Eclipse RAPJUG Cologne, 5th October 2009 Fabian Lange

2 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

Agenda

3 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

Eclipse RAP

•Rich Ajax Platform•Created under the name W4T (WWWWindowingToolkit)

•Eclipse project since Ganymede release•Donated by Innoopract

•Maintained by EclipseSource•Strategic asset for Eclipse 4 (e4) currently in incubation

4 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

So what is it?

•SWT for the web

5 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

How does RAP do that?

•Interfaces!•The reason for using interfaces is that you can switch implementations

Operating System

OSGi

SWT

RCP

Application

RWT

•OSGi•RAP cheats and just claims to be the SWT layer

*architecture stack simplified

6 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

100%

•RAP is not 100% compatible with RCP•And most likely will not be

•RCP has design flaws preventing multiuser support•Workarounds exist, e4 will solve many issues

•Fail early concept•If it is not supported, it doesn’t compile

•Good news: 100% is often not required

7 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

History of RAP

•October 2007•1.0 release. First release to adhere to RCP/SWT APIs

•June 2008•1.1 release, part of Ganymede. Brings many APIs to par

•June 2009•1.2 release, part of Galileo. Improved stability and response times

•Today•Large quantities of RCP application code work on RAP

8 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

Agenda

9 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

Demo

11 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

Agenda

12 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

Light Side

•Migrate existing RCP applications•Depending on app, almost for free

•Develop Web Apps RCP Style•Reuse developer know-how

•Easily develop complex applications•Compared to traditional way of adding JavaScript widgets

•Some means of web styling•Web “compatible” themes

13 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

Dark Side

•Don’t build web sites•It is a pain in many aspects

•Heavy JavaScript•Slow, but browsers get better

•Differences between desktop and web•Loading and saving files, printing and similar

•RAP does not support all RCP features•Some key&mouse stuff, GraphicalContext

14 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

More Topics

20 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

References

•eclipsesource.com/rap•Marketing site with demos and stories

•eclipse.org/rap•Main resource for technical information

•eclipsesource.com/blogs/tag/eclipse-rap•Latest news from the RAP team

•qooxdoo.org•JavaScript Widget Framework used by RAP

21 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

The Book

•www.rap-book.com

•Introduction for developers & managers•Covers RAP 1.1 (works for newer as well)

•Architecture•Includes SWT, RCP and OSGi

•Development•RCP for web and single sourcing

•Deployment•In OSGi or web container

22 © 2009 codecentric GmbH Eclipse RAP

Contact

codecentric GmbHMerscheider Str. 142699 Solingen

Phone: 0212 / 233628 10E-Mail: info@codecentric.deHomepage: www.codecentric.de

Fabian Lange

Senior IT Consultant

E-Mail: lange@codecentric.de