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17 Aug 2006
Hybrid Analysis 2: Presentation
The second thing that I noticed with hybrid client applications is that they use HTML in order to display the entire item or a single field of the Item. This has two advantages: styling and linking. Styling is that the user can change the display style by just changing the style sheet that is used. And more adventurous users might create their own styles. These styles make use of elements defined by the application developer, which might refer to multiple fields of a MicroContent Item. The usage of HTML also allows the author of an Item to add certain style elements, such as tables. But most importantly it allows for the addition of URL's, Javascript, etc. Thus the Client behaves just like a browser, but only shows a single MicroContent Item. and through the usage of links one can go from a MicroContent Item to a web-page.
The poster child example is NetNewswire. This application allows the user to specify it's own styles, but more importantly links. This is great if one wants to view YouTube videos inside the RSS-browser.
Another example is MacGourmet, which allows a user to manage recipes. Although this application is missing the linking to Internet stuff, it adds an interesting twist. The application allows the user to create links between recipes in the database. The application thus supports a form of the MicroWeb: links between individual MicroContent Items.