Web development with Eclipse Europa, part 3rd

Web development with Eclipse Europa, part 3rd-Ruby Development Toolkit and Radrails

In part 1th of the three-part series "Web Development with Eclipse Europa", which describes how to implement web development in Java™, PHP, and Ruby languages through Eclipse, you learned how to use the latest version of Eclipse--eur opa--rapid development of Java WEB applications. In part 2nd, you learned how easy it is to use another set of Eclipse plug-ins collectively known as PHP Development Toolkit (PDT) to develop PHP applications.

Before you start

About this series

Being a WEB developer coincides with the time. There's never been as many technological choices as now. A wide range of excellent open source Web servers, databases, programming languages, and development frameworks are available for you to use. Regardless of which technology combination you want to use, there is a single integrated development environment (IDE) that can improve productivity: Eclipse.

In the "Web Development with Eclipse Europa" series, you will learn that, regardless of the language you choose, Eclipse is a platform for web development. A flexible plug-in system makes it easy to create a variety of Eclipse versions tailored to WEB development using Java, PHP, and Ruby languages. You'll see how different plug-ins provide unique Eclipse functionality for each language, and you'll see some common features that all WEB developers can take advantage of. In this series, we will create a sample WEB application that will allow us to enter game data for baseball players and calculate the stats for those players.

About this tutorial

The popularity of Ruby on Rails continues to rise. TIOBE Software Quality tracking data shows that Ruby is the fastest-growing language in popularity, thanks to Rails. One of the reasons that Rails is so popular is that it makes it easier for you to work. How do you want to simplify your work? Try using Eclipse. This does not make you switch to Java technology. Using the Eclipse implementation to use Ruby for web development is just as easy as using Java technology for web development. Eclipse Ruby Development Toolkit and radrails make it all possible.

In the 2nd part, we talked about some of the benefits of combining the IDE with PHP. Most of the benefits discussed in this section apply equally to Ruby, and this is the inspiration for Ruby Development Toolkit (RDT). RDT will provide all the essential IDE basic features: syntax highlighting, coloring and validation, code completion and formatting, and Project organization. It also has a Ruby debugger, which is a very important tool for large projects. There are also some Ruby-proprietary features, such as regular expression (regex) editor/tester and unit test support through integration with Test::unit.

This tutorial is part 3rd of the three-part series, which will introduce the RDT and Radrails Eclipse plug-ins, and describe how to get and start using these plug-ins. You'll learn how to do many common Ruby on Rails development tasks using Radrails, and you'll see how radrails makes testing and debugging Rails applications easier.

Prerequisite

This tutorial is about Web development with Ruby, and using Ruby for Web development is very similar to web development with Ruby on rails, so you have some experience with Ruby on rails for development. Familiarity with Eclipse is useful, but not necessary. This tutorial builds on the applications built in the Java and PHP languages in parts 1th and 2nd. Having a Java and Ruby programming background is critical to maximizing the effectiveness of this tutorial.

System Requirements

The following conditions need to be met:

Ruby This tutorial will use Ruby V1.8.6. You'll also need Rails, and this tutorial will use the Mongrel Web server. Use the Ruby Package Manager RubyGems to install both software. Ruby Development Toolkit This tutorial will show you how to develop WEB applications using Ruby, so you need Ruby Development Toolkit and Radrails. Both are Eclipse plug-ins, and this tutorial explains how they are installed. The Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers also requires the Eclipse IDE for Java EE developers. The Java Runtime Environment (Java Runtime ENVIRONMENT,JRE) must be equipped with a JRE to run Eclipse. The Apache Tomcat application will use Apache Tomcat as a container. The MySQL V5.0 application will use the MySQL V5.0 as the database. The Java Persistence API also needs to use the Java Persistence API, especially OpenJPA implementations. The Eclipse php Development Toolkit (PDT) tutorial will show you how to develop WEB applications using PHP, so you need to use PHP Development Toolkit. You can get PDT as a set of plug-ins that are installed as an existing Eclipse. If you are just beginning to use Eclipse, you can download a complete installation that includes the Eclipse platform and the PDT plug-in. PHP is required to use PHP, so please download the latest version, the latest version of this article is V5.2.1. Apache HTTP Server requires a WEB server that is integrated with PHP. This tutorial is developed using the Apache V2.0.59. The Fancy PHP debugger requires a PHP debugger. We are using the Zend Debugger V5.2.10. The operating system requires an operating system that can run all of the software or plug-ins above. This series is created using Mac OS X, but you can also use a recent version of Windows® or linux®. The file location needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Ruby Development Toolkit

In the 2nd part, we discussed some of the benefits of combining the IDE with PHP. Most of the information also applies to Ruby, and this is the inspiration for Ruby Development Toolkit (RDT). RDT will provide all the essential IDE basic features: syntax highlighting, coloring and validation, code completion and formatting, and Project organization. It also has a Ruby debugger, which is a very important tool for large projects. There are also some Ruby-proprietary features, such as the Regex editor/tester and unit test support through integration with Test::unit. Sounds like some kind of valuable function, huh? Let's see how to install RDT.

Install RDT

The Eclipse update system makes installation RDT very simple. First select Help > Software Updates > Find and Install.

Figure 1. Start Eclipse Software update

RDT is a new feature that needs to be added to Eclipse, so select Search to find new features to install.

Figure 2. Search for new features to install

Now you need to let Eclipse know where to find RDT, so choose New Remote Site. This will open the new update site.

Figure 3. New Update site