The document discusses single sourcing using the Rich Ajax Platform (RAP). RAP allows developers to write Rich Client Platform (RCP) applications that can run as both desktop and web applications from the same code base. It does this by using the qooxdoo JavaScript library to render the Swing-like user interface in the browser. Developing for RAP requires some adjustments compared to plain RCP, such as using different target platforms and APIs, but it enables writing applications once that can be deployed to both desktop and web with minimal additional effort.

1. Single Sourcing using Rich Ajax Platform
Ankur Sharma
PDE UI Contributor
ankur_sharma@in.ibm.com
© 2009 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

2. Agenda
o Rich Ajax Platform
o How it works?
o Single Sourcing
o How to develop for RAP?
o The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

3. RCP RAP Plug-ins
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stringgle/298571748/
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

4. Rich Ajax Platform
o brings RCP applications to browser
o is not a web-application development toolkit
o exposes sub-set of RCP API
o enables re-use
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

5. How RAP works?
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

6. How RAP works?
o RWT impersonates SWT
o uses qooxdoo Javascript library
for rendering UI in browser
o runs in a OSGi runtime (Equinox)
with servlet bridge
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

7. Single Sourcing
o write once run everywhere
o develop desktop and web client simultaneously
from same code base
o maximize code and skill reuse
o can manage with few Javascript and web-
development skills and resources
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

8. How to develop for RAP?
o Things you need to be careful about
– Target Platforms
– Dependencies
– Platform specific APIs
– Validation
– Resources
– Threads
– Jobs
...
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

9. RAP Target Platform
o RAP can not co-exists with RCP
o has separate run-time thus needs different TP
o better use different workspaces
o develop principally for RAP TP
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

10. Approach
o Dependencies
– Favor Require-Bundle. Better tooling support.
– Import-Packages suffer split package problems
o Missing API
– Build fragments
– Use compatibility plug-in
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

11. RCP vs RAP
RCP App.
RAP App.
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

12. Session
o Singletons are application scope
o Use SessionSingletonBase for session scope
o Use a façade
o Move instance creation to fragments
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

13. © 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

14. Good, Bad and Ugly
o Good
– Easy to port legacy RCP Applications to web
o Bad
– Internationalization and localization is tricky
o Ugly
– Need a bunch of Ant scripts, resource templates and
few jars to build a .war
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

15. © 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

16. © 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

17. Sources
o http://www.eclipse.org/rap/introduction.php
o http://www.eclipse-banking.org/pdf/slides/Krause.pdf
o http://eclipsesource.com/en/info/rcp-rap-single-sourcing-
guideline
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0

18. Image Credits
o http://www.flickr.com/photos/stringgle/298571748/
© 2010 by International Business Machines; made available under the EPL v1.0