There's been lots of talk
recently about desktop/web platforms. Last week we mentioned more News Reader desktop
apps powered by
Microsoft's WPF platform, and of course this week Adobe has featured twice on R/WW
due to its unveiling
of Apollo. We've also profiled smaller companies in the past - e.g. Laszlo and Morfik. The latter company, Morfik, has mostly been
flying under the radar for the past year, but their 100% Ajax platform is getting set for
its 1.0 release at the end of March. I caught up with the team recently to see what
they've got under the hood....
The last time I profiled Morfik, in April 2006, I noted that their goal is to push the edges of what can run on current browsers. They're doing this by creating a platform on which developers can develop complex and highly functional Ajax applications. Morfik then, is designed to take advantage of the browser rendering engine to its fullest potential.
One of Morfik's more intriguing lab experiments currently is the transformation of the Salesforce.com interface into a purely Ajax one. AjaxSalesforce was described to me as a demonstration of "what a Salesforce.com experience could truly be like, if state-of-the-art Ajax technology is used". Created with Morfik AppsBuilder, the app aims to create a UI that mimics the functionality of a desktop CRM system - but using 100% Ajax.
In a nutshell, Morfik allows developers to use high-level programming languages (which give the developer more power - e.g. BASIC, C#, Pascal) to create web apps. It does this by converting apps from high level language INTO Ajax code. For example, says Morfik, all the rich internet apps in their labs were written in a high level language, then translated into Javascript. So essentially you can develop web apps not needing to know Javascript, or even what Ajax is.
You can also create web services using Morfik. In our discussion, I noticed that Adobe's Flex was being mentioned a lot as a point of comparison. In the case of web services, the Morfik developers told me their platform offers "everything in one box" - that developers can use external things, unlike with Flex.
Another feature of Morfik is that it can create "unplugged" web apps, meaning offline functionality. They've built real world examples (some which can't be mentioned publicly yet) that can run unplugged, with access to a central or local database - all via the web browser! Yes, offline web browsing and well before Firefox 3 has delivered similar functionality.
One real world example I can quote is a French investment house, which is using Morfik technology to allow their salesforce to go out into the field and collect data on their laptops, in the browser but offline - then when they come back to the office, everything is synced up automatically.
Another prototype is a desktop version of Gmail, which has the ability to check email offline:
Morfik's platform is still in development, but their 1.0 version is due for release sometime in March - it's currently in the last beta process. For developers reading this, I encourage you to go test it out, because this is a leading edge web development toolset. The pricing: an express license is free for non-commercial apps, and they also offer a "professional license" which has no deployment or ongoing cost and can run anywhere/everywhere in a business.
So how does Morfik stack up to its competition? This can get complicated for non-developers like me, but the crux of it is that Morfik uses 100% Ajax and renders in the native browser. Whereas all the other platforms use non-native browser plug-ins (like Flash) or render outside the browser. Adobe's Apollo and Laszlo both largely output in Flash (a browser plug-in) and Microsoft's WPF renders outside the browser.
So Morfik thinks there's nothing on the market comparable to their platform. Possibly their main threat though is whatever Google might be cooking up. The Google Web Toolkit is a similar tool to Morfik, in that it enables developers to create sophisticated Ajax applications using Java. There was even a rumor swirling around in May last year that Google partnered with Morfik, or licensed technology from it. Morfik is tight-lipped about GWT, as they are apparently still under NDA obligations. However, they told me that "despite Google's technology claims, Google does not use GWT for any of its on-line services".
It's unclear to me what the relationship is between Google and Morfik, but we can speculate on the reasons why Google doesn't use GWT internally on its own apps. There could be some legal issue constraining GWT usage, making it risky for high stake services such as GMail or Google Maps. Or it may be that GWT is not as good as Google says it is. Certainly Morfik is adament that their technology is far more sophisticated and complete than GWT. I'm not qualified to comment on that, but it is true that Morfik has been working on their platform for a long time - since 1999 - and so they may well have an advantage over Google in this domain.
Now I'm no developer, so I'm expecting the programmers in R/WW's readership to jump into the comments and give us their views (which in my experience, are usually forthright and sans mincing of words!). Morfik itself claims its platform is the future of how you develop Ajax apps. According to them, the Morfik platform gives you a framework for building controls - and not just fancy visual effects. They say it allows you to create the "best effects possible in the browser" and that there's "no limitation on what you can do with ajax, but there hadn't been a system to take advantage of that before."
Let us know what you think in the comments.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Morfik's Ajax Platform Set To Challenge Google, Adobe, Microsoft.
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Comments
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Sounds interesting although some more details are still to be found out.
The basic criticism which Google's Web Toolkit has faced is that it's the wrong flow of architecture. It does makes thing easier for a Java developer but in true technical terms it's like going to England from USA while flying around the globe (ok wait, that was a wierd example ;) ).
Anyways, things will only get clear once they release it.
Posted by: Muneeb | March 1, 2007 1:37 AM$5K for a developers license to use commercially? I'll learn AJAX myself and use my code at that rate and wait for someone to release something more...free? No thank you.
Posted by: Delixe | March 1, 2007 1:37 AMI am using it to build a full blown rss reader with offline capabilities and syncing when go online. Soon (in a month) to release beta and website.
Developing with WebOS Apps Builder has been great, because it is a RAD tool, it has visual designer, and *many* others goodies no tool currently has.
Posted by: Stoicho M | March 1, 2007 2:25 AMThis does sound interesting. However "no limitation on what you can do with ajax, but there hadn't been a system to take advantage of that before." is just wrong. There may be no limitation on what you can do within the confines of AJAX, but suggesting you can do anything with AJAX is wrong.
AJAX has it's place - as does Flex/Flash however they are different and both have advantages / disadvantages.
This does sound a very good tool for building AJAX apps without learning AJAX - however is that a good thing? As programmers do we really want to rely on a tool to generate code for us - and not understand what it is doing?
Posted by: Steve | March 1, 2007 2:35 AMGoogle Web Toolkit is Open Source (version 1.3) and there are already a few dozen external contributors developing for the project... vs ???
Posted by: Colin | March 1, 2007 3:13 AMJust for precision, GWT is the equivalent to Scriptor in morfik and it's only supporting Java, while scriptor support Basic, Pascal and C# ... I don't think you are comparing the same thing.
AJAX Magazine have a full coverage of Morfik's features if you are interested
Posted by: Hatem | March 1, 2007 3:51 AMNow we have a great big blur between the desktop and the web, what do the R/WW developer community think budding developers should concentrate on; high-level programming languages, or web languages?
Is there a greater reach for Morfik over making use of developers who know high-level programming languages, but don't know web languages? Will we see a shift to working with high-level languages and converting to the web? Surely it would make more sense to work in the language that you intend the application to end up running in? It's like writing a book in English when you only intend to have it reach a Chinese market.
Posted by: Neil Cauldwell | March 1, 2007 5:00 AMHi Richard, OpenLaszlo as of Jan 2007 has pluggable renderers. For 4.0b1 this means you can render the same app using Flash OR DHTML / Javascript / ajax. When you see this demo you'll really appreciate how advanced DHTML with javascript is: http://www.openlaszlo.org/demos#LZPIX%20in%20OL4
Re: it being a high level language; this always has pros and cons. Such a language works well if it's good at expressing commonly-identified patterns that people spend a lot of time trying to express easily. Some of the ajax mechanisms may be like that, but there are also some pretty useful mechanisms to support that. Fundamentally, it generates javascript, and when it comes to debugging, you'll be debugging javascript. Unless they build a debugger as well?
Posted by: Julian | March 1, 2007 6:06 AMHi
I evuluated Morfik during a study course. I was absolutely not convinced about Morfik, as it was too much beta (missing features and documentation, things not working as expected) and too less usable. Especially for people who like to see, what actually happens (read: programmers) this tool is a knightmare to debug. Hopefully the 1.0 version will proof better.
Posted by: alr | March 1, 2007 7:12 AMHowever I will write my diploma thesis now about GWT and looking much more into it. :-)
Commercial Ajax solutions sound intriguing but I don't think they'll have a large standalone footprint long-term. These companies will ultimately get acquired for their know-how, not their market penetration.
Zapatec, another AJAX marketer, is very compelling out of the box. I've used it on some basic assigments. They've got some nice polished functions. But it's buggy. My partner, meanwhile, has used scriptaculous. Long range, I can't see us paying big bucks for commercial Ajax licenses to distribute our products/services. We'll put the work in ourselves.
Also, I went to Morfik's website. Did anyone see those URLs? Ugly.
Posted by: Todd | March 1, 2007 7:18 AMJulian:
- they DO include a full-featured debugger both for the browser code and for the server code :-)))
- you don't have to see the JavaScript *if you don't want* AT ALL; neither deal with HTML, or XML, or... all of this is taken care of :-)))
- BUT you can also get your hands wet, if you want ;-)
Neil:
- ALL applications in the world finally end up being run in machine code; so shall we throw out all the compilers/interpreters, even assemblers out there and take out our Monitor programs to poke around hex opcodes, hand calculating relative jumps?
- We are on web time, so productivity is king as long as the solution is efficient (does not require exorbitant resources to run). Morfik is exactly doing that: you can develop in a truly RAD environment (visual design + database design + debugging, etc.) and the generated code is (a) compiled machine code on the server (no CLI or byte code, script interpreter can beat that raw performance) (b) optimized code on the client (most statements translate 1-to-1 to JavaScript).
- Scripting languages (like JavaScript) are perfect for many things, but are not particularly suited for large scale development due to their lack of "proper" OO, strong type checking, etc.
- Morfik has the potential to become the Visual Basic or Access or FoxPro of the web: when there are budget constraints and the task is clean you don't want to pay someone who has to orchestrate and work with all of (X)HTML, DOM, JavaScript, XML, SOAP, PHP/Java/ASP.NET/whatever, Apache configuration, database configuration, etc. instead you want someone focus on the business logic and clear visual design and rely on a platform taking care of the rest efficiently.
- As an example: in cca. one week's time I created a prototypical Weekly Calendar control that rivals the functionality of Goggle Calendar's weekly view (you will be able to check out in a few days at http://www.menturio.hu).
Colin:
- GWT covers probably 20% of Morfik functionality (GWT: UI toolkit; Morfik: complete environment); OTOH it does have a bright future, too :-)
Steve:
Posted by: Peter Illes | March 1, 2007 7:19 AM- I created a few fun sample apps that border on the "insanely not AJAX" tag (e.g. my Pong game) and also working on a Visio-like flowcharting engine -- all this is great fun!
- The pros always want to understand the "how", and you can: the app framework source code is included, itself written in a high level OO language.
That's what Microsoft's ASP.ET AJAX already is. You use any web server (asp.net, php, ...), call web services right from ajax and you can surely write ajax controls as well. There's also a prototype technology where you can convert C# code to JavaScript.
Posted by: Konstantin | March 1, 2007 8:03 AMThanks for the insight, Peter. I look forward to seeing the Weekly Calendar.
Posted by: Neil Cauldwell | March 1, 2007 8:19 AMThere's more than one company competing with all those...
(Check out my signature... ;)
.t
Posted by: Thomas Hansen | March 1, 2007 11:59 AMIt is my opinion that this is precisely what Yahoo is doing with YUI. Eventually, they will move to a similar model. Already, they are pushing developers to load the js directly from Yahoo.com. The whole problem is having a consistent adoption of an API. I think Yahoo is way ahead and will win ultimately.
Posted by: Patrick Bucher | March 1, 2007 1:07 PMOr if you are a .NET programmer you could use something like Script# ( http://projects.nikhilk.net/Binaries/ScriptSharp.pdf ) to translate from C# to JavaScript for Free!
Posted by: Nigel Parker | March 1, 2007 1:08 PMThe lab experiment, doesn't even load properly my browser. giggles :)
Posted by: G@ur@v | March 1, 2007 2:32 PMI suspect Google doesn't use GWT for it's apps because of timeframes. Gmail & Google Maps were developed well before GWT, and so I think that GWT was developed FROM those apps, rather than the other way around.
The big advantage GWT has it that it is open source & free. That means a lot more developers will play with it and become familiar enough to recommend it.
Development tools from independent companies always struggle because it's SO difficult to build marketshare, and without marketshare it's difficult to find developers.
Posted by: Nick Lothian | March 1, 2007 3:43 PMGoogle Base is now using GWT by the way...
http://googlebase.blogspot.com/2006/12/plastic-surgery.html
Posted by: Bob Lebel | March 1, 2007 3:59 PMDear Neil & Co.,
My Calendar demo is now on-line at http://calendar.labs.morfik.com
Please check it out and come over to my piBlog (at http://www.pannonrex.com/blog ) to discuss it in details, or drop me a mail. I am *very* interested in your opinion.
Please keep in mind, that it was approx. one week's time, so of course, it is not fully functional, but I am quite happy about the "draggability" and the seemingly simple algorithm that packs parallel events next to each other (it looks better than Outlook, IMHO:) I'm continuing the development, so if anyone is interested, just drop me a mail.
Peter
Posted by: Peter Illes | March 6, 2007 1:06 AMThis takes my back to a good idea that did not fly: BeOS
I hope insperation prevails... all obstacles
Over come the if's and butt's, concentrating on the top 10% of the market share ... for acceptance
Then with the easy to use, offer it free, advance utilities charge...
Allow pirating... that how MS gained its strong hold...
Posted by: Allerguten | April 7, 2007 5:18 PM