Article: Web 2.0 the Eclipse Way

Interested in the Rich Ajax Platform (RAP) but somehow missing the courage to take the first steps? This "Introduction to RAP" by Chris Aniszczyk and Benjamin Muskalla will give you a head start.


The article is the first of a two-part series and covers the following topics:

• Downloading and Installing RAP
  
• Launching a RAP application
• Differences of RAP to GWT
• A side-by-side comparison of the RAP Hello World / Mail examples with the sources of their RCP counterparts

The article includes a .zip archive with three sample RAP projects. The forthcoming second part will cover some more advanced topics like theming and branding.

Read the article here.


Image: (c) Copyright 2006, DerGrafischer/photocase.de

RAP 1.0 - What you won't find in the New & Noteworthy

RAP 1.0 has been released and you've probably heard about it already, as it was well covered by blogs and press alike. Read on for a couple for helpful items, which didn't make the New & Noteworthy, as they are not part of the RAP Target Platform, but available through the RAP SDK Feature.

The RAP SDK Feature adds a bunch of RAP-specific tooling to your Eclipse IDE and can be installed from this update site:

http://download.eclipse.org/technology/rap/update-site

Here is what you get after installing it:

1. Help > Welcome > Overview has additional intro content to help you get started with RAP including: a wizard for installing the RAP Target Platform; a "Quick Tour" cheat sheet explaining how to launch the demo application; information on getting the RAP sources from CVS.
   
   


2. Help > Help Contents has a RAP Developer Guide with information about basic topics (RAP Examples, Launching, Writing a Hello Word with RAP) and advanced material (custom widgets, theming, branding, .war deployment). You can read the help online too.
   
   


3. The Templates page of the New Plug-in Wizard (File > New > Other > Plug-in Project) has three RAP specific templates: RAP Application with a View; RAP Hello World; RAP Mail Template. You must be compiling against RAP Platform Target to compile these templates without errors.
   
   


4. There is a RAP Application Launcher under Run > Open Run Dialog... > RAP Application. While you can use both either the OSGi (i.e. Equinox) or the RAP Launcher, the later one has a few RAP-specific UI elements for configuring the port and log level for your application without having to remember the necessary runtime arguments.
   
   
   

Got curious? Watch this great screencast on how to install the RAP SDK and run a demo application (4 minutes).

Article - Web-enabled RCP Applications with the Rich Ajax Platform (RAP)

This 5-page article, by RAP committers Benjamin Muskalla and Ralf Sternberg, introduces the Rich Ajax Platform Project (RAP) and explains why it is the rich internet application framework of choice for Eclipse RCP developers.


Read the RAP article (pdf) to learn more about:

• Bringing an Eclipse RCP application to the web
  
• Getting started with the Rich Ajax Platform
  
• RAP's inner workings and a comparison between SWT and RWT
  
• Customizing the look and feel of your application with Theming
• Scalability and performance of RAP
  

The article was originally published in the German "Eclipse Magazin".

Image: (c) Copyright 2006, DerGrafischer/photocase.de

Upcoming RAP Talks on Oct 10th and Oct 16th

Curious about the Eclipse Rich Ajax Platform? Want to learn more about it and ask some questions? Then consider attending one of these upcoming talks:

• If you are attending the Eclipse Summit Europe 2007 you may be interested in the "RCP goes Web 2.0 - The Rich Ajax Platform" talk, by RAP committers Benjamin Muskalla and Ralf Sternberg. They will present the 1.0 release of the Rich Ajax Platform, new & noteworthy features and several RAP highlights. The talk is scheduled for Wed, Oct 10th, at 3:40PM in "Bürgersaal 1". More...
  
  
• If you are in the Oregon / Washington area there is a RAP-talk at the Portland Java User Group. In "Java-based web-apps with the Eclipse Rich Ajax Platform" I will introduce RAP to an audience of Java Developers (no Eclipse knowledge assumed) by explaining key concepts, pointing-out noteworthy features and demonstrating the complete cycle of creating a small RAP application. The talk is scheduled for Tue, Oct 16th, at 6:30 PM at the Oracle Downtown Campus. More...
  

See you there,
Elias.

Image: (c) Copyright 2005, Flowin2/photocase.com

Introducing "RAP Insights"

With RAP v1.0 almost out of the door – the official release is scheduled for this week – we have found some time to create a blog for the RAP committers and experts at Innoopract.

We will use this blog for:

• posting tips & tricks
• linking to interesting RAP-content we find in the web (articles, tutorials, etc.)
  
• announcing upcoming talks and events
  
• sharing RAP-related thoughts and ideas
• notification of upcoming releases (in addition to the newsgroup)

Interested in RAP and want to learn more? Then subscribe to our feed.


Never heard of Eclipse RAP?

RAP is hot and stands for Rich Ajax Platform. It is an Eclipse Project that enables Java developers to build browser-based AJAX applications using the full Java libraries, Eclipse APIs and a plug-in architecture. It does so by providing an web-enabled implementation of SWT, JFace and the Workbench while keeping a compatible API. As a consequence, this makes it easy to port existing Eclipse RCP applications (rich client) to the web. Don't believe it? Check out this demo.


Kind regards,
Elias.