Rich Internet Applications (RIAs); A Comparison Between Adobe Flex, JavaFX, Microsoft Silverlight

Abstract

This Master's thesis report describes and compares the three Rich Internet Application !RIA" frameworks Adobe Flex, JavaFX and Microsoft Silverlight. Through a qualitative study, their technical and non#technical characteristics have been identified and compared, together with an analysis of the current market. A prototype application has been implemented in JavaFX to evaluate its applicability in more detail. The purpose of this report is to provide guidance in choosing what plugin#based RIA framework to commit to. Flex has been on the market twice as long as Silverlight, and five times longer than JavaFX. It is the most mature and established framework, but Silverlight has experienced a rapid development with frequent releases, and established itself as the main competitor to Flex. The characteristics and features of these two frameworks do not differ much. The biggest difference is their market penetration, where Flex !Flash" has 95$ of the desktop market, and Silverlight 26$. Both frameworks offer great tools and a designer#developer workflow that can enhance productivity. JavaFX reaches 71$ of the market by running on top of the Java Runtime, but it has several shortcomings such as accessibility and usability issues, as well as buggy components and no visual designer. The study concludes that JavaFX is not currently able to compete with neither Silverlight nor Flex. In addition to these plugin#based RIA frameworks, it is also important to follow the progress of HTML 5, the next generation markup language for the Web, which has been predicted to become a game#changer in web application development.