Joe,
Can you please define Thin Client versus Rich Client? I'm not sure what
you see as the difference?
A thin client is primarily a page-at-a-time interface, where the location
is changed via a hyperlink or a programmatic (i.e., JavaScript) change to
the location field (window.location.href). Page-at-a-time processing
involves traditional HTTP GET/POST requests, with the HTML for an entire
page being sent from the server for each request.
A rich client, on the other hand, is an application in which the primary
UI is created dynamically via JavaScript. The first traditional HTTP
request forces a download of the entire application, which usually
consists of a JavaScript framework and then the actual application built
on top of it. The initial GUI is built and from that point all
interaction with the host occurs via XMLHttpRequest. Smaller (less than a
page) chunks of information are retrieved in response to user events and
the page is updated dynamically via JavaScript access to the DOM (document
object model).
These are the ends of the spectrum. There is overlap; thin client
applications more frequently use AJAX to update portions of the page, but
if your primary communication and navigation technique is to use a
different URL, then that's a thin client application. If instead your URL
stays nearly constant and the vast majority of updates to the UI occur
through service calls, then that's a rich client.
There's also the concept of VMs in the browser, such as Flash and
Sliverlight, but I don't consider those to be in the same playing field as
the thin/rich client technologies I outlined above. I go through this in
detail in my article:
http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/ibmi/enewsletterexclusive/35233p1.aspx
Joe
midrange.com
