Desktop RIA comparison: Dekoh Versus Adobe Apollo
Posted on February 26, 2007
Filed Under General, Industry Trends, Product Comparison.
Dekoh consists of 3 components:
- Dekoh Desktop: Desktop RIA platform.
- Dekoh Applications: Dekoh ships applications that run on Dekoh Desktop.
- Dekoh Network: Enables secure sharing of Dekoh Desktop applications and content on the web. Viewers don’t need to install Dekoh software.
Adobe Apollo and Dekoh Desktop are both RIA platforms on the desktop. Apollo does not have an equivalent of Dekoh Applications and Dekoh Network. Hence, I compare Dekoh Desktop with Apollo in this article.
Installation and OS support
Dekoh and Apollo both are cross operating-system runtime that help developing and running RIA on desktop.
| Feature | Dekoh Desktop | Apollo |
| Cross-OS achieved through | Java web server | Flash/Flex |
| Installation size | 5MB | 5-9MB |
| Single click installation from the web | Yes | Don’t know |
| Automatic updates | Yes. Versioning API available to all applications | Yes. Don’t know if API is available for applications. |
| Startup | Desktop icon, System tray, Windows startup | Desktop icon, System tray, Windows startup |
| OS supported in version 1.0 release | Windows, Mac, Linux | Windows, Mac |
| Browsers supported | IE (6 & 7), Firefox, Safari | None. Home grown rendering engine based on Webkit |
User Interface
Applications can leverage these technologies for rendering UI.
| Feature | Dekoh Desktop | Apollo |
| Build using (any combination) | HTML, DHTML, Javascript, Flash, AJAX, Java Applets | HTML, DHTML, Javascript, Flash, AJAX |
| Reusable Widgets | Yes | No |
| Drag-and-Drop support | Yes. Inside the browser. | Yes |
| Special effects | Some effects made available through JS/AJAX libraries | Window transparency, rotation and many more |
| Browser-plugins | All browser plugins work | None. |
| Browser toolbars | Yes | No |
Programming API
Applications can use these technologies for writing application logic.
| Feature | Dekoh Desktop | Apollo |
| Programming language | JSP, Servlet, Java | Flex |
| Bundled database | Yes | No |
| Other database support | Thru JDBC. Object persistence support thru JPA | None |
| Web services access | Yes | Yes |
| Inter application communication | Java or HTTP | Inter-Application Communication (IAC) protocol |
| OS services, like filesystem access | Thru Standard Java packages and API | Exposed thru Apollo API |
| Invoking other native DLLs, libraries | JNI, Java-COM bridge | None |
| Secure sandbox | Warn users before installing unsigned applications | Don’t know. (Not decided yet as per a product manager) |
General
| Feature | Dekoh Desktop | Apollo |
| Cost | Free (as in beer) | Free (as in beer) |
| License | Open Source | Proprietary |
| RSS support | Yes | No |
| Web 2.0 features like sharing, tagging, commenting | Yes | No |
| Share from desktop, applications or content with personal friend network | Yes | No |
All data regarding Apollo has been gathered through Apollo Developer FAQ and publicly available presentations/videos.
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