[news.eclipse.technology.ecf] Re: ecf for client/server rcp

[Scott Lewis <slewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Chris,

Chris Schaefer wrote:
> i briefly red into the ecf paper for the eclipse con 2005.
> we are using rcp as a platform for buisiness applications which are heavily 
> based on client/server communication, using web-services or http/native 
> transport for c/s communication.
> as i understood it ecf is used for human to human group communication like 
> chat or conferencing.
>
> is it worth to review the architecture for usage for c/s only ?

I would say it depends upon the application needs.

If your app simply requires

1) a client occasionally making a request of a server
2) there are no 'real-time' (in the sense of user interaction) requirements
3) there are no app requirements for either direct peer-to-peer 
interaction or for having clients maintain and synchronize local copies 
of state

Then I would think that your application should/could just use 
SOAP/XML-RPC or your other favorite RPC protocol.

If, OTOH, your app does need/require 'real-time' communication, 
multipoint communication, direct client-to-client communication, or has 
application state that is from one/several clients (e.g. application 
sharing), then ECF can certainly help with building those apps. Of 
course, it's completely possible to mix ECF with SOAP/XML-RPC for 
applications that require multiple kinds of communication.

ECF isn't meant as a competitive alternative to RPC in it's different 
forms (SOAP/XML-RPC, etc).  It's meant primarily as a supplement to aid 
the building of communications applications--which are generally not 
well-supported by RPC (for reasons of scaling, performance, reliability, 
needs for peer-based security, needs for less authority given to 
server/peer-based applications like presence-based, file sharing 
systems, data conferencing systems, other systems where clients 
contribute content like RSS, shared editors, etc).

Thanks,

Scott