Although I’m primarily a database developer, one of my avocations has been application development.
One aspect that I’m curious about in particular are applications that use a client/server architecture wherein the UI is stored locally on the client machine, while the data is stored on a web server. I’m especially interested in developing an application that does not use the IE front-end.
Being that I’m one of those people that learns by doing, I’ve been looking at the interface that other web apps use and attempt to develop it on my own. One of the apps that I’m using as a learning model is Kareo, a medical practice management software.
Kareo’s web site
The interface is VERY slick. I don’t even know how to approach developing something like this as the only web apps I’ve been exposed to run INSIDE the browser. I’ve never seen one with it’s own front-end.
My question is, where would I start in terms of learning to develop this type of interface for a web app?
You want to make a web application that doesn’t use a browser?
Many UI frameworks have Browser Contexts that you would use to load HTML content into a window (without the browser).
In Windows, you would use this:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.webbrowser.aspx