Eclipse Web Tools Platform 2.0: Now with JPA and JSF tools

Posted by Ryan Slobojan on Aug 15, 2007 08:00 PM

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As part of the Eclipse 3.3 (Europa) release two months ago, Version 2.0 of the Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) was released. InfoQ spoke with WTP co-lead Jess Garms to learn more about this release and about WTP in general.

The WTP project provides tools for developing Web and Java EE applications, including:

• J2EE Standard Tools - Supports J2EE components e.g. JSP, Servlets, EJB
• Dali - Supports the Java Persistence API (JPA) and EJB 3.0
• Web Standard Tools - Supports web standards, e.g. HTML, JavaScript, XML, SQL
• JavaServer Faces (JSF) Tools - Supports JSF development

There is also a tool which provides AJAX tools, however it is not yet a part of the WTP release.

InfoQ asked Garms to describe the changes in WTP 2.0, and he indicated that the Dali/JPA and and the JSF tools are being included in the WTP release for the first time with this version. Stability has also been greatly improved, and a number of other updates have occurred.

When asked about the future development plan for WTP, Garms indicated that the next release of WTP will be version 3.0, and that it will be released with Eclipse 3.4 (Ganymede). Planning is currently underway for that release, however Garms expects to see full Java EE 5 support and usability improvements, in particular the "out of the box" experience for new users of WTP - the inclusion of the AJAX tools in the WTP release is also a possibility.

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