Develop rich Internet applications with rails, OpenLaszlo, and Eclipse

Before you start

Ruby on Rails has been one of the fastest-growing and most popular open source WEB application development frameworks in the last year. But because it focuses on building HTML applications, some people criticize Rails for not being flexible enough. Especially with the rise of rich Internet applications (RIA), which use technologies to replicate desktop application features, such as using Flash for user interface development and XML for data transfer, developers want to know if there is a way to easily create a Ria, this RIA can take advantage of Ruby's pure object-oriented language and Rails's only fast application development feature.

About this tutorial

This tutorial will show you two of the hottest platforms in WEB development: Ruby on Rails and OpenLaszlo, the former for entertainment and fast WEB application development, and the latter for open source RIA servers. You will see how easy it is to use these platforms to visually create attractive, desktop-like applications that are deployed and managed on the Web.

While this tutorial does not teach Ruby or Laszlo, it will demonstrate how easy it is to use Rails and RIA in conjunction with open source OpenLaszlo presentation servers and MySQL. It will also describe how to configure Eclipse to set up rails and Laszlo development environments, automate trivial tasks, and create simple Laszlo that interact with rails through the representational state Transfer (REST) Web Service Client.

Prerequisite conditions

To get the most out of this tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of programming, XML, and SQL.

System Requirements

You will need the following tools:

Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) All-in-one bundle or Eclipse WTP with v3.1/3.2 and all necessary extensions

OpenLaszlo

Ideforlaszlo V4

MySQL V5.0

Ruby V1.8.4 (One-click installer)

Rails V1.0 (Note that there is a problem with the latest Ruby and Rails V1.1)

Java Technology V1.4 or 1.5

Subversion Client

The system is also required to have at least MB of RAM.

Set up

Several applications and tools used in this tutorial require a very long setup process. When you're done, you'll have a perfect open source environment to build an RIA. In this section, you will install MySQL, OpenLaszlo presentation Server, Ruby, Rails, Eclipse WTP all-in-one packs, Ruby Development Tools (RDT), and Ideforl Aszlo.

Installing MySQL

Database uses MySQL. Follow these steps to install:

Download MySQL. At the time of this writing, the latest version is V5.0.

Double-click the Setup program.

Accept all defaults and be sure to remember the logins and passwords used for the MySQL account.

When prompted, select Execute, and MySQL will be installed.

Now that you have set up and installed MySQL, then set up OpenLaszlo V3.2.