JDesignerPro vs. HTML and JavaScript


You may be confused by the benefits of deploying a Java solution with JDesignerPro as opposed to an HTML and JavaScript front-end. There are reasons to go with both. Let’s examine the differences between the two.

The main benefit that a JDesignerPro application has over an HTML application is in the interactivity and power that a JDesignerPro application offers. With a JDesignerPro solution, the client software is interactive and intelligent which greatly enhances the user experience and productivity. HTML offers very little interactivity or client-side logic. What does this mean? Interactivity and client-side logic mean that the user of the application can perform functions, calculations, filters, make charts, validate information and more, all locally. The term "locally" means on the CPU of the user’s machine, not on the server. These local activities can be done quickly without any redrawing of web pages or even a single communication with the server. JavaScript, however, does offer developers the ability to build local validation and some interactivity into their HTML-based pages. Still, the application is a mix of static HTML that relies heavily on the server.

With HTML, all field validation, filtering, calculations, chart creation, etc. must happen remotely on a server. The entire web page is transmitted back and forth to the server every time even a minor calculation or validation needs to occur. This puts an enormous load on the server and on the network. The client should be transmitting just data elements and other messages to the server and handling much of the logic locally, which is exactly the ability JDesignerPro gives you.

The user interface and experience is also much worse in HTML. Because every action must go back to the server in an HTML-based application, the user is forced to watch and wait as pages are redrawn after each "Submit" button is pressed. Applications like this are closer to a series of static forms than a user-friendly program. Static forms are fine for simple data input functions like basic order entry or a simple search routine. But when an application must do more powerful and interactive activities, HTML and JavaScript do not fulfill the need. A JDesignerPro application does offer the necessary features to be an interactive and friendly program.

Furthermore, HTML and JavaScript do not support drawing of application windows and components. For example, to build a tree structure for displaying data in HTML requires a cumbersome series of clickable, linked GIF images. HTML cannot set up menuing, live grids and charts like JDesignerPro can. In HTML, to handle application state you must implement CGI scripts and cookies, which are slow and complicated. A JDesignerPro application handles state automatically because it is an intelligent front-end. These Java clients are just like any other program you already run on your desktop, except that they come over the network to run and talk with remote databases instead of local ones.

The main benefit of HTML is that everyone with a browser, like the Netscape Navigator, can use HTML forms on all platforms and OS’s. Java is limited in its ability to reach all of today’s users. Although that limitation will be gone soon. HTML is also fast to draw a form in the browser window where Java can be slower to download and execute, especially on the Internet, where many people are dialing-up at a speed of 28.8bps. However, once loaded, a JDesignerPro Java application does not need to be redrawn over and over as the user runs the application.

JDesignerPro gives you the power to create as full-featured an application as you might build with PowerBuilderTM or Visual BasicTM, but offers an Intranet-ready, thin, fast client solution. VB and other traditional tools are not made for today’s Intranets and HTML and JavaScript cannot compete from an application standpoint.