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Building an email client using Eclipse platform [message #24087]

Sat, 14 September 2002 07:20

Eclipse User

Originally posted by: asimionoiu.attbi.com

Over time I have tried a tone of email clients and I didn't like any of
them.
I mean I liked a feature in one client, another feature in another client,
but I have never found one email client that has them all.

I start thinking about writing my own client, just to have all the features
that I will like
to have, and to be able to customize it as I want and when I want.

Lately I have start using Eclipse as my development tool and I have to say
that I like it a lot.
I will like to start using Eclipse platform, specialy SWT/JFace for building
my dream Email/News client.

What I have in mind is to throw away the whole Workbench stuff that I don't
need it
and start building a new UI on top of the Eclipse core ( this mean that it
cannot be a plugin right? ).
I don't want to build an "email perspective", I will like to be a stand
alone application that has nothing in common
with an IDE.

The problem is that I don't know where to start :).
The plug-in development documentation is a good start, but I'm not sure
that's what
I need, so maybe some of you guys can point me into the right direction.

I could start by taking the sources and start steping into the code to see
how it's working,
but maybe is there a better way to do it.

I'll appreciate any kind of feedback.

Alin

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Re: Building an email client using Eclipse platform [message #24168 is a reply to message #24087]

Sat, 14 September 2002 17:14

Andrew McCullough

Messages: 26
Registered: July 2009

Junior Member

Can I ask why you want to throw all of that away? Eclipse provides a lot of
stuff that is useful for a mail client: Wizards, Editor infrastructure,
etc. It is possible to run Eclipse without all the bells & whistles, you
basically just need boot, resources, ui, and a maybe a couple of others.

In any event, you can take a look at ZMail.. it's pretty alpha, but it works
(reading only, no writing) and it may give you some ideas. Of course, since
it's still so young it will probably get a pretty major overhaul a couple
more times. I definitely think you could get what you want without
abandoning the tradtional plugin approach. The key is understanding
features (primary features, too), branding, and the minmal eclipse set of
plugins needed to run.. combine them all and you could make a standalone
mail client without abandoning plugins. Then, as a bonus, you can use it
without all that as just a regular plugin and read your email while coding
:)

http://www.zclipse.org/projects/zmail/

CVS, etc: http://sourceforge.net/projects/zclipse/

-Andrew

"Alin" <asimionoiu@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:alun0o$od3$1@rogue.oti.com...
> Over time I have tried a tone of email clients and I didn't like any of
> them.
> I mean I liked a feature in one client, another feature in another client,
> but I have never found one email client that has them all.
>
> I start thinking about writing my own client, just to have all the
features
> that I will like
> to have, and to be able to customize it as I want and when I want.
>
> Lately I have start using Eclipse as my development tool and I have to say
> that I like it a lot.
> I will like to start using Eclipse platform, specialy SWT/JFace for
building
> my dream Email/News client.
>
> What I have in mind is to throw away the whole Workbench stuff that I
don't
> need it
> and start building a new UI on top of the Eclipse core ( this mean that it
> cannot be a plugin right? ).
> I don't want to build an "email perspective", I will like to be a stand
> alone application that has nothing in common
> with an IDE.
>
> The problem is that I don't know where to start :).
> The plug-in development documentation is a good start, but I'm not sure
> that's what
> I need, so maybe some of you guys can point me into the right direction.
>
> I could start by taking the sources and start steping into the code to see
> how it's working,
> but maybe is there a better way to do it.
>
> I'll appreciate any kind of feedback.
>
> Alin
>
>
>

Report message to a moderator

Re: Building an email client using Eclipse platform [message #25920 is a reply to message #24168]

Thu, 19 September 2002 20:56

Tom Miller

Messages: 8
Registered: July 2009

Junior Member

This is a good perspective. I'm warming to the idea of using Eclipse as a base
for an application. But is there a HOW-TO on this somewhere? You mention:
>>you basically just need boot, resources, ui, and a maybe a couple of others.
but how does one get the definitive information about how to proceed?

Thanks in advance.
Tom Miller

Andrew McCullough wrote:

> Can I ask why you want to throw all of that away? Eclipse provides a lot of
> stuff that is useful for a mail client: Wizards, Editor infrastructure,
> etc. It is possible to run Eclipse without all the bells & whistles, you
> basically just need boot, resources, ui, and a maybe a couple of others.
>
> In any event, you can take a look at ZMail.. it's pretty alpha, but it works
> (reading only, no writing) and it may give you some ideas. Of course, since
> it's still so young it will probably get a pretty major overhaul a couple
> more times. I definitely think you could get what you want without
> abandoning the tradtional plugin approach. The key is understanding
> features (primary features, too), branding, and the minmal eclipse set of
> plugins needed to run.. combine them all and you could make a standalone
> mail client without abandoning plugins. Then, as a bonus, you can use it
> without all that as just a regular plugin and read your email while coding
> :)
>
> http://www.zclipse.org/projects/zmail/
>
> CVS, etc: http://sourceforge.net/projects/zclipse/
>
> -Andrew
>
> "Alin" <asimionoiu@attbi.com> wrote in message
> news:alun0o$od3$1@rogue.oti.com...
> > Over time I have tried a tone of email clients and I didn't like any of
> > them.
> > I mean I liked a feature in one client, another feature in another client,
> > but I have never found one email client that has them all.
> >
> > I start thinking about writing my own client, just to have all the
> features
> > that I will like
> > to have, and to be able to customize it as I want and when I want.
> >
> > Lately I have start using Eclipse as my development tool and I have to say
> > that I like it a lot.
> > I will like to start using Eclipse platform, specialy SWT/JFace for
> building
> > my dream Email/News client.
> >
> > What I have in mind is to throw away the whole Workbench stuff that I
> don't
> > need it
> > and start building a new UI on top of the Eclipse core ( this mean that it
> > cannot be a plugin right? ).
> > I don't want to build an "email perspective", I will like to be a stand
> > alone application that has nothing in common
> > with an IDE.
> >
> > The problem is that I don't know where to start :).
> > The plug-in development documentation is a good start, but I'm not sure
> > that's what
> > I need, so maybe some of you guys can point me into the right direction.
> >
> > I could start by taking the sources and start steping into the code to see
> > how it's working,
> > but maybe is there a better way to do it.
> >
> > I'll appreciate any kind of feedback.
> >
> > Alin
> >
> >
> >

--
Tom Miller
Miller Associates, Inc.
tmiller@lisco.com
641.469.3535 Phone
413.581.6326 FAX

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Re: Building an email client using Eclipse platform [message #25962 is a reply to message #25920]

Thu, 19 September 2002 21:14

Andrew McCullough

Messages: 26
Registered: July 2009

Junior Member

There are several threads on Eclipse.tools newsgroup about a minimal set of
plugins. I believe it is possible to pare it down more than it seems on the
surface. Search the eclipse site, which includes a mailing list and
newsgroup search.

Everything needs:
org.eclipse.core.boot

to start up.

Right now ZMail depends on:

org.eclipse.core.resources
org.eclipse.ui

Which in turn have the following dependencies:

org.apache.xerces
org.eclipse.ant.core
org.eclipse.update.core
org.eclipse.help
org.apache.lucene
org.eclipse.core.runtime
org.eclipse.swt

That's a total of about 10 Megs if you include the win32 specific fragments.
I will let you decide it that is too much bloat :)

I followed this from the Plugin.xml "Required plugins"

-Andrew

"Tom Miller" <tmiller@lisco.com> wrote in message
news:3D8A39E5.637CF616@lisco.com...
> This is a good perspective. I'm warming to the idea of using Eclipse as a
base
> for an application. But is there a HOW-TO on this somewhere? You mention:
> >>you basically just need boot, resources, ui, and a maybe a couple of
others.
> but how does one get the definitive information about how to proceed?
>
> Thanks in advance.
> Tom Miller
>
> Andrew McCullough wrote:
>
> > Can I ask why you want to throw all of that away? Eclipse provides a
lot of
> > stuff that is useful for a mail client: Wizards, Editor infrastructure,
> > etc. It is possible to run Eclipse without all the bells & whistles,
you
> > basically just need boot, resources, ui, and a maybe a couple of others.
> >
> > In any event, you can take a look at ZMail.. it's pretty alpha, but it
works
> > (reading only, no writing) and it may give you some ideas. Of course,
since
> > it's still so young it will probably get a pretty major overhaul a
couple
> > more times. I definitely think you could get what you want without
> > abandoning the tradtional plugin approach. The key is understanding
> > features (primary features, too), branding, and the minmal eclipse set
of
> > plugins needed to run.. combine them all and you could make a standalone
> > mail client without abandoning plugins. Then, as a bonus, you can use
it
> > without all that as just a regular plugin and read your email while
coding
> > :)
> >
> > http://www.zclipse.org/projects/zmail/
> >
> > CVS, etc: http://sourceforge.net/projects/zclipse/
> >
> > -Andrew
> >
> > "Alin" <asimionoiu@attbi.com> wrote in message
> > news:alun0o$od3$1@rogue.oti.com...
> > > Over time I have tried a tone of email clients and I didn't like any
of
> > > them.
> > > I mean I liked a feature in one client, another feature in another
client,
> > > but I have never found one email client that has them all.
> > >
> > > I start thinking about writing my own client, just to have all the
> > features
> > > that I will like
> > > to have, and to be able to customize it as I want and when I want.
> > >
> > > Lately I have start using Eclipse as my development tool and I have to
say
> > > that I like it a lot.
> > > I will like to start using Eclipse platform, specialy SWT/JFace for
> > building
> > > my dream Email/News client.
> > >
> > > What I have in mind is to throw away the whole Workbench stuff that I
> > don't
> > > need it
> > > and start building a new UI on top of the Eclipse core ( this mean
that it
> > > cannot be a plugin right? ).
> > > I don't want to build an "email perspective", I will like to be a
stand
> > > alone application that has nothing in common
> > > with an IDE.
> > >
> > > The problem is that I don't know where to start :).
> > > The plug-in development documentation is a good start, but I'm not
sure
> > > that's what
> > > I need, so maybe some of you guys can point me into the right
direction.
> > >
> > > I could start by taking the sources and start steping into the code to
see
> > > how it's working,
> > > but maybe is there a better way to do it.
> > >
> > > I'll appreciate any kind of feedback.
> > >
> > > Alin
> > >
> > >
> > >
>
> --
> Tom Miller
> Miller Associates, Inc.
> tmiller@lisco.com
> 641.469.3535 Phone
> 413.581.6326 FAX
>
>

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