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Vision behind Rich Ajax Platform [message #53897] Mon, 22 October 2007 02:56 Go to next message
Simon Chen is currently offline Simon ChenFriend
Messages: 6
Registered: July 2009
Junior Member
Hi guys, I just ran the RAP 1.0 demo, and it's very exciting to see how
web applications can begin leveraging the power of the Eclipse
technologies, OSGi, and Ajax.

I want to pose the question about the greater vision for this project.
RAP has demonstrated to me more than just been another Ajax toolkit. I
see it as a key enabler for developing modular web applications that can
easily leverage the life cycle management and service registry offered
by OSGi and Eclipse Equinox. Is the vision for RAP and Equinox to be
eventually offered as a portal server alternative?

With RAP and Equinox, I can envision the Eclipse platform evolving into
a web dashboard, where each user can customize the applications and
services on his/her personal "online workspace". Just as the recent
buzz surrounding Facebook as a platform for distributing and hosting
applications, RAP and Equinox could offer a standard and robust
framework to implement other similar "online application platforms". Is
this also part of the greater vision? Are there companies planning to
offer an application server using these technologies?

It's also really cool to see how applications developed for RAP can be
easily redeployed as RCP apps for the desktop. Anyways, much kudos to
the RAP team for a great project!

Simon Chen
Re: Vision behind Rich Ajax Platform [message #54812 is a reply to message #53897] Tue, 23 October 2007 20:01 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Eclipse UserFriend
Originally posted by: jkrause.innoopract.com

Hi Simon,

Glad you like RAP! My comments are inlined:

Simon wrote:
> Hi guys, I just ran the RAP 1.0 demo, and it's very exciting to see how
> web applications can begin leveraging the power of the Eclipse
> technologies, OSGi, and Ajax.
>
> I want to pose the question about the greater vision for this project.
> RAP has demonstrated to me more than just been another Ajax toolkit. I
> see it as a key enabler for developing modular web applications that can
> easily leverage the life cycle management and service registry offered
> by OSGi and Eclipse Equinox. Is the vision for RAP and Equinox to be
> eventually offered as a portal server alternative?

Regarding the vision please see the last paragraph. With respect to
portals: It seems that portals are used for very diverse use cases, and
only some of them are applicable for RAP (e.g. pure information portals
will never be a stronghold of RAP). However, Equinox can run standard
webapps and there is a potential for providing integration that could be
beyond current portal functionality. But this is more an Equinox than a
RAP topic.

>
> With RAP and Equinox, I can envision the Eclipse platform evolving into
> a web dashboard, where each user can customize the applications and
> services on his/her personal "online workspace".

The online workspace is something that could be very useful and is in
scope of RAP. You can already use it now, but there are still a few quirks.


> Just as the recent
> buzz surrounding Facebook as a platform for distributing and hosting
> applications, RAP and Equinox could offer a standard and robust
> framework to implement other similar "online application platforms". Is
> this also part of the greater vision? Are there companies planning to
> offer an application server using these technologies?

I am not aware of an "app server" offering around those lines. BEA has
introduced an offering called Micro-Services, which provides OSGi at the
app server component level and I think has great potential.

We think that RAP and Equinox (OSGi) will enable new kinds of modular
Software as a Service offerings. This is complemented by many other
pieces, RCP is one, provisioning, persistence, SOA and a couple of other
are underway. So the big picture is Equinox as a runtime environment
with RAP being an important component for modular ajax apps, and the
whole stack of other technologies that you need to build applications as
OSGi bundles.

>
> It's also really cool to see how applications developed for RAP can be
> easily redeployed as RCP apps for the desktop. Anyways, much kudos to
> the RAP team for a great project!
>
> Simon Chen

Jochen Krause
Re: Vision behind Rich Ajax Platform [message #55944 is a reply to message #54812] Fri, 26 October 2007 23:18 Go to previous message
Simon Chen is currently offline Simon ChenFriend
Messages: 6
Registered: July 2009
Junior Member
Jochen Krause wrote:
> Hi Simon,
>
> Glad you like RAP! My comments are inlined:
>
> Simon wrote:
>> Hi guys, I just ran the RAP 1.0 demo, and it's very exciting to see
>> how web applications can begin leveraging the power of the Eclipse
>> technologies, OSGi, and Ajax.
>>
>> I want to pose the question about the greater vision for this project.
>> RAP has demonstrated to me more than just been another Ajax toolkit.
>> I see it as a key enabler for developing modular web applications that
>> can easily leverage the life cycle management and service registry
>> offered by OSGi and Eclipse Equinox. Is the vision for RAP and
>> Equinox to be eventually offered as a portal server alternative?
>
> Regarding the vision please see the last paragraph. With respect to
> portals: It seems that portals are used for very diverse use cases, and
> only some of them are applicable for RAP (e.g. pure information portals
> will never be a stronghold of RAP). However, Equinox can run standard
> webapps and there is a potential for providing integration that could be
> beyond current portal functionality. But this is more an Equinox than a
> RAP topic.
>
>>
>> With RAP and Equinox, I can envision the Eclipse platform evolving
>> into a web dashboard, where each user can customize the applications
>> and services on his/her personal "online workspace".
>
> The online workspace is something that could be very useful and is in
> scope of RAP. You can already use it now, but there are still a few quirks.
>
>
>> Just as the recent buzz surrounding Facebook as a platform for
>> distributing and hosting applications, RAP and Equinox could offer a
>> standard and robust framework to implement other similar "online
>> application platforms". Is this also part of the greater vision? Are
>> there companies planning to offer an application server using these
>> technologies?
>
> I am not aware of an "app server" offering around those lines. BEA has
> introduced an offering called Micro-Services, which provides OSGi at the
> app server component level and I think has great potential.
>
> We think that RAP and Equinox (OSGi) will enable new kinds of modular
> Software as a Service offerings. This is complemented by many other
> pieces, RCP is one, provisioning, persistence, SOA and a couple of other
> are underway. So the big picture is Equinox as a runtime environment
> with RAP being an important component for modular ajax apps, and the
> whole stack of other technologies that you need to build applications as
> OSGi bundles.
>
>>
>> It's also really cool to see how applications developed for RAP can be
>> easily redeployed as RCP apps for the desktop. Anyways, much kudos to
>> the RAP team for a great project!
>>
>> Simon Chen
>
> Jochen Krause

Hi Jochen,
Thanks for your responses. It would be interesting to see how RAP
evolves and scales. From your response, I take that in an enterprise
environment, RAP is probably more suitable for developing modular
administrative services for managing enterprise applications and
resources.

Regards,
Simon
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