Application Frameworks

There are a number of Eclipse projects that provide frameworks that can be used functional building blocks to accelerate the software development process. Unlike developer tools, application frameworks are deployed with the actual applications.

These frameworks can be used either as standalone additions to Java applications, or can be leveraged as components on top of the Eclipse RCP. This enables applications to use an integrated stack of open source frameworks on RCP for quickly building and deploying their application. This provides a powerful combination for building software.

Relevant Eclipse Projects
Project Name	Homepage	Newsgroups	Mailing Lists	Wiki	Docs	Download
Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT)
The Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) Project - open source and extensible tools and frameworks for easily incorporating reporting functions within applications.
Data Tools Platform
The Eclipse Data Tools Platform- provides extensible frameworks and exemplary tools, enabling a diverse set of plug-in offerings specific to particular data-centric technologies and supported by the DTP ecosystem.
Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF)
The EMF project is a modeling framework and code generation facility for building tools and other applications based on a structured data model. From a model specification described in XMI, EMF provides tools and runtime support to produce a set of Java classes for the model, along with a set of adapter classes that enable viewing and command-based editing of the model, and a basic editor. EMF builds include XML Schema Infoset Model (XSD), now a component of the Model Development Tools (MDT) project, and an EMF-based implementation of Service Data Objects (SDO). XSD provides a model and API for manipulating components of an XML Schema, with access to the underlying DOM representation of the schema document. Other subprojects, such as Model Query, Model Transaction, and Validation Framework, are available separately. The next release of EMF is scheduled for the end of June 2008, along with the rest of the Ganymede projects.
Graphical Modeling Framework

UML2 [archived]
The UML2 project (an Eclipse Tools sub-project) is an EMF-based implementation of the UML™ 2.x metamodel for the Eclipse platform. The objectives of this project are to provide a useable implementation of the metamodel to support the development of modeling tools, a common XMI schema to facilitate interchange of semantic models, test cases as a means of validating the specification, and validation rules as a means of defining and enforcing levels of compliance.
Tool Services Framework
Tools Services Framework (Corona) Corona is about tool integration. It Corona will enable Eclipse constructs, such as a "project", to be shared in a distributed environment. Corona will provide an Eclipse based server-side runtime environment that will provide web service access to allow manageability to SOA components deploy within Corona.
Eclipse Communication Framework Project
Eclipse Communication Framework (ECF) ECF is a framework for supporting the development of distributed Eclipse-based tools and applications. It can be used to create other plugins, tools, or full Eclipse RCP applications that require asynchronous point-to-point or publish-and-subscribe messaging.
Eclipse Process Framework Project
Process Framework (EPF) The Process Framework (EPF) aims at producing a customizable software process enginering framework, with exemplary process content and tools, supporting a broad variety of project types and development styles.
Higgins
Higgins Trust Framework This project is developing an extensible, platform-independent, identity protocol-independent, software framework to support existing and new applications that give users more convenience, privacy and control over their identity information.
Supplemental Widgets for SWT (Nebula)

explain...

Technical Resources
Title	Type	Date

Persisting EMF models with WTP

Oct 10, 2005

This article guides you through an example where an EMF model is created without serialization and the serialization is done with the framework from the web tools plug-in org.eclipse.wst.common.emf.

Categories: Web Tools, Plug-ins, Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), Modeling, Framework

[html] Persisting EMF models with WTP This is eclipse.org content.
October 2005
by Daniel Rohe

Using GEF with EMF

Jun 08, 2005

The Graphical Editing Framework (GEF) provides a framework for creating visual editors while being model agnostic. In most cases, people bring their own model which tend to be based on Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs). An alternative using POJOs is the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), which provides many features for manipulating models that aren't found in POJOs. The purpose of this article is to build upon the shapes example provided by GEF using the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) and to provide an introduction using EMF based models in GEF based editors.

Categories: Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), Modeling, Graphical Editing Framework (GEF), Framework

[html] Using GEF with EMF This is eclipse.org content.
June 2005
by Chris Aniszczyk (IBM)

Modeling Rule-Based Systems with EMF

Nov 30, 2004

There are examples of meta-models defined in ECore for modeling objects and relational data. However, not much has been said about how to model rules. This article will define a meta-model in ECore for modeling rule-based systems. We will then use the meta-model to model the solution of a logical problem. Then we will compose some JET templates and generate code from the model, run the generated code through a rule engine and see that the logical problem is correctly solved.

Categories: Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), Modeling, Java Emitter Templates (JET) , Framework

[html] Modeling Rule-Based Systems with EMF This is eclipse.org content.
November 2004
by Chaur G. Wu

EMF goes RCP

Oct 12, 2004

This article explains how you can use EMF to generate RCP applications. It assumes that you have already used EMF, or have at least read the articles and references available on the documentation section of the EMF web site.

Categories: Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), Modeling, RCP, Framework

[html] EMF goes RCP This is eclipse.org content.
October 2004
by Marcelo Paternostro (IBM)

Building a Database Schema Diagram Editor with GEF

Sep 27, 2004

GEF is a very powerful framework for visually creating and editing models. With a small initial investment, even the relative Eclipse novice can be quickly up and running, building applications with graphical editing capabilities. To illustrate, this article uses a relational database schema diagram editor with a deliberately simplified underlying model, but with enough bells and whistles to show some of the interesting features of GEF at work.

Categories: Modeling, Graphical Editing Framework (GEF), Framework

[html] Building a Database Schema Diagram Editor with GEF This is eclipse.org content.
September 2004
by Phil Zoio (Realsolve Solutions Ltd.)

Using Native Drag and Drop with GEF

Aug 25, 2003

Native drag and drop provides the ability to drag data from one GUI object to another GUI object, which could potentially be in another application. GEF allows access to the operating system's underlying drag and drop infrastructure through SWT. This article will provide an in-depth look at GEF's drag and drop functionality and show some simple examples of how to take advantage of this API.

Categories: User interface, Modeling, Graphical Editing Framework (GEF), Framework

[html] Using Native Drag and Drop with GEF This is eclipse.org content.
August 2003
by Eric Bordeau (IBM)

Eclipse Modeling Framework

Aug 01, 2003

The authoritative guide to the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF)--written by the lead EMF designers!

Categories: User interface, Plug-ins, Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), Modeling, Java, Framework

[book] Eclipse Modeling Framework This links outside of eclipse.org.
August 2003
by Timothy Grose, Frank Budinsky, David Steinberg, Ed Merks, and Raymond Ellersick

Using EMF

Dec 09, 2002

This article introduces EMF, the Eclipse Modeling Framework, and will help you get started using EMF in your own Eclipse plug-ins.

Categories: Plug-ins, Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), Modeling, Framework

[html] Using EMF This is eclipse.org content.
December 2002
by Catherine Griffin (IBM)

How to Use the Eclipse API

May 18, 2001

The Eclipse Platform offers a comprehensive API (Application Programmer Interface) to developers writing plug-ins. This article discusses the general ground rules for using the Eclipse Platform API, including how to tell API from non-API, and how to stay in the API "sweet spot" to avoid the risk of being broken as the platform and its APIs evolve. These general ground rules are also recommended practice for plug-ins that must declare API elements of their own.

Categories: Plug-ins, RCP, Framework

[html] How to Use the Eclipse API This is eclipse.org content.
May 2001
by Jim des Rivières (IBM)

Eclipse

Getting Started

Del.icio.us Links