Application Designer focuses on building user interfaces for composite applications. It allows you to create rich internet applications based on the AJAX technology. It helps IT departments to develop and deploy rich internet and composite applications very rapidly by providing a design and runtime environment that does not require skills in JavaScript, HTML and CSS. It allows you to create rich interfaces (that is: clients that behave like thick clients). The GUI either runs inside a web browser.

The efficiency during the development of user interfaces is based on:

• A rich library of professional controls.

• A simple binding between the controls inside your layout definition and the application running on the server side.

• Tools for creating your layout in a WYSIWYG mode, for creating server-side Java code, as well as defining literals outside the code and for translating these literals.

The usability at runtime is similar to what you are familiar with when working with native GUIs, for example, written in C++ or Java Swing - though the GUI is running 100% inside the browser:

• No page-flickering caused by permanent page-reloading when interacting with the server.

• Very fast and efficient data transfer between browser client and web/application server.

Due to the open architecture, you can easily connect to existing application logic on the server side as well as easily extend the control library with your own controls or even manipulate existing controls.

This introduction is organized under the following headings:

Concept	About layout creation and the server side architecture.
Content Page - Workplace/Portal	About the creation of highly interactive browser pages.
Development Process	About developing, testing, debugging and delivering your application.
Tools	An overview of the tools that are used for the development tasks.