Eclipse Rich Client Platform: Designing, Coding, and Packaging Java™ Applications [Paperback]

Jeff McAffer (Author), Jean-Michel Lemieux (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0321334612 | ISBN-13: 978-0321334619

Eclipse, a platform for building applications, was originally aimed at Web application and image manipulation. With the release of Eclipse 3.0 there has been a shift to the use of Eclipse as a Rich Client Platform (RCP). In other words, using Eclipse as a base for everyday generic applications from media players to productivity and desktop applications. Thinking of Eclipse as not just an IDE but a platform for all application building is an evolution for the platform and significantly extends its reach to developers. In this book the designers of Eclipse as an RCP introduces the reader to the RCP concept and walks them through a set of scenarios and examples using Eclipse to solve real world, application problems. This will appeal to all developers who want to develop and deploy world-class applications with rich, native GUIs. Development areas that are already using Eclipse RCP include bio-medical, embedded technology (handhelds, etc), enterprise and productivity applications and banking.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Build Powerful, Cross-Platform Rich Client Applications

Eclipse is more than a state-of-the-art IDE: its Rich Client Platform (RCP) plug-ins form an outstanding foundation for any desktop application, from chat applications to enterprise software front-ends. In Eclipse Rich Client Platform, two leaders of the Eclipse RCP project show exactly how to leverage Eclipse for rapid, efficient, cross-platform desktop development.

In addition to explaining the power of Eclipse as a desktop application development platform, the authors walk step-by-step through developing a fully featured, branded RCP application. They introduce a wide range of techniques, including developing pluggable and dynamically extensible systems, using third-party code libraries, and packaging applications for diverse environments. You'll build, refine, and refactor a complete prototype; customize the user interface; add Help and Update features; and build, brand, and ship the finished software.

• For every Java developer, regardless of previous Eclipse experience

• Thoroughly covers Eclipse 3.1's new RCP features and its extensive new tools for designing, coding, and packaging RCP applications

• Presents techniques for branding and customizing the look and feel of RCP applications

• Shows how to overcome the challenges and "rough edges" of RCP development

• Discusses the similarities and differences between RCP and conventional plug-in development

• Includes an overview of OSGi, the base execution framework for Eclipse

If you want to develop and deploy world-class Java applications with rich, native GUIs, and use Eclipse RCP—get this book.

CD-ROM contains the Eclipse 3.1 SDK, Eclipse 3.1 RCP SDK, and Eclipse 3.1 RCP Delta Pack appropriate for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. It also contains all the code samples developed in the book.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Jeff McAffer leads the Eclipse RCP and Runtime teams and is one of the Eclipse Platform's original architects and committers. Prior to his work at IBM's Ottawa Software Lab, he was a developer at Object Technology International focusing on areas such as distributed/parallel OO computing, expert systems, and meta-level architectures. Jeff holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo.

Jean-Michel Lemieux has been a committer on the Eclipse team and CVS component since its inception. Before joining IBM's Ottawa Software Lab to work on Eclipse, Jean-Michel built real-time SS7 monitoring systems and real-time modeling tools.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (October 21, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321334612
• ISBN-13: 978-0321334619
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #774,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeff McAffer co-leads the EclipseRT, Equinox OSGi and RCP efforts at Eclipse and is CTO and co-founder of EclipseSource. He is one of the architects of the Eclipse Platform and a co-author of The Eclipse Rich Client Platform and OSGi and Equinox(Addison-Wesley). He co-leads the RT PMC and is a member of the Eclipse Project PMC, the Tools Project PMC and the Eclipse Architecture Council and has been elected to the Eclipse Foundation Board of Directors. Jeff is currently interested all aspects of Eclipse components from developing and building bundles to deploying, installing and ultimately running them. Previous lives include being a Senior Technical Staff Member at IBM and work in distributed/parallel OO computing as well as expert systems, meta-level architectures and a PhD at the University of Tokyo.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learning by building something concrete!, December 3, 2005

By 

Jos van Roosmalen (The Netherlands, Europe) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eclipse Rich Client Platform: Designing, Coding, and Packaging Java™ Applications (Paperback)

This is really an awesome book because:

* I was suprised how extremely complete this book is. It not only explain how to develop a application, but also how you do your HELP-system, the plugin update mechanism, dynamic plugins, brand and package your application. Also chapter 25 called 'The last mile' explain Native Installers, Webstart and multi user install scenario. SO:it explains the whole cycle, for creating windows/views, creating the help, and distributing the application!

* It offers a tutorial for building a real world application what the authors have called Hyperbola (a Chat client). This tutorial has a good level, compared to books like '... for dummies', '... in 24 hours' and '... unleashed'.

* The tutorial application EVOLVES over the chapters. So after the end of every chapter the application is running, and more (complex) functionality is added every chapter. So you don't need to follow all chapters before you see results of your work (it's not a big bang application). This keep you motivated to follow the book and play arround.

Or how the authors call it in the book:

"The next few chapters focus on iteratively developing Hyperbola. This next interation is interesting because it allows you to quickly get something running you can show to your mom, your boss, or your friends. It's also a lot more fun to learn RCP while developing something concrete."

* Every chapter starts with the goals of this chapter,e.g. what you will add to the application in this chapter.

* This book does NOT contains cheap fillers (some books repeat things endless, starts with chapters introducing Java, prints the Java Doc of a library,etc.). It is simply to the point.

* The tutorial is very complete and contains a lot of explaination about what you're doing. It is not one big listing. E.g. it explain what Actions are, what you can do with it, where to code them, and of course how to code them in your Hyperbola application.

* It is very complete because it e.g. starts how to install Eclipse and the Eclipse RCP SDK and how you need to configure them. This is a real timesaver for novice Eclipse people. You just need to follow the steps in the introduction chapter.

So this is a learning-by-doing book with a good level. After you have read this book (and played with Eclipse), you are able to develop simple RCP-applications, you know how the RCP is structured, how to package them, etc.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars How quickly things become obsolete, July 31, 2006

By 

Chris Gage (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eclipse Rich Client Platform: Designing, Coding, and Packaging Java™ Applications (Paperback)

I bought this book almost the first day it became available, I think in November of last year, and loved it, despite numerous minor errata which I submitted but have not been published. It explains the structure of the RCP very well, as well as I have seen anywhere. Parts I, III, IV and V are excellent.

This is a great introduction to Eclipse RCP ... _IF_ you are happy to stay with Eclipse 3.1 and Java 1.4. _BUT_ sadly, Eclipse 3.2 has obsoleted some of the techniques used in Part II, the tutorial, which is the main part of the book. For in 3.2 example you no longer need to create a target manually yourself. Also the tutorial's code uses APIs that are deprecated in Eclipse 3.2, and it uses code seen as undesirable by Java 1.5's generics support. In addition Eclipse 3.2 mandates the com.ibm.icu (International Components for Unicode) package which means that the tutorial as delivered simply will not deploy as-is when you get to the packaged product level in Chapter 9.

Yes, all these problems are fixable. But be careful because you will have to fix these problems manually, which cuts you off from the cool "Samples Manager" tool which synchronizes your code at the end of each chapter.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a book for those who try to understand what they're doing, March 4, 2006

By 

W. B. Joerg - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eclipse Rich Client Platform: Designing, Coding, and Packaging Java™ Applications (Paperback)

This book starts out in a very promising manner - coming in from a 10,000 ft view to a 1,000 ft view. After reading Part I, I felt that I had a great book in my hands. With Part II however came the big let down: you're suddenly dropped into a chaotic sea of microscopic views. With its (basically laudable) approach by example, it turns essentially into a collection of recipes, that does very little to the understanding of the underlying structure and concepts of RCP. This is probably a great book if you know what you want to do and why, it is however inadequate if you are in search of the why. It leaves too many loose ends, and in numerous instances assumes that you have fully absorbed the superficial ideas of earlier sections and hence leaves you hanging there. Calling the CD to the rescue - again a great idea how it is integrated - does not always help: for instance Chapter 10 seems to be totally messed up. The text and examples contain a number of misleading typos or omissions, and references are given to Eclipse code that I could not find.
In hindsight I sense that much of the frustration with Part II could be avoided by starting with Parts III and IV: after working through these latter parts, I felt more at ease filling out the unfortunate and time consuming gaps in Part II.
I suspect also that both the code and the book will need to be updated for release 3.2.