The Eclipse Foundation today announced the availability of Eclipse Rich AJAX Platform (RAP) 1.0, a freely downloadable AJAX server for creating and deploying Rich Internet Applications. RAP 1.0 is the first AJAX platform that allows developers to create RIAS using the Eclipse component model, based on the OSGi standard.

OSGi is a service-oriented, component-based environment that promotes the interoperability of applications and services. Organizations using RAP are now able to create AJAX and RIA applications that are component-based and integrate into existing enterprise systems.

RAP 1.0 includes features well-suited for enterprises that are building a large number of new applications based on AJAX and RIA technologies. These features include:

• The ability to create and deploy RIA or RCP applications from the same Java code base, allowing organizations the flexibility to create browser-based RIA application or desktop-based rich client applications.
• Support for creating AJAX applications based on the OSGi component model.
• Java development tools that tightly integrate with the Eclipse platform and allow developers to quickly develop, test, debug and deploy RIA applications.
• A complete set of frameworks for creating AJAX applications that support scalable user interfaces, complex widgets, databinding and loose coupling for UI elements