Rich Internet Application Technology Comparison: AJAX, Flash, Silverlight

By Judy Lee	Article Rating:
February 6, 2008 04:00 AM EST	Reads:	26,898

Today, RIA technology is widely used, also referred to as Rich Internet Clients (RICs). RICs provide the usability, responsiveness, and reuse of client/server applications with the deployment, manageability, and availability of a traditional Web application. Many websites are using DHTML and AJAX technology in HTML pages. Another very popular technology is Flash. How about Silverlight, though?

The developers behind Dot Net Outsource, the leading Chinese provider of global outsourcing services, specialize in in both "Web-based" and Client-Server technologies on the Microsoft .NET platform. Here they look at Silverlight and compare it, for their particular needs, with DHTML/AJAX and Flash.

RIAs offer the flexibility and ease of use of an intelligent desktop application, and add the broad reach of traditional web applications with an entirely new kind of web experience that is engaging, interactive, lightweight, and flexible.

DHTML and AJAX

We used DHTML and AJAX technology in HTML pages in some of our .NET outsourced projects. However, we encountered problems of browser incompatibility. (For example, DOM is quite different in IE and in Safari.)

Although it is possible to make this kind of web application work in all browsers, it will take the developer much time and it is very difficult to maintain when the browsers update.

Flash

Another very popular technology is Flash, it doesn’t have any browsers compatibility problems, but it’s very hard to integrate with .NET. Integrating Flash demands that .NET developers make a special effort, and since our specialty is .NET software outsourcing, Flash is not the best choice for us.

CIO, CTO & Developer Resources

Silverlight

Silverlight is a cross browser technology, so there's no browser compatibility problem. Plus it integrates with .NET very well, so it is easier to use and develop. Silverlight does not have controls at present, but in version 2.0, many controls will be released for Web designers. Those controls will make Web development easier and faster.

Based on the features supported by Silverlight (see our chart below) more web page elements and properties can be controlled than DHTML&AJAX. Silverlight also offers a good user experiences.

Item	DHTML & AJAX	FLASH	Silverlight
User Experience	Normal	Very Good	Very Good
Browser Compatibility	Hard to support and maintain	IE, Firefox, Safari, etc. Popular Browsers	IE, Firefox, Safari, etc. Popular Browsers
Popularity	N/A	High	Normal(New)
Version	N/A	Normal, version 9.0	New Tech, version 1.1
Study Efforts	Normal	Normal	Normal
Ease of Use	Easy (If do not consider compatibility)	Normal	Normal
Integration with .NET	Easy	Hard	Easy
Network Performance	High	Normal	High
Client Performance	Some Code - High Most Code - Low	High	High
Designer Tools	Use CSS	Flash CS3 PhotoShop CS3	Blend, Expression Designer

Sample Silverlight sites:

Silverlight official home page: www.silverlight.net

ComponentOne silverlight controls page: http://labs.componentone.com/sapphire

Infragistics silverlight controls page: http://labs.infragistics.com/silverlight/

Source: http://www.dotnetoutsource.com/

Mar	MAY	Mar
	02
2011	2012	2013

Rich Internet Application Technology Comparison: AJAX, Flash, Silverlight

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