Components for building desktop-application-like interface in web applications

Web-based applications have become ubiquitous over the past few years. These applications rely on a simple document markup language called HTML. However, the click-and-link interface provide by HTML-based technology is too limited for building next generation highly interactive Web applications. Hence, we investigate a technique based on a highly interactive rich internet application approach for building desktop-application-like web applications. We discuss the design and architecture of our client and server components, show the efficient use of client, server, and network resources, and conduct server-side component performance evaluations. Usability, universality, reusability and usefulness of our components are our primary objectives. Desktop graphical user interface features such as drag-and-drop, image zoom-in, and folder navigation are now possible for building web-based applications using our components. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005