SL Corporation announced the availability of RTView version 5.0. This latest release allows users to mix and match a variety of Web 2.0 technologies – including AJAX and Flash – to deliver the most efficient real-time visibility applications for their needs, without requiring any technical knowledge of the Web 2.0 technologies.

RTView version 5.0 offers a hybrid approach that allows users to choose whichever Web 2.0 technology is most efficient to handle the rendering of Web pages and objects. The ability to mix and match Web 2.0 technologies means that some graphics can be images pushed out from the server, while others are rendered on the client. Further, because RTView handles all of the underlying Web 2.0 programming, the way each graphic is rendered and presented can be completely transparent to the user.

“We simply use the best technologies available to help our customers deliver the richest, most interactive real-time experience,” said Rodney Morrison, vice president of products for SL Corporation. “RTView users just see objects in a palette. They can mix and match these Web 2.0 technologies to create dashboards without worrying about whether the objects are AJAX or Flash, or knowing how to program in FLEX.”

This latest version of RTView promotes several Web 2.0 objectives that improve performance and enhance the interface of real-time visibility applications. RTView:

• Provides data to the client when it’s needed, and only when it’s needed – data are only delivered when the client has subscribed to them.
• Only sends data updates to the client if the data have changed.
• Renders data on the client only for those components that have subscribed to the data – eliminates the need for periodic refreshes of the entire page.
• Provides interactive behavior with the data on the client without having to communicate with the server – offers a comprehensive palette of AJAX and Flash objects.

RTView also allows for “old school” Web technologies such as DHTML, Java, and server-side image generation because, in some situations, they offer the most efficient means of rendering an object. For example, if the user needs to render and maintain a chart with thousands of data points, it would be faster to render the chart on the server and simply push an image of it to the client. However, when more interactive behavior is required, the user may choose from a number of Flash objects in the RTView palette, or create his or her own Flash objects.