Microsoft finally defines "Smart Client"
Update: See the relaunched Smart Client Developer Center
Dave Hill, from the Microsoft .Net Enterprise Architecture team, has finally definitively explained the term “Smart Client”. He even gets into “Rich Client” and “Thin Client”. Now we can put these terms to bed. I was going round and round discussing this with architecturally minded folks. I can finally refer folks to this document. Thanks, Dave!
A Smart Client:
- Utilizes Local Resources
- Is Connected
- Is Offline Capable
- Has an Intelligent Install and Update
- Has Client Device Flexibility
Here's a very nice graph you should bandy about when you're explaining Smart Clients.
The document unfortunately does not give a dictionary definition of Rich and Thin clients, but the document does explain what Microsoft means by them. Rich client is a traditional Client/Server client application and Thin Client is a browser client.
Dave also has a Smart Client Architecture Webcast. Check it out. His blog also has some No-Touch Deployment goodies.
The article introduces a new application block:
Smart Client Offline Application Block Release Set For Mid February
The Online/Offline Application Block is a set of documentation and reusable code components that the developer can use to enable an application to continue working even when the network connection is not available, and switch to working online as soon as the network connection becomes available. This block will provide guidance on when and how to develop Offline Support for Windows Forms-based clients, while addressing the issues of presence detection, caching of reference and transaction data, reconciliation of reference and transaction data, and two-way data synchronization schemes.
and let's us greet Martin Fowler. Martin Fowler is on Microsoft's Architect Advisory Board. Hi, Martin!
Please don't make us use Party objects!