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RE: Thick Client vs Web Client ~Umberto Nongeroson 21.Nov.03 12:01 PM a Web browser Applications Development All ReleasesAll Platforms
Technically speaking, you can do nearly everything over the web that the Notes Client offers, you will just end up coding half of it yourself. Here's a list of some of the stuff the Notes client has that isn't easily reproducible over the web:
LotusScript - You may be able to reproduce much of the Notes client functionality with JavaScript and/or Java, possibly combined with a bunch of agent calls. Chances are simply coding it in LotusScript for the thick client is easier, though.
Private/Local folder storage - You'll need to manage this on the server.
IM awareness and other widgets - The calendar picker, time picker, color picker, etc. are all really handy, but if you want them on the web you'll need to drop in your own. iNotes has a fair amount of these widgets in a web-accessible format, but those aren't really opened up for general RAD work.
Drag-and-drop anything, "copy selected documents as table", user-customizable views - Code it yourself.
Rich text - The Domino rich text java applet is significantly better than a <textarea> box, but it's a far cry from the true RT capabilities of the Notes client.
Security - The Notes client allows you to "tighten up" your application with less effort than that required when developing for web browsers.
Also keep in mind that the thick client offers a substantially lighter load on your servers. Rendering HTML from Domino can be a chore for the HTTP task, while a Notes client gets to work with the data natively and render on its own hardware. Likewise, an agent running on a Notes client gets to leverage the CPU of that client, whereas if you resort to running it on the server on behalf of a web client you get to contend with anyone else attempting to do the same thing.
That being said, there are many advantages of a web client:
Virtually free - You'd have to pay to find a computer that doesn't have a browser these days.
Familiar interface - The learning curve for the Notes client will probably be more involved unless the users already have experience working with it.
OS diversity - There's a browser for every operating system; a Notes client for few.
Thin - It is a thin client, so the footprint and resource overhead is typically light. A fair amount of this, however, is pushed back onto the server - you may need more iron on that end.
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. . RE: Thick Client vs Web Client (~Sanjay Quettum... 21.Nov.03) 
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