The Eclipse Foundation released the first version of its Eclipse Rich Ajax Platform (RAP) today, launching a hotly anticipated, open-source toolkit for building rich Internet applications.
RAP 1.0 is built around the OSGi Java service platform standard and the Eclipse platform for plug-in development components, a design that tailors it to the needs of developers working around the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. The project is led by a team from Innoopract, a German software and services company that bases all of its work on the Eclipse platform.
RAP moved quickly from incubation to launch: at the EclipseCon gathering in March, it was a subject of widespread interest but remained in the planning and incubation stages.
Ajax, a bundle of technologies and standards adopted by developers to build fast-loading, highly interactive Web pages, is a popular but complex development technique. A number of tech companies have released Ajax toolkits aimed at easing development obstacles.
While RAP is the Eclipse Foundation's first Ajax technology release, the organization is a founding member of the OpenAjax Alliance, an industry-wide consortium of vendors and developers working together to coordinate Ajax standards and tooling development.
RAP 1.0 is now available for download at the Eclipse Foundation's Web site.
