Introduction

What is RAP?

I a nutshell: “RAP brings RCP applications into the browser”.

Our mission:
The RAP project enables developers to build rich, Ajax-enabled Web applications by using the Eclipse development model, plug-ins with the well known Eclipse workbench extension points and a widget toolkit with SWT API (plus JFace).

How does it work?

RAP is very similar to Eclipse RCP, but it has its own implementation of the SWT API (called RWT) which renders the widgets remotely on a web browser. The RAP application runs on a servlet container and clients can access the application with standard web browsers.

Single Sourcing

A popular use case for RAP is the development of rich clients and web clients from a single code base, also called “Single Sourcing”.

Application vendors are increasingly required to provide both desktop and web clients for their customers. But these platforms are based on very different technologies which generally demand different programming paradigms and skills that make it difficult to reuse code. The need for specialized development skills and for implementing the same thing twice increases the cost of production without adding substantial value to the project.

The Rich Ajax Platform (RAP) was designed to address exactly these problems for the Eclipse world. RAP allows Java and Eclipse developers to reuse their existing skills through a Java-based development model for web-clients. Furthermore, RAP maximizes code reuse by including the largest-possible web-enabled subset of the Rich Client Platform.

How to Develop for RAP

The development of RAP applications is very similar to traditional RCP development. Applications are developed as OSGi-bundles entirely in Java and use the same API and extension points than their RCP counterparts. Thus, RAP developers take advantage of the award winning Java Development Tools (JDT) and the Plug-in Development Environment (PDE) provided by Eclipse. Everything from development to launching, debugging and exporting to standard .war files works right out of the Eclipse IDE.

In addition, we provide the RAP Tooling which contains useful tools, templates and documentation. It simplifies the installation of the RAP Runtime SDK and the launching of RAP applications from Eclipse. You can download the RAP Tooling from the download section on the left to get right started. A user guide is part of the Tooling and can also be accessed online.