Cédric Bosdonnat - Ajaxhttps://bosdonnat.fr/2008-05-14T22:16:00+02:00A geek's perspectiveEclipse RCP and AJAX2008-05-14T22:16:00+02:002008-05-14T22:16:00+02:00Cédric Bosdonnattag:bosdonnat.fr,2008-05-14:/eclipse-rcp-and-ajax.html<p>Some time ago, I've discovered an Eclipse project which sounds
interesting to me. This project aims at providing an AJAX runtime target
for Eclipse RCP applications. I didn't have more time but to play a
little with the public demos. Thus I still wondered what is the gap for
an …</p><p>Some time ago, I've discovered an Eclipse project which sounds
interesting to me. This project aims at providing an AJAX runtime target
for Eclipse RCP applications. I didn't have more time but to play a
little with the public demos. Thus I still wondered what is the gap for
an Eclipse RCP applications developper before starting to create a RAP
application.</p>
<p>Today I had some time to have a look at the sources of a RAP application
project. There is quite nothing more to do if you are already
programming Eclipse RCP applications as the differences are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Adding the <code>org.eclipse.rap.ui</code> plugin to the dependencies.</li>
<li>Importing the <code>javax.servlet</code> and <code>javax.servlet.http</code> packages</li>
<li>Add an <code>org.eclipse.rap.ui.entrypoint</code> extension to define the RAP
application entry point</li>
</ul>
<p>To internationalization of a RAP application works also differently from
the standard Eclipse internationalization. This is described in the RAP
on-line help: internationalizing a RAP application shouldn't be a huge
problem.</p>
<p>A RAP application can even be packaged in a WAR file as any other web
application. There is no wizard to perform this, but a sample Eclipse
feature projects with Ant build scripts are available on the Eclipse
CVS. There is also generic Equinox documentation on that topic at
<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/equinox/server/http_in_container.php">http://www.eclipse.org/equinox/server/http_in_container.php</a>.</p>
<p>Thus creating a standard Web application by using the JFace and SWT APIs
is quite easy. When combined with <a href="http://www.springframework.org/osgi">Spring-OSGi</a>, let us imagine
creating powerful and sexy Web applications.</p>
<p>The only thing I still would like to see before being a RAP fan is a
benchmark of an application used by hundreds or thousands of users. Does
it make a difference with toolkits like <a href="http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/">GWT</a> or <a href="http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/">YUI</a>? Can I use
RAP for business applications used every day by a whole company? </p>