Eclipse Enhances Rich Client Platform
JAVA ONE (BOOTH 1534), SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—June 27, 2005—The Eclipse Foundation
today released Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) 3.1, delivering improved tools, easier
installations and cross-platform builds to enable programmers to rapidly develop and deploy rich
client applications. Open source and commercial organizations have embraced Eclipse RCP as the
platform for building next generation rich client applications.
“The Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) is here and now, and we’re only continuing
to make it better with more powerful tools,” said Mike Milinkovich, executive director,
Eclipse Foundation. “Organizations creating rich client applications are benefiting from
Eclipse’s dynamic plug-in architecture and update manager. The ease of development and
simplicity of this latest release will help fuel even more widespread adoption of Eclipse RCP.”
Open source applications such as a RSS newsreader, desktop content management and stock
trading are built on Eclipse RCP. Commercial applications as wide ranging as customer
relationship management (CRM), revenue optimization and enterprise resource planning (ERP) have
been built using Eclipse RCP.
Eclipse RCP provides a powerful and complete way to build and deploy client applications that
run on Linux, Windows, OS/X and other desktop platforms. Eclipse RCP includes:
- A simple dynamic component model for building plug-ins that is based on the industry
standard OSGi specification.
- The ability to create desktop applications that adopt the native look and feel of the
Windows, Linux or OS/X platform.
- An update manager that allows applications to be managed from a central server and
automatically updates deployed desktop applications with patches and new features.
- A set of frameworks that accelerate the development of rich client applications, including
a generic workbench, menu management and preferences management.
“Siebel is leveraging Eclipse RCP in our new Component Assembly product offerings where
customers will be able to quickly assemble robust CRM composite applications running natively on
SOA,” explains David Bernstein, VP of Emerging Technology at Siebel Systems. “Eclipse
provided the functionality our customers need to quickly build and deploy our applications
natively on J2EE. Also, because Eclipse is open source software we are able to capitalize on the
large community of developers and ISVs.”
“The fact that Eclipse RCP offers a native look and feel and has a built in remote
update mechanism made the decision to use it as the foundation for our application a no
brainer,” explains Jon Smith, president of RPC Software. “As our ERP application
matures, Eclipse’s plug-in architecture allows us to integrate and rapidly release
customized updates for our customers without touching the system’s base source code.
RCP gives immediate benefits as the foundation for Java application development and is the
perfect alternative to other proprietary and expensive application platforms.”
“The choice for Eclipse SWT has certainly been a key factor in the success of Azureus
BitTorrent client. Easy to learn and fast to use, it allowed us to develop the complex interface
of Azureus,” explains Olivier Chalouhi, CEO of Aelitis, and administrator of the Azureus
open source project, the top ranked open source project listed on SourceForge. “But the
real advantage is for our users, who benefit from a fast and responsive interface and who don’t notice that our application is written in Java. SWT is clearly the best technology when it comes to delivering high quality interfaces for the end user.”
New features and functionality in Eclipse RCP 3.1 include:
- Improved Performance – Quicker startup time and reduced memory requirements streamline the end user experience of an Eclipse RCP based application.
- Expanded Tools Support – The Eclipse Visual Editor now supports SWT, making it easier to design the user interface for rich client applications. Eclipse Plug-in Development Environment (PDE) has added tools for creating and branding RCP applications.
- Automatic Delivery – Support for Java Web Start (JNLP) and improved support for dynamic plug-in gets makes it easier to deploy RCP applications.
- Visual Editor Support – The Eclipse Visual Editor now supports the ability to create Eclipse RCP applications.
For a complete list of features and functionality in Eclipse RCP 3.1,
visit www.eclipse.org/rcp
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