Eclipse WTP
The Eclipse Web Tools Platform Project
Dominique De Vito – Thales IS
(dominique.devito@thales-is.com)
A top-level project with coleadership, BEA
and the ObjectWeb Consortium
Legal redistribution under the licensing terms of Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 - © 2005 Thales
What is this project about?
A new top level project at Eclipse.org
to build
a generic, extensible and standards-based tool platform upon
which software providers can create specialized, differentiated
offerings for J2EE and Web-centric application development.
Key objectives
to combine product innovation with adherence to vendor-neutral
standards and technologies, while delivering practical
solutions to real development concerns.
build on the Eclipse Project, and other core Eclipse
technologies,
to provide a common foundation of frameworks and services
for tooling products.
To deliver tooling products both for exemplary purposes and to
validate the underlying foundation.
© Thales 2005
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Our Values
Extension of the Eclipse value proposition
 To follow the high standard for technical excellence set by the Eclipse project
 functional innovation and overall extensibility within the Java IDE domain.
Vendor ecosystem vs. commoditization
 To support a vital application development market rather than to "commoditize"
viable commercial product spaces with an open source alternative.
Vendor neutrality
 To encourage Eclipse participation and drive Eclipse market acceptance by
strengthening the long-term product value propositions of the widest possible range
of application development vendors.
Standards-based innovation
 To deliver an extensible, standards-based tooling foundation on which the widest
possible range of vendors can create value-added development products for their
customers and end-users.
Agile development
 Agile development and planning process, incremental progress, focused near-term
deliverables, and flexible long-term planning.
Inclusiveness & diversity
 To assimilate the best ideas from the largest number of participants representing the
needs of the widest range of end-users (market and geographical domains) .
© Thales 2005
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WTP kick-off support
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WTP Scope definition
Standard Runtime Infrastructure
Non Java
WEB Standard Tools
J2EE Standard Tools
HTML
XML
XSL
SQL
CSS
...
JDBC
JAXP
Servlet
JSP
EJB
...
SSI
JSF
JDO
PHP
ASP .NET
...
Struts
Cocoon
XMLC
Velocity
...
Non-Standard Runtime Infrastructure
© Thales 2005
Java
Slide # 5
Architecture/Subprojects
future/commercial/OSS
third-party Tools
J2EE Standard Tools
Web Standard Tools
Generic tooling
Generic tooling
Eclipse platform
Expected deliverables = tools + tooling foundation
Architecture with extensibility as target (=> some basis for multilanguage support)
Overall goal : support of a vital IDE tools market
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Web Standard Tools
Scope
Languages of open-standard bodies (e.g. W3C, OASIS) for Web
applications (e.g. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, SVG, SQL,
XQuery).
Not in scope :
JCP standards => JDT or J2EE Standard Tools subprojects,
other technologies => future (?) subprojects
Components
Models: Project, Editor, Web Artifacts, Server
Tools: supporting the base standards and extensible (e.g. an
extensible HTML editor to support HTML-based template
languages such as PHP and JSP)
Examples of Tools : source editors (HTML, JavaScript), graphical
editors (SQL, WSDL/XSD), XML utitilies, server tools, web service
explorer, builders, validators and EMF models…
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J2EE Standard Tools
Scope
J2EE 1.4 specifications
Other JCP specifications : on a case by case (e.g. JSF, JDO)
Not in scope :
Support of frameworks not covered by the JCP (ex: Struts, Hibernate,
XMLC) => Eclipse Technology project
Components
J2EE Models: Project, Editor, Artifacts, Server
Tools: supporting the base standards and extensible
Examples of Tools : server tooling (Launchers - Run, Debug), tools for
J2EE modules (build, package, validate), editors for J2EE components
(JSP, EJB…), tools for navigation & refactoring (through perspectives,
view)
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IBM contribution
Server tools
web service editor
graphical editor
source editor
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XML editor
Slide # 9
ObjectWeb contribution
EJB
support
server tools
J2EE view
source editor
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wizards
Slide # 10
WTP dates





December 2003 : first contacts Eclipse/ObjectWeb
April  June 2004 : WTP proposal  Creation review
September 2004 : real start of WTP
October 2004 : M1 on time !
November 2004 : IBM code refresh in CVS, IBM back with full support,
increasing interest from the community
 December 2004 : M2 on time !
 January 2005 : ObjectWebCon’05 with WTP presentations
 February 2005 : EclipseCon’05 with WTP presentations and code camp
+ BEA has joined (!) the WTP project, bringing new development forces
+ M3 on time !
Over time, increasing attractivity of WTP
 Future
 April-June 2005 : API stabilisation (M4 : API definition, M5 : API implementation)
 July 2005 : WTP version 1.0
© Thales 2005
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WTP attractivity
OSS
projects
New participants:
Other Eclipse projects : XSD,
WSVT, Pollinate, PHPEclipse (?)
OSS Eclipse developers :
Quantum DB, WDTE (Web
Development Tools for Eclipse),
DbEdit (?)
Other
Eclipse
projects
Commercial
companies
OSS
Eclipse
projects
Web Tools Platform
OSS projects : HSQLDB, Derby
Commercial companies : JBoss,
SAP, Sysdeo (?), Novell (?), Cap
Gemini (?)
Experience merge
Workload share
More to come!
Code refresh into CVS now
enables to attract more
participants
© Thales 2005
Better tools
Broader scope
Slide # 12
WTP as a galaxy
WTP: a top-level Eclipse project
Including 2 subprojects : Web Standard Tools and J2EE
Standard Tools
More subprojects possible
WTP in relationships with other Eclipse projects
Technology subprojects : XSD, WSVT, Pollinate
SOA (future Technology subproject) : 3-4 months under
Technology cover, then under WTP cover
PHP (future Technology subproject ?)
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WTP basic blocks for ESB
Underlying technologies:
Spans both subprojects (Web/J2EE Standard Tools) : XML,
XQuery, JMS, JCA, web services…
WTP Components:
Models: Project, Editor, Artifacts, Server
Tools: supporting the base standards
Examples of Tools : server tooling (Launchers - Run, Debug), tools for
modules (build, package, validate), editors for components, validators,
tools for navigation & refactoring (through perspectives, view)
Basic blocks for ESB:
WTP Models and Tools : could be used AS IS or extended (built
with extension in mind)
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WTP and ESB/SOA
BEPL editor proposal :
Tool to create and deploy BPEL4WS, BPML, and other
types of workflow application editors
Brian DeCamp/founder of Blackstone Bay Software
http://www.blackstonebay.com/bpef
Future SOA Eclipse project (!?)
Proposal in the pipeline
Volunteers to tackle SOA efforts
To join further WTP
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Pollinate project (1/2)
Under Technology project
Goal : to build IDE + toolset that leverages the Apache Beehive
application framework (Beehive makes J2EE easier by building a
simple object model on J2EE and Struts – use of JSR-175 metadata
annotations to reduce J2EE coding)
Pollinate includes :
NetUI PageFlows – These are built on top of struts, and allow easier
tooling as well as automatic updating of struts config files with the use of
metadata.
Controls – These are a lightweight component framework that helps
programmers build components that incorporate metadata into their
programming model. [Apache Beehive] will come with a few pre-made
controls as well.
Web Services – This will be the Reference Implementation of JSR-181,
which is an annotation driven programming model for Web Services.
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Pollinate project (2/2)
Simply put : Pollinate will provide an IDE that enables developers
to visually build and assemble enterprise-scale web applications,
JSPs, web services, and leverage the Java controls framework for
creating and consuming J2EE components; optimized for a
service-oriented architecture
Built on top of WTP (!)
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WTP feed-back
WTP project works quite well and continues to attract new entrants
In February, BEA has joined WTP and taken the WTP co-leadership
During EclipseCon’05 (February/March), WTP has attracted a lot of interest
The life of an OSS project
WTP benefits from the Eclipse great popularity
As a successful OSS project, WTP has had an increasing attractivity
ObjectWeb has played an instrumental role for the WTP restart – OSS
projects need a kernel of people dedicated to their success to live !
Projects on top of WTP
Collaboration between projects inside Eclipse ecosystem (WTP and WSVT,
Pollinate…) works well
Different companies are waiting WTP v1.0 (July 2005) to build their own,
commercial or OSS, projects on top of WTP.
Stabilized APIs are mandatory to bring project reuse and collaboration to
the next level
© Thales 2005
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Join us !
We welcome new contributions !
See the web site :
http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/
See ‘how to contribute’ details
See where you want to contribute
Contact us:
wtp-dev@eclipse.org mailing list
news://news.eclipse.org/eclipse.webtools
© Thales 2005
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