About developing applications
Some applications that you build might not require the advanced functionality of the Web Application Developer Framework (ADF). In addition, traditional server-based hybrid (server-client) applications can limit the user experience to what is solely available within a browser.
To enhance the user experience with a lightweight client solution, you can leverage Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). RIAs are hosted on a Web server, downloaded to a client, and run within a browser via a plug-in. Typically, an RIA consumes data from remote Web services, includes logic to consolidate and process the data, and ultimately provides the end user with an enhanced presentation environment to visualize and interact with the data.
Esri provides the following APIs built on these RIA industry standard platforms:
- ArcGIS API for Silverlight\Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) builds on the Microsoft Silverlight platform to provide a cross-browser, cross-platform development environment for building and delivering rich interactive applications for the Web. The API also includes assembles to support their use in WPF applications.
- ArcGIS API for Flex provides RIA mapping solutions for customers working with Adobe Flex technology.
Both APIs enable you to integrate ArcGIS for Server and Microsoft Bing Maps services and capabilities in a rich Internet application. These APIs also use the ArcGIS Server Representational State Transfer (REST) API to access information about your services. ArcGIS for Server deployments expose information about their services through a series of uniform resource locators (URLs) for convenient access by developers. The service information and the corresponding URLs are also available through a visual interface called the Services Explorer. For more information, see Working with the REST API.
See the ArcGIS Resource Center to discover and download more information about these products.