Explore Eclipse's Ajax Toolkit Framework

The Ajax Toolkit Framework (ATF) is a central part of the new Open Ajax initiative designed to improve accessibility to powerful WEB programming technologies through Eclipse Foundation. By adding the asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) development environment for various open source Ajax toolkits, including Dojo, Zimbra, and Rico, ATF extends Eclipse Web tools Platform (W TP).

This article is the article I introduced in May 2006 to the Open Ajax initiative "Two tools to bring Ajax into Eclipse's Ajax Toolkit Framework" and the recent ATF follow-on extension. Since then, the project has been released from its original announcement to the Alphaworks version to the V0.1 version of the current Eclipse project.

The ATF is at the top of Eclipse WTP, and WTP is widely used in the Web development community. WTP extends Eclipse by adding tools for developing java™2 platform,enterprise Edition (Java ee) Web applications.

ATF extends the WTP by adding AJAX development environments for various source-code AJAX toolkits, including Dojo, Zimbra, and Rico. It enhances JavaScript editing capabilities, provides Edit-time syntax checking, Document Object model (documents objects Model,dom), and cascading style sheets (cascading style sheet,css) Inspector and integration 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 the Open Ajax initiative behind ATF is to improve the accessibility of Ajax, which is rapidly becoming popular, but the concept is still obscure to new developers.

This article uses Eclipse, ATF, and Dojo to link the ATF installation steps with the creation of a sample Ajax application. "Two tools for bringing Ajax into Eclipse's Ajax Toolkit Framework" introduces Dojo and Zimbra, and first provides a "Hello world!" example, which then provides the use of ATF to integrate dojo into eclips The method in E. This article uses the V0.1 version to create similar projects and is simpler.

Install ATF

Before you start, read the quick instructions for installing under microsoft®windows®. If Eclipse is not already in use, download the Java EE Project package, which includes the Core Eclipse V3.2.1 and Eclipse WTP (when using ATF requires WTP). If Eclipse is not installed and used, this is the easiest way to meet the ATF basic requirements.

To start using ATF, do the following:

Download the latest ATF version from eclipse.org. This article is based on the V0.1 version (0.1-20060912). Please do not install any of the following required components before downloading and installing them.

Download the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) V1.4.2, which is required in the current V0.1 edition. Both Sun Microsystems or IBM® versions are available.

The Apache Tomcat V5 is used as a local WEB server and XULRunner to help Eclipse build its interface with Mozilla.

Install the XULRunner, JRE, and then install Tomcat V5.

Note: Tomcat V5 is more likely to use JRE V5, so it may be necessary to download it to avoid special tomcat installation instructions.

Install Eclipse (if not installed on the system).

After you have installed Eclipse, you are ready to install the ATF.

To install ATF into Eclipse, open Eclipse, and then click Help > Software Updates > Find and Install > Search for New Features to Ins Tall > New archived Site. Then select the compressed file that contains the ATF. Through the installation screen prompts you to complete the installation, during which you should ensure that all ATF components are selected. Be sure to read the ATF Download information carefully. Some ATF versions (including V0.1) contain special installation instructions, and the end describes how to install additional files.