Frank Appel

The Eclipse RAP project enables developers to build rich, AJAX-enabled Web applications by using the Eclipse development model, plug-ins and a Java-only API.

RAP is based on using Eclipse Equinox as a server side technology, taking advantage of OSGi and Eclipse Platform features. It provides a widget library (RWT) that implements an API which is close to the SWT API, but deals with the distributed nature of web applications. RWT is programmed in Java as a server side technology and encapsulates JavaScript and AJAX technologies - which are used to provide a rich user experience in a browser. RAP introduces a web workbench similar to the RCP workbench, with selection service, viewparts, etc.

The tutorials demos a sample application highlighting the implementation of eclipse bundles in a server context, the contribution of views, menus, etc to a web workbench and the usage of RWT (RAP Widget Toolkit) to populate the views with UI elements. The tutorial will provide guidance on how to architect plugins (bundles) in a way that they can be reused between RCP and RAP deployment.

Frank is Software Developer at Innoopract Informationssysteme GmbH and works currently on the Rich Ajax Platform (RAP) Project as technical lead. He has been development lead of Innoopract's W4Toolkit (which has been the base of the code donation for the RAP Project) and W4T Eclipse - a visual web application development tool for W4Toolkit. He started developing Eclipse plugins in 2002 and has expert knowledge in architecture of Eclipse-based systems, Eclipse Platform API’s and IDE-Development.

Jochen Krause has been involved with Eclipse since 2002 and is currently a member of the Eclipse Web Tools PMC. At Innoopract, a recognized specialist in Eclipse distribution and visual web application development tools, he is primarily responsible for strategy and product development. He has driven the adoption of Eclipse as the foundation of all of Innoopracts product offerings. By supporting Fortune 500 companies engaging with Eclipse technology he gained a broad understanding of the requirements and needs of the Eclipse enterprise market.