Eclipse RAP and Rich Internet Applications

With the launch of Eclipse RAP (Rich Ajax Platform), eclipse made a splash in already crowded pool of AJAX/RIA frameworks.


Actually, the architecture of Eclipse RAP is not same as other JavaScript-centric AJAX frameworks like DoJo, YUI or Rico (and million other frameworks).
It is server-side component framework built on Eclipse plugin platform or RCP model. Development of web application is same as Eclipse RCP (Rich Client Platform) application but instead of running as Desktop application it runs on browser. So you write only Java code(precisely eclipse plugin) and it generates HTML/CSS/JavaScript code for browser (using http://qooxdoo.org/ JavaScript GUI Framework). Client-state and server-state are maintained using AJAX calls.

In my view, more web application will be built using "pure" Server-Side Component Model (SSCM) web frameworks rather than relying on developers to hand-code HTML, JavaScript and CSS to develop or integrate JavaScript based GUI components.

Eclipse RAP is not the only choice for SSCM based frameworks. NextApp Echo is available for long time and has great set of components but Eclipse RAP has JFace/SWT based component model and support of eclipse platform.

 Cons :

The biggest issue I have seen with SSCM frameworks is large memory footprint and large number of http request for client-server object synchronization.


Demo : Click for Live Demo

I took a stab at it and converted DBExplorer to an Eclipse RAP application.

DB Explorer Web Eclipse RAP Edition

May 25, 2008 by Sheel Khanna
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