Practical Eclipse Rich Client Platform Projects (Expert's Voice in Open Source) [Paperback]

Vladimir Silva (Author)

Book Description

Series: Expert's Voice in Open Source | Publication Date: March 11, 2009

Eclipse and the RCP is a leading Rich Client and Rich Internet Application (RIA) development platform. It provides a lightweight software component framework based on plug-ins. In addition to allowing Eclipse to be extended using other programming languages it provides the key to the seamless integration of tools with Eclipse.

Practical Eclipse Rich Client Platform Projects is the first practical projects type book on Eclipse RCP, and the only one current with latest Eclipse spec. It explains the technical concepts easily, and includes plenty of source code and images. Several practical projects and case studies are included, of course.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Vladimir Silva holds a Masters degree in Computer science from Middle TN State University. He worked for 4 years for IBM as a Research Engineer where he acquired extensive experience in distributed and Grid computing research. Vladimir is a highly technical, focus based and team player individual. He belongs to two National Honor Societies and has published many computer science articles for IBM including the book "Grid Computing for Developers" published by Charles River Media in 2005.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (March 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430218274
• ISBN-13: 978-1430218272
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #549,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Vladimir Silva was born in Quito, Ecuador. He received a System's Analyst degree from the Polytechnic Institute of the Army in 1994. In the same year, he came to the United States as an exchange student pursuing an M.S. degree in Computer Science at Middle Tennessee State University. After graduation, he joined the IBM WebAhead technology think tank. His interests include Grid Computing, Neural Nets, and Artificial Intelligence. He also holds numerous IT certifications including OCP, MCSD, and MCP. He has written many technical articles for IBM developerWorks in the fields of grid computing, and security.

Here is a list Vladimir's technical papers:

1. Crunch big numbers with GT3 using a quadratic sieve. http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/grid/library/gr-factor/

2. Advanced UI design for GNOME. http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-slik/

3. Globus Toolkit 4 Early Access: WSRF. http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/grid/library/gr-gt4early/

4. Secure Java apps on Linux using MD5 crypt. http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-md5crypt/

5. Design skinnable Java UIs for media players with native performance. http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-slik/

6. Manage X.509 certificates in your grid with Java Certificate Services.
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/grid/library/gr-jsc/

7. IBM WebSphere Developer Technical Journal: GT3 and WebSphere compatibility
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/techjournal/0310_silva/silva.html

8.Using Java with Globus Grid Security Infrastructure
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/grid/library/gr-ggsi.html

9. The Master Managed Job Factory Service (MMJFS)
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/grid/library/gr-factory/

10. Set up a grid job scheduler with the Globus Toolkit 3.2.x
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/grid/library/gr-sched/

11. Build a data grid with the Storage Resource Broker.
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/grid/library/gr-srb/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best so far..., November 8, 2010

By 

Broadmeadow (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Practical Eclipse Rich Client Platform Projects (Kindle Edition)

I've found few RCP or SWT books that are worth much.

ERCP Projects is the perfect kind of book for Java developers who are bootstrapping into RCP work. It doesn't presume a lot of knowledge but isn't dumbed down to the point of inanity. Since the book is based around projects in a cookbook style, it gives great bits of code examples which work as starting points.

This is the kind of book which perfectly compliments the sort of material you can find in the Help, the API and on Google but doesn't replicate that information.



The only complaint I have is not with the book itself but with buying it through Amazon for the Kindle. Since I work as a software developer it is common for others to ask if I have any information about some aspect of development. I can't lend the Kindle copy in any fashion.

Even that might be acceptable if I could cut & paste code snippets but the freakin' Amazon desktop book reader will not allow it. Bogus.

In the future I'll buy PDFs from individual publishers or buy paper copies. This one, for example, is directly available from Apress as a PDF book.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's a pretty decent introduction to Eclipse RCP application development., November 1, 2009

By 

Roby E. Gamboa (SF Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Practical Eclipse Rich Client Platform Projects (Expert's Voice in Open Source) (Paperback)

Disclaimer: I tend to strain the limits of most software development frameworks, so I'm probably not the best source of review material for introductory programming references. That said, this book provided some valuable insight into how to best structure plugin and feature projects in Eclipse in order to develop a non-trivial RCP application.

I am also starting to work on RAP (Rich Ajax Platform) applications, and a lot of the information and implementation patterns in this reference carried over to that development platform as well.

There were some aspects of programming for RCP that I was looking for, but haven't been able to find yet. Specifically:

- Interacting with the Equinox OSGi container to provide more advanced deployment models.
- Detailed information for enabling different help/documentation capabilities in an RCP application, other than the base-level capabilities of the environment.
- Working with Plugin-Target Environment definitions to provide tailored runtime environments for use with developed RCP applications.
- Use of custom widgets with RCP applications (definition of custom widgets is normally found in an SWT/JFace reference, what I was looking for was effective packaging and use of these custom controls in the context of an overall RCP application).
- Tailoring build settings and Plugin Update functionality to integrate with products that generate OS-native installers for the first deployment of an RCP application. Once an RCP (or other plugin) application has been deployed for the first time, use of an update site is advised and fairly straightforward to accomplish using this reference as a guide. Getting the RCP application into, say, an RPM image for Linux or an MSI image for Windows so that it can be part of a managed desktop environment...that wasn't nearly as straightforward.

Overall, though, I did find that I referred back to this reference pretty frequently, which is my main criteria for a good programming reference. It did an effective job of staying in the scope of RCP development, rather than trying to absorb too much of Eclipse plugin design. I will be looking forward to the next edition, and will definitely be on the lookout for references on Equinox, RAP, and more advanced plugin development, though, to properly augment my Eclipse bookshelf.