Java/XML rich-client technology

Rich client technology/platform like visual basic and java swing, developers are very much familiar and other technologies like ajax (Google Web Tookit & ECHO2), Eclipse RCP and XUL (Mozila) are also well-known for years.

Recently, I came across an article talking about java/xml rich client technology and its online demonstration impressed me very much in its richness of client-side widgets and functionalities. It runs inside a browser, but pretty muck like a appliaction running on the desktop.

Not like XUL, it does not need a XUL motor (such as Mozila) to provide a running platform, but using jvm plugin in the browser, which allows it to be used in different browsers with jvm plugin.

Currently,two companies are providing this kind of technology, which are nexaweb and asperon. Their online demos are worth for a look.

Enterprise Console Demo From Nexaweb
http://demo.nexaweb.com/Nexaweb/start.jsp?app=sanmgr/index.xml&nocache=true

Order Management Demo From Nexaweb
http://demo.nexaweb.com/Nexaweb/nopushstart.jsp?app=orderdemo/orderStatus.do&nocache=true

CRM Demo from Asperon
http://www.asperon.net/crm/index.html

There are some other interesting rich client demos which is using XUL or Ajax. Check it out.

Ajax Demo from Echo2
http://demo.nextapp.com/Demo/app

XUL Demoonstration
http://xul.sourceforge.net/challenge.html

Reference:
Wei C. (2004). XML Rich Client Technology Strengthens Java. Last retrieved from
http://www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/development/story/0,10801,93858,00.html?SKC=

Wei C. (2004). Java or .NET? XML Rich-Client AJAX Technology Brings Zero-Install Rich Client To Java
Last retrieved from http://jdj.sys-con.com/read/111208_2.htm