CAEL 5012Rich Internet Applications

What you needFor this part of the course you will need access to a server with PHP and MYSQL which will be supplied by the the university. You will need to know the database host name and the ftp log in account details. These will be provided when required.

These will be provided by the University (in the process of getting your logins and passwords).

• API'sAn API or Application Interface is a framework that is opened to the public by a web service such as FaceBook, Twitter or Flicker

• PHPwww.php.netPHP is an open source server-side language used to manage data. It runs on all server environments including Mac, Linux and Windows. Information on using PHP can easily be found on the net. There are lots of tutorial and videos on youtube but the best source for learning PHP is the official website which can be found at: www.php.net

• Code Sample 1: A PHP script to connect to a SQL database$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'root', 'root');

• MYSQLhttp://dev.mysql.com/MYSQL is an open source database solution used to store, retrieve and edit data.WORKING TOGETHERPHP in combination with MSQL offers a very powerful way of creating backend solutions for websites and rich media apps build in Flash.

• SQLITEhttp://www.sqlite.org/SQLite is a lightweight version of the SQL database system, which can be sued on mobile devices such as iPhones, Android and other smart phones.

USEFUL LINKSWeb 2.0 Definitionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0CMS Definitionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_systemAPI Definitionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interfaceRIA Definitionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Internet_applicationYoutube API Documentationhttp://code.google.com/apis/youtube/overview.htmlTwitter API Documentationhttp://apiwiki.twitter.com/Flickr API Documentationhttp://www.flickr.com/services/api/Instagram APIhttp://instagram.com/developer/

What is a Rich Internet Application

(RIA)?In simple terms, a Rich Internet Application (RIA) is a website that dynamically loads external data/resources, creating a ‘unique’ and interactive user experience.

EXAMPLES

plug-ins

What makes RIA different from a

‘normal’ website?

Essentially – the main difference is dynamic content

When you break down the phrase “Rich Internet Applications”, you find that “Internet” and “Applications” are well understood. It’s the “Rich” aspect that makes RIAs interesting, and it’s the “Rich” aspect that requires a fuller explanation.

Essentially, a Rich Internet Application is capable of delivering a rich experience to the user. It is the richness of the experience that is often enhanced by making software that is more natural – more connected, more alive, more interactive, and more responsive.

ConnectedWe are all connected. On this relatively small planet we all have many things in common.

We communicate with one another via many different methods, in many different languages, sometimes easily and sometimes with difficulty.

Likewise RIAs are built on a network that connects us all – the Internet. RIA’s can utilise these connections – making them more apparent.

AliveWe would not sit and watch a beautiful sunset for very long if it never changed.

In RIAs, we create rich experiences by modeling the movement and beauty we find in the natural world.

RIA’s are in some ways ‘alive’ by the way that they can change dynamically, adjusting to the specific user.

RIAs should feel alive.

InteractiveWhen people communicate they interact — sometimes physically, sometimes audibly, and sometimes visually.

RIAs facilitate physical, audible, and visual interaction. Many new devices are allowing for more natural methods of physical interaction.

Many more software applications are also adding video and audio capabilities, and some of these applications support bi-directional multimedia interaction. This allows users to interact visually and audibly in the context of an application.

Applications which embrace interactivity to that level are helping to bring natural world interactivity to software experiences.

ResponsiveWith RIAs, the websites respond to the user.

It creates an exchange between the user and the website, giving the user a sense of ‘control’ and experience that cannot be achieved in a static web page.

NaturalThe move towards RIA’s is happening because users intuitively want to experience software like they experience the natural world.

• Rich Internet Applications are proliferating because they are more connected, alive, interactive, and responsive than yesterday’s software. In ten years nearly all software will be what today is called a Rich Internet Application.

Data as Art• Essentially everything on the web is a

representation of Data.

RIA’s are great for creating representations of data in an artistic manner.

Think about how to represent data in a RIA.

http://www.alanaschild.org/VirtualJazz/

http://www.adobe.com/resources/business/rich_internet_apps/

http://www.mamp.info/en/index.htmlhttps://developer.apple.com/http://www.adobe.com/devnet.htmlhttp://wordpress.org/download/http://www.electrotank.com/es5.htmlhttp://thefwa.com/http://www.leebrimelow.com/http://ff0000.com/

• Inspirational linkshttp://www.evolutionoftheweb.com/http://bjork.com/http://www.stanford.edu/group/ruralwest/cgi-bin/drupal/visualizations/us_newspapershttp://www.chromeexperiments.com/http://www.chromeexperiments.com/webgl/http://sxsw.com/interactive-awards-finalists

• http://uxmag.com/articles/rich-internet-application-screen-design

• Building Facebook appshttps://developers.facebook.com/

How do we achieve this?

• In order to create these RIA’s we are going to learn different methodologies and technologies:

• API’s (application programming interfaces)o Ajaxo Libraries such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Vimeo

• AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)o Despite the name, the use of XML is not required (JSON is often used

instead), and the requests do not need to be asynchronous.[2]

• Databases (mySql), php

Course Outline

API’s (application

programming interfaces)• API’s are essentially ‘libraries’ or networks which

we can access and then pull information and data from.

Most large scale social networks have publicly accessible API’s. This means that we can use the data from these networks, as long as we connect to the API library using a key and access token.

All of the API’s work in the same way – but they all have different methods. Once you understand how to use 1 library, it is easy to use different libraries.

How to access an API• To access an API you will normally have to Register for

a developers license.

This means simply signing up via the developers website

• For example:http://developer.vimeo.com/

Once you have a license you can create an app – through which you will get an APP ID and an APP secret.

You will use these to make calls to the library.

Vimeo API

• Embed video using Vimeo API

• http://developer.vimeo.com/player/js-api

• http://player.vimeo.com/playground