RCP for creating standalone application, later converted to plugin - eclipse-plugin

I am developing an standalone GUI for our in-house tool. After it has matured enough, it is supposed to be integrated into Eclipse as a plugin.
I am a newcomer to Java world. I have read about RCP. Is this is correct use case scenario for RCP? If yes, can I use SWT views in a RCP application/plugin?

Is this is correct use case scenario for RCP?
Yes, RCP is a good fit. You can use the same plugin for providing functionality both in Eclipse and in your standalone application.
If yes, can I use SWT views in a RCP application/plugin?
Yes, of course. Until the latest version of RCP (e4) you could only use SWT for GUI (of course, Swing/JavaFX/etc. can be integrated with SWT).

When you develop an Eclipse RCP based application, you in fact develop a number of plug-ins. If you play by a specific set of limited rules, then your plug-in can run unaltered as part of an RCP application and as part of the larger Eclipse IDE.
(One can easily argue that the IDE is "just" a very large RCP application. The IDE is based on the Eclipse Platform of which Eclipse RCP is just a small sub-set...)
I would recommend two books for your project:
"Eclipse Rich Client Platform (2nd Edition)" by Jeff McAffer, Jean-Michel Lemieux, and Chris Aniszczyk - see Amazon.
"Eclipse Plug-ins (3rd Edition)" by Eric Clayberg and Dan Rubel - see Amazon.
Where the first is more or less the bible for RCP based applications, the later gives you a lot of good examples on how to integrate into the IDE. Very advanced as times, but also very good.

Related

Eclipse Scount multiple projects

I am new eclipse scout. However I do have some experience in EclipseRCP.
I have created an application in eclipse rcp, in which it has four modules which are four plugin projects.
Also I am using hibernate in backend for database communication.Database is Mysql.
Below are my questions.
In eclipse can I create the same modules as my eclipse rcp application. I have seen
only one eclipse project created in different examples. So in mycase, I have four plugin projects. Do I need
to make all these four plugin projects into one scount application?
Can I reuse the hibernate code which I have written in Scout application?
1/ With the Mars version (and before) of Eclipse Scout, an Eclipse Scout Application is very similar to an Eclipse RCP Application. It runs on top of Equinox. You will be able to manage your plugins project the same way. When you create a new project, the IDE prepares some plugins, but you can have more...
2/ Nothing against reusing your Hibernate code in your Scout Application. But you might know that integrating Hibernate in the OSGi world is not so easy and requires some work.

How to upgrade Eclipse RCP 3.6 project to 4

I would like to upgrade my Eclipse RCP project which was live yesterday, developed using Eclipse RCP 3.6 version(code was like tightly coupled as I didn't use Spring DI), as a future road-map consideration, I'd like to upgrade my project to Eclipse 4. Primary reason for upgrading is to use spring DI & CSS in my RCP application. Can I do spring integration and CSS in my Eclipse RCP 3.6 project or Should I start from creating an RCP 4 Scratch project.
Brainstorming for ideas, actually. Any directions & suggestions would be great.
To answer your first question... it is certainly possible to use Spring DI in Eclipse 3.6, but the current CSS styling for Eclipse RCP UI wasn't introduced until Eclipse 4.
I can't address if you should or should not create an RCP 4 Scratch project. That's a tough decision and it should be made by someone with deep knowledge of your project and its future goals.
As for direction and suggestions...
I have two sources of information for you.
Lars Vogella. His tutorial sites are very well put together, and I consider them a must have for anyone wanting to learn the basics of Eclipse RCP development. Unfortunately, these tutorials may not be detailed enough to help you. It depends on your current level of Eclipse RCP knowledge. http://www.vogella.com/tutorials.html
Eclipse Source. This is a paid service. I've never worked with these guys, but they have been sending me some emails offering several different pricing levels for various levels of support. There web site is well put together and it offers some great information. http://eclipsesource.com/en/eclipse/

IDE support for extjs apps

Any IDE for development or plugins available for development. Actually I'm using eclipse in java. Thanks if have plug-in for that.
you can use your own development environment. Since It is providing plug-in see here . And detailed process here

What is the difference between JDE plugin and Java plugin for Eclipse

I am completelty new to the BB development.
I want to start development of BlackBerry application.
I am confused how to start? And what plugins have to download and from which link?
And bit confused about the JDE plugin <--> Java plugin for Eclipse
Which I have to download for development?
Can any one explaine the above things?
thanks in advance...
JDE and eclipse plugin are same other than, JDE has only debug mode, but the eclipse has both debug and run mode. I am using eclipse for several years, so I feel comfortable in using eclipse. I recommend eclipse because, it is more developer friendly when compared to JDE.
I agree with Karthikeyan that eclipse has a more feature rich environment plus it can incorporate other plugins such as cvs, svn, mysql etc.
Sometimes it can take more configuration to get everything set up right properly. If you want to get your code up and running quickly without any configuration, I would highly recommend using the JDE.
Glen

can my eclipse rcp and plugins be used by other parties?

If I develop my application using eclipse RCP and my own eclipse plugins, can other people copy and paste my plugins and used in other application?
thanks
The short answer is "yes". RCP applications rely on reusable plugins.
The correct answer is "it depends". It depends on what extensions and extension points you define. Basically, plugins need to "talk" to each other in order to work with each other. When you create a plugin, you define who can talk to it and how.
I recommend the following lecture: http://www.vogella.de/articles/EclipseExtensionPoint/article.html