subset of WPF functionality on devices and other platforms.