Introduction (Magic xpa 3.x)
Rich Client is part of Magic xpa's "rich" set of tools.
If you've been using Magic xpa, you know that it handles the detail work for you when you are linking to, say, different kinds of databases. You can create a data source that can be used in a program, but the actual physical data source ... ISAM, SQL, XML ... can be determined at runtime or based on which components are used.
Rich Client extends this functionality so that you can run a program over the Web on various hardware platforms, using the same sort of Magic xpa programming you are familiar with.
Magic xpa uses a thin client running on a .NET framework to accomplish this.
For information about the Rich Client infrastructure, see Rich Client Modules.
So why would you use Rich Client?
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Thin Client: A Rich Client program can run on any computer that is connected to the Internet. Magic xpa does not need to be installed on the client machine.
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Browser-Free: Your Rich Client programs will run over the Internet, but are not dependent on any Browser software. This means, for instance, that you don't need to worry whether the user is using Explorer or Firefox or which version.
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"Rich" look and feel: The .NET client will have the native OS look and feel, and includes a richer GUI interface than HTML.
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Complex Programs: Rich Client programs can be more complex than your standard Internet Browser programs. In fact, they look and work a lot like the Magic xpa Online programs you are used to.
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Platform independent: Rich Client works on the .NET framework. That means it is not tied to one operating system or version of that operating system. Nor is it tied to a version of a Browser.
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Robust: Rich Client programs can handle high volume transactions and high volumes of requests.
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Context Management: the Magic xpa engine will provide the context management for each user automatically, so each user has an independent session, similar to the Magic xpa Online environment.
Best of all, you can get all this functionality without a large learning curve. Rich Client programs, as you will see in this class, are designed very much like regular Magic xpa Online programs, even though they actually function very differently behind the scenes.
