What is a Smart Client anyway?

David Hill Answers

Sirsha Development Resources Blog — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 02:45:00 GMT

David Hill has written a nice article that may be useful as an introduction to /explanation of the idea of Smart Clients. I like to keep documentation like this around so that I can use it to get my ideas across to C-levels, non-techs, etc. Getting people to read is extremely hard at times but these types of articles still work as good crib sheets and/or allow me to help organize my thoughts on the subjects.

What is a Smart Client anyway?

frankarr's place — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 06:00:00 GMT

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Doug Reilly — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 03:58:00 GMT

Excellent article!

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Woo Seok Seo — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 05:03:00 GMT

Thank you!!!!! Good job!

David Hill explains and discusses

Code/Tea/Etc... — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 10:19:00 GMT

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Andrew — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 18:22:00 GMT

<David>
Even now, drag-and-drop, undo-redo, context sensitive help, and other common client-side features are still extremely challenging
</David>
IE support all these features and beyond...(databinding/XML datasources/AOP=attached behaviors/expando properties exists in IE for ages)
I'm more close to admit that web client is more feature rich(=flexible,powerful etc.) than windows client at present time(remember SVG/SMIL or gradients(filters) coming from?),it just another kind.
Seems Microsoft agreed with me because it expand her browser BOM to support .NET (Longhorn XAML=custom/extended HTML+.NET capabilities)
So smart client is simple hosted application-office or IE dosen't matter IMHO,more powerful host environment-more powerful application-that's all ;-)

David Hill explains and discusses

Code/Tea/Etc... — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 03:01:00 GMT

What is a Smart Client anyway?

Coding tips I need to write down — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 18:07:00 GMT

What is a Smart Client anyway?...

What is a Smart Client anyway?

Nazul's Weblog — Fri, 06 Feb 2004 23:17:00 GMT

What is a Smart Client anyway?

Nazul's Weblog — Fri, 06 Feb 2004 23:21:00 GMT

What is a Smart Client anyway?

Nazul's Weblog — Fri, 06 Feb 2004 23:22:00 GMT

Good article about smart clients

Mark Olson's blog — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 07:59:00 GMT

Good article about smart clients

Mark Olson's blog — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 08:44:00 GMT

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Christoph Hanser — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 12:57:00 GMT

Hi David!
Thank you for this very good introduction into smart clients!
i have a question concerning the check list: would you call a client, that fulfills all points, but communicates with .net remoting instead of web services, as a smart client, too?
Thanks for your reply!
Bye, Christoph

Smart Client Offline Application Block

{ public virtual blog; } — Tue, 02 Mar 2004 19:47:00 GMT

Last month Microsoft released a new application block. This application block of re-usable code and samples, can be used to model your own applications to allow them to detect the presence or absence of a network connection, cache data for use while offline, and re-synchronize data and tasks with the network once the application goes online.

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Flex and Curl too — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 22:29:00 GMT

Any thoughts on these two?

Macromedia Flex
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flex/

Curl
http://www.curl.com

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Tom Bason — Tue, 23 Mar 2004 17:12:00 GMT

An excellent article on smart clients. Do you have any idea how many enterprises are considering using smart client apps instead of browser-baseed apps? We are finding that many of the enterprises we talk to still mandate browser based solutions even for applications running behind firewalls.

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

karthikpaandian — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 05:48:00 GMT

some screen shots of smart client application would have made it much better. Anyway excellent! and thanks.

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Christian Amelinckx — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 17:22:00 GMT

Christoph, since you haven't got an answer to you question, this is what I think (and I don't claim to be an expert here). I think that a smart client is alright if its getting its data through remoting instead of web services, what matters (data-wise) I suggest is that it is able to adapt to online and offline scenarios (by caching operations) and allow the users to work seamlessly 100% of the time.

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Guillem — Tue, 11 May 2004 12:11:00 GMT

Davuid,

What have you tested of Utopia ideas of Microsoft. No touch deployment in Microsoft envrironment has always been promisses, but never delivered. Why do I always have to restart my PC after a Patch download....?
I can imagine the .Net frame provided more descent software distribution features, but 'No touch' cann't be done with this technology.

Can you be too rich or too thin? How about too smart?

Notes2Self.net — Sat, 15 May 2004 01:58:00 GMT

Can you be too rich or too thin? How about too smart?

Notes2Self.net — Sat, 15 May 2004 02:01:00 GMT

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Jerry — Tue, 25 May 2004 17:07:00 GMT

It's a very good introduction into smart clients. Could you tell me where I can get an example code?

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Warren — Wed, 26 May 2004 04:35:00 GMT

I am new to smart client and just attended David Hill's session. I am trying to understand the server side of the smart client. Why does it have to be a web server? Why does the client access web services? In other words, why can the client be accessing data via normal object instanciation on a normal WIN 2003 server, possibly running SQL server? I don't get the advantages of the web services? Thank you.

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Faraz — Sat, 29 May 2004 14:54:00 GMT

Hi!

i'v a little query... is there a way to run smart client without a .net framework ... i mean if .net CLR not installed on a client machine ..is there a way that smart client automatically detects it and downloaad CLR automatically.. this is very crucial for my app.. as my requirements are perfectly matched by SmartCLient but my client dont wana dowload anythng... so i'm considering to move towards ActiveX.

ur quick comments needed

Faraz

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

rahulm — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 11:43:00 GMT

To detect if CLR runtime is installed on client machine, u can print value of

Request.Browser.ClrVersion.ToString()

and for download instructions check the link,

http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/using/building/windows/analystreports/smartclient.aspx

David Hill's Smart Client discussion

Mike Taulty's Weblog — Fri, 11 Jun 2004 19:01:00 GMT

Dick ist wieder schick

Wolfgang Miedl — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 15:09:00 GMT

Seit Jahren schon rennen weite Teile der IT-Branche gegen das PC-Konzept an: Die bisher zumeist mit Windows ausgestatteten Fat Client-Desktops gelten als teuer, kompliziert und schwer zu administrieren. Doch mit dem lange gehypten Gegenentwurf, dem abgespeckten Thin Client auf Terminal-...

I still dont understand !

Eran — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 22:49:00 GMT

lets say i'm planning an information system with a database.
i'm doing a web application project, so where is the DB located ?
if its located at the server, how come a client can work offline and still update the main DB ?

re: I still dont understand !

David Hill — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 09:09:00 GMT

With a thin client application the database would be located at the server side and the user interface is provided by a browser. You would not be able to access the application at all when offline. This is a fundamental limitation of the thin client model.

With a smart client application, the client part of the application can be run when the user is offline. You provide some form of client side storage for the data and then synchronize this with the main database on the server when the user goes back online.

re: I still dont understand !

David Hill — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 09:09:00 GMT

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Hassan — Wed, 21 Jul 2004 18:58:00 GMT

Smart client, it seems intersting , but the problem will arise in the corruption of local data storage ,unless we use Oracle or SQL Server DB at teh client , and even if we assume we fixed the DB problem , we have another issue which the time needed to synchronize local Data with server data.

What is a Smart Client anyway?

Bill Shen's Blog — Thu, 22 Jul 2004 18:02:00 GMT

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

David Hill — Thu, 22 Jul 2004 20:09:00 GMT

Maintaining data consistency on the client can be a problem if you need to account for reliability situations - such as power failures, application crashes etc. In these cases it is best to employ a local database and write to it using a local transaction. In this way, the data remains consistent even in the case of failure. You can use SQL Server, MSDE, SQL CE on the client for this. Local consistency is not usually such a problem - maintaining consistency of data between the client and server is more challenging.

With regard to the time taken to synchronize data, the key is to only synchronize data that has changed. This applies to data going to the client (for example, cached data) and data going to the server (data that the client has changed). There is rarely any need to send all of the data either way. And of course, the time taken to synchronize depends on the communication mechanism and network connection quality as well as the amount of data.

If you need to enable offline use, and expect that data synchronization will take a long time, say because of the volume of data or the speed of the connection, then the data should be synchronized in the background so that the user can carry on working.

re: What is a Smart Client anyway?

Ratan Sen — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 07:34:00 GMT

Excellent article explaining smart clients and their differences with rich and thin Clients!
Thanks you David.

Thin, thick or just everywhere?

The Three Os — Sat, 31 Jul 2004 13:29:00 GMT

Dare Obasanjo

Thin, thick or just everywhere?

The Three Os — Sat, 31 Jul 2004 13:36:00 GMT

Dare Obasanjo

David Hill explains and discusses

Code/Tea/Etc. — Wed, 25 Aug 2004 13:15:00 GMT

Offline Application Block

ThinkingIT.net, el weblog de Matias Owsianik — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 05:41:00 GMT

re: Nasa's Smart Client Application (World Wind 1.2)

Dev Notes — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 15:49:00 GMT

re: Nasa's Smart Client Application (World Wind 1.2)

Dev Notes — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 15:49:00 GMT

re: Nasa's Smart Client Application (World Wind 1.2)

Dev Notes — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 15:51:00 GMT

re: Nasa's Smart Client Application (World Wind 1.2)

Dev Notes — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 15:51:00 GMT

Worldwind

Paul's Down-Home Page — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 16:51:00 GMT

<p>
Worldwind is a live, 3D Earth globe with satellite and topographic data, backed by an extensive place names database. The zooming and panning effects are pretty neat on my laptop; tonight I'll hook it up to the projector and show the boys.
</p>

Smart Client Architecture and Design Guide Released

Rays of Thoughts — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 15:08:00 GMT

Smart Client Architecture and Design Guide Released

dotRob — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 15:43:00 GMT

Smart Clients: Combining the Power of the PC with the Reach of the Web

Alessage — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 11:08:00 GMT

Dick ist wieder schick

Wolfgang Miedl — Sun, 14 Nov 2004 16:12:00 GMT

Seit Jahren schon rennen weite Teile der IT-Branche gegen das PC-Konzept an: Die bisher zumeist mit Windows ausgestatteten ¿Fat Client¿-Desktops gelten als teuer, kompliziert und schwer zu administrieren. Doch mit dem lange gehypten Gegenentwurf, dem abgespeckten Thin Client auf Terminal-...

Providing Context Sensitive help for .net applications.

Teucer's Quiver — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 02:57:00 GMT

Providing Context Sensitive help for .net applications.

Teucer's Quiver — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 02:58:00 GMT

Getting Started with the Offline Application Block for Smart Clients

David Truxall — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 19:16:00 GMT

Getting Started with the Offline Application Block for Smart Clients

Smart Clients is cool

Bunmi Akinyemiju's blog — Fri, 27 May 2005 00:58:01 GMT

lsp: ?? ???????????????? "Whidbey"

lsp: ?? ???????????????? "Whidbey" — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:04:06 GMT

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?? ???????????????? "Whidbey" by lsp () | LjSEEK.COM

?? ???????????????? "Whidbey" by lsp () | LjSEEK.COM — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:04:10 GMT

PingBack from http://www.ljseek.ru/whidbey_13791765.html

Ryarc Media Systems - The coming of the smart client

Ryarc Media Systems - The coming of the smart client — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 05:39:47 GMT

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