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!