Contents Introduction 1 Considering The Pitfalls Of Legacy Technology 2 Integrating HTML5 Into Your Technology Stack 6 Javascript Charting Libraries: 10 HTML5 Canvas Element Vs. SVG Why Should Developers Use JavaScript Modules? 12 The Importance Of UX In Financial Applications 15 Enhancing Clarity Through UX Design 18 Business Benefits: The 5 Benefits of 21 Advanced Charting Solutions The Nitty Gritty: Getting the Library 23 Introduction Technology for financial institutions today is rapidly changing. The industry is currently experiencing a “once-in-a-generation” change—one that happens about every 15 to 20 years— as firms are shifting from legacy applications that were built in Java, .NET and C++ to HTML5. The last time a movement of this caliber happened was during the .com era, when companies en masse shifted over to web and Java systems. In the last several years, the momentum of HTML5 has resulted in a technological overhaul within the capital marketplace. Many financially focused companies are investing significant amounts of time and resources into transforming their front-end user interface to enhance their offerings and heighten the user experience. Financial companies are currently in a race to not only offer the most competitive and beautiful interface, but also the most immersive. Delivering on the promises associated with the future of the trading desk - clean and beautiful visualizations, simplicity, and interactivity - is ChartIQ’s driving force. 1 DATE PUBLISHED Considering The Pitfalls Of Oct 13, 2016 AUTHOR Legacy Technology Michael McClung vs Consider this. It always feels easier to stay in our comfort zones. As developers, our comfort zones are typically defined by the technologies we know, whether it’s an operating system, a language, a framework, or a library. However, what we know best may often be a legacy technology, which, in the world of software, can leave an individual or a team behind the technology curve. But it’s not always our fault. Legacy technologies have a substantial amount of inertia within software organizations. Core products are almost always (by definition) built on legacy technology. Development teams have been trained to expertise levels on this legacy technology, and capital investments have been made on them. It’s obvious there are strengths and weaknesses. Yet, organizations rarely explicitly decide to stick with a legacy technology that has run past its prime. As the incumbent, it simply becomes the default choice. Even worse, the choice between keeping legacy and replacing technologies is too often seen as a binary decision, with legacy winning through acquiescence, when in fact, a transition over time is optimal and achievable. Thus, it makes sense to consciously investigate how in-house technologies measure up to the state-of-the-art ones periodically. After all, “state-of-the-art” simply means “the best that’s currently available.” Using the “best” to build applications typically translates to better development efficiency—more top developers are attracted to projects, and perceptions from both inside and outside are improved. Ultimately, better products can be delivered more quickly and at a lower cost while a team’s skill set is enhanced—a win-win for all involved. 2 | The Bridge to HTML5 However, there is almost always an initial hurdle: What constitutes a legacy in-house technology being past its prime is difficult and even controversial. What determines whether a state-of-the-art technology is compelling and worth adopting isn’t always clear either. Often, the hype around this new technology blurs objective comparison. Unproven tools and products are touted as state-of-the -art, spelling out the weaknesses of legacy technologies before their own weaknesses are well understood and addressed. Early adoption comes with risks and headaches. It is critically important that organizations look for objective evidence when making a crucial analysis. Are you or your organization operating on legacy technology and unproven tools? HTML5 is the most compelling state-of-the-art technology for building virtually any GUI-based, cross-device application. HTML5 is well past the tipping point— it’s been thoroughly vetted, matured, and is here to stay. In the field, it is already supporting a new generation of applications. Faster processors, increased bandwidth, standardization, and better implementations have all contributed to the evolution of today’s browser engines into full-fledged application infrastructures. HTML5 has even become the lingua franca for all browsers. HTML5 runs within browsers on virtually every user-facing computer, whether it’s a desktop, smartphone, or tablet. It is, by definition, “connected” to the power of the Internet and cloud-based services, and with recent innovations, it can run in standalone “browser containers” that mimic traditional desktop applications without being resource-heavy. It supports all the key media types, from PDFs to streaming video. It is extremely stable, secure, and requires no updates. Along with its siblings, CSS and JavaScript, HTML5 can build 99% of today’s applications. Only the outliers with extreme requirements are better-suited for native environments when it comes to cross-device GUI-based applications. If you aren’t using HTML5 to build user-facing applications, we encourage you to compare it to what you are currently using. Interested in learning how legacy technology is changing the industry? Continue reading to learn how HTML5 is more necessary than ever. The Promise of HTML5 Interactivity HTML5 is, at its heart, interactive. When managing and analyzing large amounts of data, users need interactivity. It’s important to have the ability to zoom in and out, swipe, and move around quickly as a trader on any device. This kind of interactivity was difficult to achieve with legacy technology, not only because it put an extreme burden on the developer to build it, but also because 3 some of the tools developers were leveraging were not meant to be dynamic. They used static charts like infographics, which are useful in demonstrating 90% of data, but the other 10% that’s super critical and financial required tools that were not available. Now, with HTML5 and ChartIQ, you have a technology and a tool that’s interactive and much better for traders and analysts who need to understand their data. Improved Interface HTML5 offers the ability to build powerful user interfaces that break the old paradigms. Because HTML5 is so flexible, it can accommodate any interface, giving developers freedom and agility. Programmers can build an interface that actually solves the problem rather than trying to cram a problem into a pre-existing interface. The end result? Businesses that use HTML5 have happier customers and better user experiences across the board. For the financial space and capital markets, especially—it is all about moving quickly. Paradoxically, the financial space has been held back by heavy legacy technology, always at least five years behind and trying to get to the new stuff. JavaScript, a fairly newer language, sounds very lightweight, but it’s not. It’s an extremely powerful language, though it’s not difficult to learn. Even a novice developer can create interactive websites using JavaScript because it is so easy to understand. On the other hand, JavaScript offers powerful architectural tools for hardcore developers, which enables them to program incredible solutions. JavaScript is the first language that has been able to cover ground from simple scripting to deep architecture. When most people think about HTML5, they think of it running in a browser, but the reality is that HTML5 is everywhere—it’s pervasive. You can run HTML5 in a mobile app, a Java app, and a .Net app. HTML5 is the solution that is moving technology forward, which is why ChartIQ’s product portfolio is built completely in HTML5. 4 | The Bridge to HTML5 Back to Table of Contents DATE PUBLISHED Sept 6, 2016 Integrating HTML5 Into Your AUTHOR Terry Thorsen Technology Stack Many developers today—as many as 37%—are not implementing HTML5 at all or only somewhat in their applications. Since being declared the W3C standard in 2014, HTML5 has become popular for many reasons. However, the complete transition to HTML5 for many developers still seems daunting. ChartIQ outlines why it uses HTML5 to build its data visualization products and how it has overcome obstacles below. Containers: Building HTML5 Desktop Applications With the advent of HTML5, it is now possible to build uncompromising business applications in the browser. The introduction of the HTML5 API narrowed the functionality and performance gap between browser and desktop applications by providing a high-speed canvas for data visualization, WebSockets for streaming network communications, a file system API, and more. The list of advantages continues to grow. Given these advances, the “last mile” for HTML5 is to gain the capability of acting like a true desktop application that is indistinguishable from native applications. Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) is the technology that makes this possible. CEF essentially allows native applications to embed a Chrome browser into their UI in a way that is seamless and invisible to the end user. Thanks to innovations from a few brilliant companies, this technology has been abstracted so that it can now be easily leveraged to build new desktop applications and to extend existing applications with HTML5 functionality. 5 Why HTML5? This all sounds great, right? But only if you’re first convinced that HTML5 offers a unique advantage over traditional programming methods. Native coding (Java, .NET, Objective-C) is alive and well, but it is now generally understood that the HTML/CSS paradigm is usually simpler, quicker, and more flexible than traditional native approaches. HTML’s evolution was primarily driven by graphic designers who required flexible layout and complete control over aesthetics in order to build beautiful, mostly print-inspired web pages.