Build Powerful, Cross-Platform Rich Client Applications

Eclipse is more than a state-of-the-art IDE: its Rich Client Platform (RCP) plug-ins form an outstanding foundation for any desktop application, from chat applications to enterprise software front-ends. In Eclipse Rich Client Platform, two leaders of the Eclipse RCP project show exactly how to leverage Eclipse for rapid, efficient, cross-platform desktop development.

In addition to explaining the power of Eclipse as a desktop application development platform, the authors walk step-by-step through developing a fully featured, branded RCP application. They introduce a wide range of techniques, including developing pluggable and dynamically extensible systems, using third-party code libraries, and packaging applications for diverse environments. You'll build, refine, and refactor a complete prototype; customize the user interface; add Help and Update features; and build, brand, and ship the finished software.

• For every Java developer, regardless of previous Eclipse experience

• Thoroughly covers Eclipse 3.1's new RCP features and its extensive new tools for designing, coding, and packaging RCP applications

• Presents techniques for branding and customizing the look and feel of RCP applications

• Shows how to overcome the challenges and "rough edges" of RCP development

• Discusses the similarities and differences between RCP and conventional plug-in development

• Includes an overview of OSGi, the base execution framework for Eclipse

If you want to develop and deploy world-class Java applications with rich, native GUIs, and use Eclipse RCP—get this book.

CD-ROM contains the Eclipse 3.1 SDK, Eclipse 3.1 RCP SDK, and Eclipse 3.1 RCP Delta Pack appropriate for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. It also contains all the code samples developed in the book.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 21 Ratings

Excellent primer for a powerful platform - 2007-05-15
Reviewer Rating:
I stumbled into Eclipse when researching OSGI as a framework for a system I was designing. I was not looking forward to the drudgery and complexity of building all the required infrastructure over OSGI to build an actual product - what a wonderful discovery to see this gleaming system with smoothly integrated parts ready to do my bidding!
The authors make the apt analogy of launching a payload into space - so much of the work goes into the launch vehicle and ground control,etc, whereas to the payload designer the only interesting work is at the very tip of the rocket. As software developers we love generating the cool idea (the payload) and are not so excited about the other 90% which makes the real product - complex UI workflows, help, update, packaging, etc. Eclipse provides all the mechanisms and plenty of automated assistance for putting together your total system.
Perhaps you will find some disparities between the book and your downloaded version of Eclipse (I haven't yet) but this is not Visual Basic, this is a relatively deep but elegantly designed system which does require a certain level of understanding before you really get cooking with it, but this book does an excellent job with that. Once you get going, it's like having a team of 10 great programmers at your command.

Don't waste your money - 2009-03-03
Reviewer Rating:
I'd been using the Eclipse IDE for several projects and decided it was time to come up to speed on RCP. On a quick thumb-through in the bookstore this book seemed about as good as any, but I particularly liked that they application they proposed to build as part of the learning process was something that incorporated many key aspects of most RCP projects -- UI, network, database, etc.

Up through chapter 3 it does a fair job of bootstrapping you into an Eclipse IDE, target, and plug-in development environment to where you can, by typing in the example code, and, skulling around to figure out the parts they left out, get the initial though as yet useless client to come up. Once you get past that initial section, however, you're basically on your own as they start to leave out more and more of critical parts. Oh, you can load each "stage" of the application from the CD provided with the book, but understanding how you got from one incomplete stage to the next is harder when you're just looking at someone else's code, rather than building it up yourself.

If you never intend to build your own RCP, it's probably as good as any other book. If, however, you want something that gets down to nuts and bolts, makes you get your hands dirty with code, this is not the book for you.

Loading Code will Destroy Your Eclipse Installation - 2008-05-13
Reviewer Rating:
If you have a current installation of Eclipse and you are using JPA (ex: Hibernate), don't even think about using the book's update site. It will totally hose up your entire Eclipse installation and you are looking at a complete re-installation.

It's a shame, because otherwise the book seems to be very helpful. Rumor is that they are planning an update sometime late 2008, but none of the bookstores have a publication date on it yet.

Nicely organized "Teach by Example" book - 2008-04-07
Reviewer Rating:
I purchased 8 copies and distributed them to our team. Several team members went through each chapter, building the sample application on top of the Eclipse RCP. Each of us, whether or not we built the application, have learned a great deal about using Eclipse. I highly recommend this book to any software team that is starting a new product or that is in the throes of refactoring / recasting an old one. The book will jump-start your Eclipse experience.

Great, indispensable. - 2007-06-25
Reviewer Rating:
I couldn't do my RCP application without this book. its example application goes growing showing everything we need to learn to make an RCP application.

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