The Book

During summer 2008 I was approached by a small publisher and asked to write a book. I thought about it; and yes, I do wanted to write a book. But not with an unknown publisher and not on a topic which they considered good. I wanted to write a solid book with a recognized publisher. I put together a proposal about a topic on which I not only have very good knowledge, but there is no real existing documentation as well. I sent that proposal to Apress and it was accepted for an Apress firstpress book.
The book about Eclipse RAP was born.
The book is different than others. As an introduction into a still very emerging technology the first two chapters focus on high level concerns, which I found very interesting to discuss during projects. The decision for the RAP technology is a good one, but it cannot be made lightly.
After covering the business stuff the book comes to the RAP architecture and the inevitable Hello World application, influenced by my two cats :-) Chapter 5 discusses a very hot topic for RAP: How to build RCP and RAP applications from one single codebase.
Additionally information about customizing RAP, testing and building own widgets is described. The book closes with showing how to deploy Eclipse RAP into OSGi and Web Containers.

Don't like paper books? This first press book is also available as e-book on a reasonable price.

Whom is this book for?

This book continues the main idea of the firstpress series: Outline and explain an emerging technology.
Eclipse RAP is not that widespread as it should be. It is an awesome framework, once you grasp what it can be used for. Because of that I not only help you to get your hands dirty with developing and deploying a RAP application, but also I provide some input to decide when to use RAP and when better chose something else.
Due to that this book works well for Managers, Architects and Developers. Because it is not a reference guide for RAP, it teaches how to use RAP from scratch. No prerequisites required. Eclipse RCP or general Rich Web Client knowledge helps to leverage the power of RAP.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter 1: Rich Clients vs. Web Clients
    1. A Rich Client Definition
    2. A Web Client Definition
    3. A Rich Web Client Definition
    4. History Is Repeating Itself
    5. What to Choose Now?
  • Chapter 2: Introducing Eclipse RAP
    1. The RAP Vision
    2. RAP Case Studies
    3. Pitfalls with RAP
  • Chapter 3: The RAP Architecture
    1. The Runtime Layer
    2. Reimplemented APIs
    3. Issues and Solutions
    4. RAP Plug-ins and Packages
    5. RAP Version History
    6. The RAP Community
  • Chapter 4: Developing a RAP Application
    1. Installing the Eclipse and RAP SDKs
    2. Running the RAP Sample Application
    3. Creating a Simple Application
    4. Extending the Application
  • Chapter 5: Single Sourcing
    1. Pros and Cons of Single Sourcing
    2. Project Setup
    3. Running Mail Demo in RCP
    4. Running Mail Demo in RAP
    5. Rerunning the RCP Version
    6. Wrapping up
    7. More Single-Sourcing Techniques
  • Chapter 6: Advanced RAP Features
    1. Changing the Look and Feel
    2. Writing a Custom Widget
    3. RAP Without the Workbench
    4. Unit Testing in RAP
  • Chapter 7: RAP Deployment
    1. Running RAP in Jetty in Equinox
    2. Running RAP in Equinox in Tomcat