Java Term of the Week: RIA

One acronym that has been consistently touted around the new JavaFX release is RIA. RIA stands for "Rich Internet Application". A rich internet application normally runs on a web page but tries to provide the same functionality as a normal desktop application.

RIAs were born when traditional static html pages were found to be too limiting for users. To make using a web application enjoyable for the user, user interfaces needed to be more interactive and perform faster. These days RIAs provide a richer set of features such as animation or the ability to drag and drop.