How Lonti Created a Unified IDE for APIs, Automation, and Application Development With Eclipse Theia
Table of Contents
Introduction
Lonti is on a mission to empower professional developers with low-code tools designed specifically for building APIs, integrating systems, automating workflows, and developing custom applications. Their flagship product, Martini Designer, delivers a fully-featured, developer-centric IDE available both as a desktop application and an online platform.
When the Lonti team set out to evolve Martini Designer, they were looking for a framework that could provide a modern, flexible foundation—one that could support both low-code and pro-code workflows without compromise. They chose Eclipse Theia to achieve this goal, enabling them to offer powerful visual design tools, seamless version control integration, and advanced debugging capabilities in a unified development environment.
From Eclipse IDE to Eclipse Theia
The first version of Martini Designer was originally built on the Eclipse IDE platform, which provided a strong starting point for the platform’s development. As the product matured, Lonti began exploring ways to enhance user experience and broaden platform reach.
- Dynamic Interface Limitations: The team wanted to introduce more interactive, visual tools—such as a workflow designer—and required a more flexible platform to deliver the rich, responsive UIs they envisioned.
- Desktop-Only Architecture: Since Eclipse IDE is designed exclusively for desktop environments, supporting both desktop and online versions required maintaining two separate codebases. This led to increased development overhead and complexity.
To overcome these challenges, Lonti evaluated modern alternatives and found that Eclipse Theia offered exactly what they needed:
- It uses standard web browser technologies and is framework-agnostic, enabling access to a wide range of modern UI libraries for building dynamic and responsive interfaces.
- Its modular architecture provides a solid foundation for building rich, complex applications that are fully extensible and easily customisable.
- Extensible via VS Code Extensions, to provide a customisable, extensible foundation to blend low-code features with pro-code developer tooling.
- The ability to maintain a single codebase across both Desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux) and Online environments.
- Finding Java developers with specialised experience in the Eclipse ecosystem proved to be more challenging than finding frontend developers proficient in web technologies. Theia’s use of modern web technologies meant it was far easier to recruit developers with the necessary skills compared to those with specialised knowledge in Eclipse IDE development.
By transitioning to Theia, Lonti was able to simplify development, accelerate innovation, and deliver a seamless, modern IDE experience to their users.
Key Features Enabled by Theia
Workflow Designer
One of the standout features introduced in Lonti’s Theia-based release is the visual workflow designer. This tool simplifies API orchestration and automation tasks by providing developers with an intuitive, visual interface. Developers can use the workflow designer to orchestrate data flows, automate business processes, integrate systems, or implement business logic for server-side applications. Leveraging modern web browser UI libraries and the flexibility of Theai’s UI framework made it possible for Lonti to build and integrate this tool seamlessly, giving developers control and flexibility in designing complex workflows.
Visual REST API Designer
Martini Designer also includes a powerful Visual REST API Designer. Using a drag-and-drop interface, developers can design REST APIs visually while still retaining control over the underlying OpenAPI specifications. The API designer can automatically generate an OpenAPI schema, comprehensive API documentation, and a Postman collection, streamlining the process from design to testing. Theia’s powerful command and handler API, menu system, and UI widgets like trees and dialogs made it easy to develop and maintain these features.
Low Code Service Generation
Martini Designer enables developers to generate low-code services either manually or automatically when consuming an API specification or from the HTTP client. Services can be used to implement the operation of an API or serve as a reusable process within a workflow. Like workflows, services can be invoked via multiple triggers including HTTP, FTP, email, a scheduler, and more. All of it can be configured by dozens of editors, views, menus, and toolbars, Theia’s solid frontend architecture helped keep features organised and maintainable.
Data Mapper
The Data Mapper feature provides a visual, drag-and-drop interface for mapping fields between source and target data models. Reusing Theia’s built-in utilities and components allowed Lonti to integrate this tool into the IDE effortlessly.
Code Completion & Editor Enhancements
Whilst Martini Designer is a low-code platform, it is designed to allow developers to code if and when they need to, ensuring “low-code without limits.” Martini supports multiple scripting and programming languages including Groovy, JavaScript, Kotlin, Python, and Bash. Lonti leveraged Theia’s support for the Language Server Protocol (LSP) and VS Code extensions to deliver features developers expect, including:
- Context-aware code completion
- Syntax highlighting
- Real-time linting and error detection
These capabilities help developers stay productive while writing configuration files, scripts, or API definitions.
Git Integration
Version control is an essential part of any developer’s workflow. Using Theia’s built-in Git extension, Lonti integrated full Git support into Martini Designer. Developers can manage branches, commit changes, and push to remote repositories—all without leaving the IDE.
Debugger
To streamline debugging, Martini Designer includes support for step-debugging of services and workflows. Theia’s debugging features, like the console view, provided the foundation for integrating this capability into the IDE, helping developers quickly identify and resolve issues.
HTTP Client
Testing APIs is a key part of API development. Martini Designer incorporates a built-in, Postman-style HTTP Client, made possible through Theia’s extensibility. Developers can send requests, inspect responses, and debug endpoints—all within the same environment. By building the HTTP Client directly into Martini Designer, Lonti increased developer productivity by allowing users to right-click API operations within the API Designer and invoke them instantly in the HTTP Client. Additionally, developers can consume a third-party API and export the request as either a reusable service or a workflow. Importing Postman collections is also supported, further streamlining the API development and testing process. Thanks to Theia’s architecture, which integrates both backend and frontend components, Lonti was able to deliver this feature in web browsers as well.
Benefits to Developers
By adopting Eclipse Theia, Lonti has been able to deliver a modern, developer-centric IDE experience. Key benefits include:
- A unified codebase for Desktop and Online environments, reducing maintenance overhead.
- Dynamic, responsive user interfaces for visual design tools.
- Seamless integration of popular developer features like Git, debugging, and intelligent code completion.
- A low-code platform tailored to professional developers—without limiting customisation or control.
Looking Ahead
Lonti continues to evolve Martini Designer with new capabilities, including enhanced debugging tools, AI-assisted development features, and deeper cloud integration. The team also looks forward to continued collaboration with the Eclipse Theia community, contributing feedback and sharing their experiences to help shape the future of the platform.
Learn More
To learn more about Martini Designer and see Eclipse Theia in action, visit Lonti’s website. Both Martini Designer Desktop and Designer Online are available in a free edition, allowing developers to explore their features without commitment.
Also learn why Eclipse Theia is the Next Generation Platform for building IDEs and Tools and visit the Theia website to learn more about Eclipse Theia.