SmartClient vs Web Application

[Wenlei Fang]

Hi All,

We are in the process of review and redesign large scale .Net 2.0 web
application. It has been suggested that we can use SmartClient instead.

Can anyone provide resources/whitepapers on SmartClient vs Web Application?

Thanks,

Wenlei

 

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Wenlei,

You could do a google search easily for this. I think what would be
more helpful, and get you more responses is to indicate what the needs for
your application are.

For example, do you have to reach people that are not on the Windows
platform? Do you have a need for a zero-install app? These two questions
are only a sample of the things you should know before making a decision.
If you can post what it is that your apps requirements are, then more people
will be able to give tell you why one or the other might be better suited
for you.

 

[Wenlei Fang]

Thanks, Nicholas.

We are a non-profit organization working with Zoos and Aquariums around the
world. Our application will be an anmial inventory and health management
system. We have a lot of leverage over the OS/browser (since most of our
members are Windows/Browser ) and deployment (we will support the
deployment anyway). In our situation, it seems that both Smart Client and
Web can get the work done. The question is which approach is better and will
be better supported by Microsoft. On the Microsoft site, there is a
whitepaper from Jupiter Research
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...4648-8aa6-589391068fb5/JupiterSmartClient.pdf
which favors SmartClient over Web. With AJAX much easier to be implemented
into ASP.Net, I am just wondering how much of the arguments in that document
still holds. Is there any whitepaper out there in favor of Web application.
The trend I am seeing over the years is that there are a lot of nice web
sites out there and not a lot SmartClient Apps, to my knowledge. If
Microsoft thinks SmartClient is better then why WAT & Sharepoint Admin are
web applications, not SmartClient?

I think my question is if SmartClient and Web application can both satisfy
the user requirements, which one has more future?

Thanks again,

Wenlei

Wenlei,

You could do a google search easily for this. I think what would be
more helpful, and get you more responses is to indicate what the needs for
your application are.

For example, do you have to reach people that are not on the Windows
platform? Do you have a need for a zero-install app? These two questions
are only a sample of the things you should know before making a decision.
If you can post what it is that your apps requirements are, then more
people will be able to give tell you why one or the other might be better
suited for you.


--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- (e-mail address removed)

Hi All,

We are in the process of review and redesign large scale .Net 2.0 web
application. It has been suggested that we can use SmartClient instead.

Can anyone provide resources/whitepapers on SmartClient vs Web
Application?

Thanks,

Wenlei

 

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

There is no such thing as "which approach is better", but rather, "which
approach is better for YOU".

That being said, I think that if you are in control of the platforms
that this is deployed on (you said it was Windows) then you are better off
going with a Smart Client approach. You will get a better user experience
overall and an easier development experience on the client side if you are
already accustomed to Windows Forms/WPF application development vs ASP.NET
development. AJAX is great, and browser based applications definitely have
viability, but they have limitations in what they can do in the user
interface, and unless you typically have the requirement to reach audiences
across different platforms, it's not the best way to go, IMO.

Smart Client apps are really nothing more than GUI clients that are
connected to some sort of service that really executes the business logic.
The GUI is nothing more than a thin shell that is driven by the calls to the
service. This can be (and usually is) a web service, but can be any other
kind of connective technology, dependent on your needs.

The reason that Sharepoint Admin is not a Smart Client application is
that app needs to reach as many people as possible (they don't want it to be
limited to just Windows platforms) so a browser-based application makes more
sense, for ^that^ application.


--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- (e-mail address removed)

Thanks, Nicholas.

We are a non-profit organization working with Zoos and Aquariums around
the world. Our application will be an anmial inventory and health
management system. We have a lot of leverage over the OS/browser (since
most of our members are Windows/Browser ) and deployment (we will
support the deployment anyway). In our situation, it seems that both Smart
Client and Web can get the work done. The question is which approach is
better and will be better supported by Microsoft. On the Microsoft site,
there is a whitepaper from Jupiter Research
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...4648-8aa6-589391068fb5/JupiterSmartClient.pdf
which favors SmartClient over Web. With AJAX much easier to be implemented
into ASP.Net, I am just wondering how much of the arguments in that
document still holds. Is there any whitepaper out there in favor of Web
application. The trend I am seeing over the years is that there are a lot
of nice web sites out there and not a lot SmartClient Apps, to my
knowledge. If Microsoft thinks SmartClient is better then why WAT &
Sharepoint Admin are web applications, not SmartClient?

I think my question is if SmartClient and Web application can both satisfy
the user requirements, which one has more future?

Thanks again,

Wenlei

Wenlei,

You could do a google search easily for this. I think what would be
more helpful, and get you more responses is to indicate what the needs
for your application are.

For example, do you have to reach people that are not on the Windows
platform? Do you have a need for a zero-install app? These two
questions are only a sample of the things you should know before making a
decision. If you can post what it is that your apps requirements are,
then more people will be able to give tell you why one or the other might
be better suited for you.


--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- (e-mail address removed)

Hi All,

We are in the process of review and redesign large scale .Net 2.0 web
application. It has been suggested that we can use SmartClient instead.

Can anyone provide resources/whitepapers on SmartClient vs Web
Application?

Thanks,

Wenlei