Difference between revisions of "Riena/E4"

Revision as of 13:09, 15 March 2013

Riena supports the new E4 concepts to simplify the implementation of Riena applications in turn. Therefore there is a new branch rienaOnE4 in the Riena Git Repository where all Riena E4 development happens. (learn more about E4)

E4 offers a compatibility layer for existing Eclipse 3.x applications. Riena does not make use of this compatibility layer, but brings native E4 support. Even so, Riena applications built on Eclipse 3.x basis will work with Riena on E4.

The following guide will walk through the necessary steps to setup your environment in minutes.

Set up target platform for Riena apps

The screenshots in this section were made with the Riena 4 setup, but are also valid for Riena 5.

• Download the Eclipse Kepler IDE for your platform and start with a blank workspace. Eclipse Developer Builds

• Download the RienaSetup project and import it into your workspace.

• In the imported project, open the file "Riena_5.0.0.0-4x.target" and set the target Platform

• Open the "Plug-Ins" view and import "org.eclipse.riena.example.client" as source project.

• Select launch configuration "SWT ExampleApplication E4" and add required plug-ins, then Run it.
  • Before adding required plug-ins, also check "Include optional dependencies when computing required plug-ins"
• Now explore the code and plugin.xml in the example project

Manual target platform setup

• Create a new target platform under Window => Preferences => Target Platform => Add => Nothing: Start with an empty target platform => Next
• Provide a name like Riena 5.0.0
• Click Add => Software Site
• Select the repository: http://download.eclipse.org/releases/kepler
• Uncheck "Group by Category" otherwise you can't see all components.
• Select following components:
  • Equinox Target Components
  • Eclipse RCP
  • Eclipse RCP SDK
  • Eclipse RCP Plug-in Developer Resources
• Activate target platform

Get Riena Source Code

• Clone the Riena Git Repository to any location in your file system

 git clone git://git.eclipse.org/gitroot/riena/org.eclipse.riena.git

• Import the Git Repository in Eclipse
• Switch to Branch rienaOnE4
• Checkout additional dependencies using the projectset in org.eclipse.riena.releng

If you have problems with the projectset checkout https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=380375

Start Your Engines

• Open the dialog Run Configurations...
• Use the launch configuration SWT ExampleApplication E4 to start the Example Application
  • If required, select Add Required Plug-Ins in the Plug-Ins tab

Get Riena Target Platform

If you do not want to checkout the Riena sources or just want to build a Riena based application, follow this steps to load the target platform.

• Open the Target Platform configuration and select the target rienaE4 which you created above
• In addition to the components added above, add the Riena Target components from the Software Site http://download.eclipse.org/releases/kepler
  • Riena Core Target Components
  • Riena Target Components
  • Riena Samples Target Components
• Riena Core Target Components and Riena Target Components will appear twice in the list. Though they have the same names, they are different. Make sure, you select only the ones that include "e4" in their identifier (e.g. org.eclipse.riena.build.feature.core.sdk.e4.feature.group). You can check the identifier usind the "Properties..." button below the list and going to "General Information".

• Open the Plug-Ins view, locate the plug-in org.eclipse.riena.example.client and import it as Source Project into your workspace
  • This project contains the Launch Configuration for the Riena example client
  • If required, select Add Required Plug-Ins in the Plug-Ins tab (also check Include optional dependencies when computing required plug-ins)

TODOs

• Verify that Riena works with pure E4 applications (E4 Example Client)
• Use E4 dependency injection (DI) mechanism for the Riena DI implementation
• Migrate Riena Toolbox to E4 (Currently Riena Toolbox on E4 is untested)