Project Plan For Rich Ajax Platform, version 1.3

Introduction

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, JFace, and a widget toolkit with SWT API.
Plans for previous releases can be found on these wiki pages.

Release Deliverables

  • Tooling: contains useful tools, templates and documentation for RAP development. Available as p2 repository.
  • Runtime SDK: contains the RAP runtime to be used as target platform, including sources and a simple demo application. Available as p2 repository.

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Release Milestones

Release milestones will be occurring at roughly 6 week intervals, and will be aligned with the Helios Simultaneous Release train.
M18/18/2009
1.3 M2
M29/29/2009
1.3 M2
M311/10/2009
1.3 M3
M412/15/2009
1.3 M4
M52/2/2010
1.3 M5
M63/16/2010
1.3 M6 (API Freeze)
M75/4/2010
1.3 M7 (Feature Freeze)
A detailed RAP Ramp down plan towards the release is available especially for the Eclipse Helios Simultaneous Release integration.

The target date for availability of RAP 1.3 is Summer 2010 (with Helios).

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Target Environments

The server-side part of the Rich Ajax Platform 1.3 will be written and compiled against

  • Equinox Version 3.6
  • Version 1.4.2 of the Java Platform APIs (i.e., Java 2 Platform, Release 1.4.2 SE)
  • Java Servlet API Version 2.3 - 2.5

The client-side reference implementation depends upon qooxdoo. For this release the following web browsers/rendering engines will be supported

  • Internet Explorer >= 6.0, version 7 and later is recommended
  • Gecko (i.e. Firefox, Netscape)
  • Webkit (i.e. Safari, Google Chrome)

Internationalization

The Rich Ajax Platform is designed as the basis for internationalized products. The user interface elements provided by the RAP components, including dialogs and error messages, are externalized. The English strings are provided as the default resource bundles.

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Compatibility with Previous Releases

RAP 1.3 will be backward compatible with RAP 1.2.

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Themes and Priorities

Improved Single Sourcing

RWT implements a subset of the SWT API. We aim to implement SWT functionality that is yet missing from RWT. This includes enabling this newly implemented API in higher layers (e.g. Workbench, JFace).

  • Committed
    • IApplication support [277689] (target milestone: 1.3 M5)
    • Support Workbench Help System [278358] (target milestone: 1.3 M2)
    • Provide non-shared SWT resources [284385] (target milestone: 1.3 M3)
    • Support for Drag&Drop [285390] (target milestone: 1.3 M5)
  • Proposed
    • Investigate support for GraphicsContext and/or Draw2D [285397] (target milestone: ---)

Look and Feel

We plan to further improve the styling capabilites of RAP.

  • Committed
    • Implement background gradients [277671] (target milestone: 1.3 M1)
    • Implement rounded corners [278743] (target milestone: 1.3 M1)
  • Proposed
    • [design] Fancy look and feel implementation [285400] (target milestone: 1.3 M2)

Improvements and Consolidation

We will further optimize the client side with regard to performance and stability. Moreover, we aim to provide some additional web-centric features.
  • Committed
    • Update and extend documentation and FAQs [286189] (target milestone: ---)
    • Provide history support [283291] (target milestone: 1.3 M3)
    • Provide infrastructure for client-side unit tests [262572] (target milestone: 1.3 M2)
  • Proposed
    • Workbench and JFace unit tests [262598] (target milestone: ---)
    • Provide infrastructure for automated performance tests [285391] (target milestone: ---)
    • Enable tabbed browsing / portal support [285398] (target milestone: ---)

RAP and e4

We participate in the development of e4 and ensure that e4 runs on RAP.

  • Committed
    • Participate in e4 [262787] (target milestone: ---)
    • Split Workbench and RAP-specific code [280071] (target milestone: ---)
  • Proposed
    • Ease single sourcing with platform (bundle init, jobs infrastructure, singletons, shutdown house keeping, I18N)

Support other Eclipse projects

We actively help other Eclipse projects to enable Single Sourcing with RAP.
  • Committed
    • Create single-sourced version of Memory Analyzer [262603] (target milestone: ---)
  • Proposed
    • Become a target platform for Riena [285389] (target milestone: ---)

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