Eclipse RCP Meets Spring: A Perfect Thick-Client Match : Page 5

Running the Application

Now you are ready to run your application. In case you haven't already, import the stocktradeserver project into Eclipse as follows:

1. In Eclipse, click the toolbar button Deploy MyEclipse J2EE project to Server (see Figure 15).

   

   Figure 15. Deploy MyEclipse J2EE Server Button

   Make sure the project in the dropdown is stocktradeserver. Click Add, select Tomcat 5 as your server, and then click Finish. When you see a message saying Successfully deployed, click OK (see Figure 16).

   

   Figure 16. StockTradeServer Successfully Deployed

   Now start Tomcat server (see Figure 17). Tomcat should start successfully.

   

   Figure 17. Start Tomcat via MyEclipse Plugin

2. Start the Eclipse Rich Client. Open EclipseTradeClient's plugin.xml file, click the Overview tab, and click Launch an Eclipse application. When the application is launched, push the button circled in red in Figure 18 to get a list of stocks. This action will fetch the list of stocks from the application server using Spring HttpInvoker. You can push the button to the right of the circled one to clear the list of stocks (see Figure 18).

   

   Figure 18. EclipseTradeClient Running Successfully

And that's it! You have successfully built a small Eclipse Rich Client and connected it to an application server using Spring remoting.

Discover the Riches of Eclipse RCP

You should definitely consider building on top of a rich client platform, and RCP merits consideration. Building your next thick client on the Eclipse RCP will reduce a lot of the plumbing code necessary to build a thick client GUI framework. In addition, using Spring remoting as the mechanism for client/server communication allows you to switch protocols with utmost ease, and it provides all the other Spring benefits on the server side.

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