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03.30.06
Innoopract Bases Ajax Platform On Eclipse
 By David A. Utter
One of the founding members of the Eclipse Foundation debuted
its concept for the "Rich Ajax Platform"; architecture and usage
will be similar to Eclipse's "Rich Client Platform."
The Rich Client Platform provides Java developers with a foundation for building their applications. Innoopract's proposed Rich Ajax Platform will offer Ajax developers the same type of foundation.
Innoopract explained why the Rich Ajax Platform is now important for developers and Eclipse:
RCP has convincingly addressed the issue of operating system independence and offers sophisticated and flexible application architecture as a basis for robust desktop applications.
Web applications are also becoming faster and more user-friendly with AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). AJAX combines several existing technologies to provide a more dynamic interactive Web UI by selectively downloading content and sparing the need to entirely reload mostly unchanged pages. Yet with all this additional technology being added to Web applications, without the right tools, AJAX further increases the complexity of web applications.
The Rich Ajax Platform helps developers more quickly create the dynamic user interfaces that have become enormously popular with users and site publishers. Innoopract said in a statement development time would be a fraction of that performed using other methods.
Innoopract proposed the platform last week, during EclipseCon in Santa Clara, CA. The company's top executive summarized the proposal later in a statement:
"With RAP we expand Eclipse with the features of Web 2.0", says Jochen Krause, CEO of Innoopract GmbH. In the pursuit of this goal, the German-based company will release the core of its W4T technology as open source into the RAP project and will support a supplier-independent development strategy for the RAP technology.
Ideally, Rich Ajax Platform would extend what developers already know from working with RCP and Eclipse. This extension will allow them to repurpose RCP applications for use in an online environment, as well as create new applications.
With HTML and JavaScript part of the Widget Toolkit in the Rich Ajax Platform, developers do not have to write that particular code. Innoopract also noted "compatibility issues resulting from multiple browsers are solved through the rendering kits that automatically adapt applications to the characteristics of the respective browser."
The Eclipse Foundation welcomed the proposal for the Rich Ajax Platform, which Innoopract submitted at EclipseCon. Said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of Eclipse Foundation, "It is a great example of the technical innovation that is occurring in the Eclipse community."
Innoopract also detailed the objectives of the Rich Ajax Project in AjaxWorld magazine:
• Enable the development of Rich Internet Applications that are based on the Eclipse Plugin architecture.
• Enable AJAX UI development based on a Java component library.
• Provide a Web Workbench similar to the Eclipse platform workbench.
• Align RAP API with the Eclipse platform API.
• Work on defining the right split between Plugins with session scope vs. application scope.
About the Author:
David is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and
business. |
