Explore Eclipse's Ajax Toolkit Framework (1)

ATF is located at the top of Eclipse WTP, which is widely used in the Web development community. WTP is added for Java Development™2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Web application tool extends Eclipse.

ATF extends WTP by adding Ajax development environments for various development source code sdks (including Dojo, Zimbra, And Rico. It enhances the JavaScript editing function and provides the edit-time syntax check, Document Object Model (DOM), and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) inspector and integrated Mozilla Browser. ATF allows developers to use Eclipse as the enterprise-level integrated development environment (IDE) required by the open-source toolkit ). The goal of Open Ajax Initiative behind ATF is to improve the accessibility to Ajax. Ajax is becoming increasingly popular, but it is still difficult for new developers to understand the concept.

This document uses Eclipse, ATF, and Dojo to closely link the installation steps of ATF with the example Ajax application. "Bringing Ajax into two tools of Eclipse's Ajax Toolkit Framework" introduces Dojo and Zimbra, and first provides "Hello World !" For example, you can use ATF to integrate Dojo into Eclipse. This article uses V0.1 to create similar projects, which is simpler.

Install ATF

Before starting, read®Windows®For more information, see references ). If you have not used Eclipse, download the J2EE project package, including Core Eclipse V3.2.1 and Eclipse WTP (WTP is required when using ATF ). If Eclipse has not been installed and used, this is the easiest way to meet the basic requirements of ATF.

To start using ATF, perform the following operations:

• Download the latest version of ATF from Eclipse.org. This article is based on V0.1 (0.1-20060912 ). Do not install the following components before downloading and installing them.
• Download Java Runtime Environment (JRE) V1.4.2, which is required in the current V0.1 version. Sun Microsystems or IBM®All versions can be used.
• Download Apache Tomcat V5 as a local Web server and XULRunner to help Eclipse establish interfaces with Mozilla.
• Install XULRunner and JRE, and then install Tomcat V5.
  Note: Tomcat V5 is more inclined to use JRE V5, so it may need to be downloaded to avoid special Tomcat installation instructions.
• Install Eclipse (if not installed in the system ).

After Eclipse is installed, you can prepare to install ATF.

To Install ATF to Eclipse, open Eclipse and click Help> Software Updates> Find and Install> Search for New Features to Install> New Archived Site. Select a compressed file that contains ATF. The installation screen prompts you to complete the installation. Make sure to select all ATF components. Make sure that you carefully read the ATF Download information. Some ATF versions (including V0.1) contain special installation instructions. The following describes how to install additional files.

Build a Dojo application in ATF

Now you are ready to build the first Dojo application. Create a new project first. After the new project is opened, complete these steps:

Open Eclipse and click File> New> Project.

Click Web> Static Web Project, and then click Next.

Figure 1. Select the project type

In the Project name field, type HelloWorld and click New under Target Runtime. This name will be a closed name for the entire project, including subfolders and Web applications with the same name as the selected name.

Figure 2. Name the project

Click HTTP> HTTP Server, and then click Next. In this step, you will tell Eclipse to use the local HTTP server as the runtime target. This is the reason why Tomcat V5 (or other servers supporting HTTP) must be installed during the installation process. It allows you to locally analyze the application behavior in Eclipse.

Figure 3. Set the link to the local HTTP Server

1. Enter the correct port for the local HTTP server, which may be port 80 or port 8080), and then enter the name of the directory to be used for the application.
2. SelectPublish Projects to this ServerAnd then clickBrowseTo select the local Web directory. In this example, the path in my system is C: \ Program Files \ Apache Software Foundation \ Tomcat 5.5 \ webapps \ ROOT \ helloworld. You may need to create the helloworld directory, but the parent directory may already exist.
3. ClickFinish
   Figure 4. Set the local HTTP directory
   
4. ClickNextAnd then clickATF> Dojo.
5. DeselectRicoCheck box, and then clickFinish. This step sets the project according to all the necessary requirements for developing Ajax applications using the Dojo Toolkit.
   Figure 5. Enable the Dojo Toolkit
   

The above steps will create the Dojo project skeleton in Eclipse. Now you must start to create an application.