PR0029 - 2010-05-31

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Eclipse RCP as an Application Platform

Eclipse is probably best known as a world-class Java IDE, but it is so much more if you just scratch the surface. Deep in the core of Eclipse, you find Eclipse RCP - the “Rich Client Platform" - that provides all the essential services for almost all types of client applications.This talk explores the services built into Eclipse RCP and shows some examples of what is possible with the platform.At the end, we also touch on the future of Eclipse RCP with the advent of Eclipse 4.0.

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Agenda

Eclipse is… what exactly?

The Eclipse Architecture

The timeline for Eclipse 4.0

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Eclipse is… what exactly?

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Eclipse – The Sweets

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ECLIPSE – The Mitsubishi Car

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Eclipse – The Java IDE

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Eclipse – The Tools Platform

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Eclipse – The Application Platform

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Eclipse – The Application Platform

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IBM Lotus NotesVersion 8

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A Little AboutThe Eclipse Architecture

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The Eclipse Story

1994: IBM develops VisualAge for Smalltalk – programmed in Smalltalk 1995: Java is released to a select group 1996: IBM develops VisualAge for Java – still programmed in Smalltalk November 1998: OTI (Object Technology International – part of IBM) is commissioned to

develop new development platform for Java First known as VisualAge Micro Edition (VAME) and later Eclipse

7. November 2001: Eclipse 2.0 made Open Source 25. June 2004: Eclipse 3.0 released introducing Eclipse RCP

Framework make-over introducing OSGi

2009: Eclipse 3.5 released – known as Galileo

27. June 2010: Eclipse 3.6 will be released Also known as Helios

End of July, 2010: Eclipse SDK 4.0 Early Adopter Release First release of e4 technology

June 2011: Eclipse 3.7 will be released

June 2012: Eclipse 4.x will be released

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Basically…

We need an architecture that supports distributed development over a large number of autonomous development groups

We need a component concept where components are loosely coupled and can be started (and stopped) independently

We need a way to describe external interfaces of components and dependencies between components

We need a way to only start the components when they are needed, and not before – also known as late activation

We need all this to work over multiple generations of components

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Organizing the Platform

The software of an Eclipse system is based on the following terms: Plug-ins – a plug-in is the basic unit of software

Fragments – a fragment is an add-on to an existing plug-in with additional functionality

Features – a feature is a number of plug-ins that is distributed and updated as a whole

Applications – an application is a Java class that implements a specific interface and is declared as such in the plug-in

Products – a product is a set of features or plug-ins along with the appropriate branding

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The Goals and History of e4

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Why A New Eclipse Framework

Simplify the Eclipse programming model This will reduce development and maintenance costs and enable a larger

developer community to leverage the platform in their own Eclipse-based applications

Enable the platform for use on emerging web-based runtime technologies This will ensure the platform remains a compelling and viable application

framework in a rapidly changing web technology landscape, and it will allow e4-based applications to leverage web technologies, while remaining insulated from specific technology choices that may quickly become obsolete

Broaden participation in development of the platform This reduces the risks associated with building on a platform largely funded

from a single source. Having a large and diverse group of commercial backers, will ensure the platform remains vibrant and viable over the long term

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Main Technical Differences between Eclipse 3.x and e4

Application Model in EMF Complete live model for the application – changes are reflected

immediately in the application

Rendering the Application Maps the model to the UI Allows for a completely new look and feel without touching the internals Allows support for different widget sets – even Adobe Flash or Microsoft

Silverlight

Context Contains the context/environment for all contributions Brokers interaction with the framework: service lookup, service registration

Dependency Injection Allows for POJOs for all contributions

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The e4 Story

First presented at EclipseCon ’08

20. May 2008: Mail to e4-dev „A radical approach to explore new paths for e4“ Platform designed from Scratch Based upon an EMF-Application-Model No statics, no singletons, usage of Dependency Injection Based on OSGi-Services

14. January 2010: 1.0M3 released

End of July, 2010: Eclipse SDK 4.0 Early Adopter Release

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Eclipse.dk – The Danish Eclipse Society

Eclipse.dk was created in Marts 2007 as a meeting place for everyone interested in the Eclipse (www.eclipse.org) platform.

The purpose of Eclipse.dk is as follows: To promote the knowledge of Eclipse in Denmark. To create networks amongst danish Eclipse-users and developers. To build knowledge on Eclipse in Denmark, especially

In danish institutes of higher education. Between danish companies developing applications based on Eclipse.

Create and maintain a web site on Eclipse for danish users – eclipse.dk.

Strengthen the relations between danish and international Eclipse-users and organizations.

The eclipse.dk society has members representing not only vendors of Eclipse-based products and services, but also users of the platform and representatives from institutions of higher education.

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Q & A

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About Me

Tonny Madsen, Founder and Owner of The RCP Company

20 years of experience in system development in major companies

9 years experience as the Systems Architect of an 20+ MLoC project

8 years of experience with Eclipse and Eclipse RCP

Solutions Member of the Eclipse Foundation Chairman of Eclipse.dk Extern Lecturer at IT-University on Model Driven Development

and Domain Specific Languages Regular speaker at EclipseCon, Eclipse Summit, etc

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If You Want to Know More about Eclipse

The foundation: http://eclipse.org

The Danish User Group: http://eclipse.dk

The training: http://www.eclipse.org/community/training/classes.php

Resources on Eclipse: http://www.eclipse.org/resources/

Consolidated Blog: http://planeteclipse.org/

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If You Want to Know More about e4

The Project: http://www.eclipse.org/e4/

Downloading e4: http://download.eclipse.org/e4/downloads/

The Wiki: http://wiki.eclipse.org/E4

The training: Not yet, but coming after the Summer

Tutorials on e4: http://www.vogella.de/articles/EclipseE4/article.html

A “create an application” tutorial from Lars Vogel