Developing ZIETrans rich client applications

The steps for building and testing a ZIETrans rich client application are essentially the same as those for a ZIETrans Web application. You use ZIETrans Toolkit with tools provided in the ZIETrans perspective to develop a ZIETrans rich client project from which a ZIETrans rich client application is generated. The same wizards, editors and views are provided to support the various activities required during development.

As with ZIETrans for the Web environment, you develop the appearance and operation of the application, including customizing default rendering settings, screen navigation (by way of skip screen macros), and the fonts and colors used to render screens.

The majority of features available in a ZIETrans Web application are also available in a ZIETrans rich client application. These include, but are not limited to:
  • Default rendering
  • Global rules
  • Text replacement
  • Custom screen transformations
  • Prepopulated transformations
  • Global variables
  • Custom components and widgets
  • Macros and macro handlers
  • Background connections
  • Java™ business logic
  • Application-level events, for example start, stop, connect, and disconnect
  • Keyboard support
  • Asynchronous updating
  • Local test environments analogous to Run on Server for a Web project
Features available in ZIETrans Web applications that are not available in ZIETrans rich client applications include:
  • Creation of Integration Objects
  • Creation of EJB access beans
  • Web Express Logon (WEL)
  • ZIETrans administrative console

A ZIETrans rich client project is an Eclipse plug-in project. As a project, it exists in a workspace and is developed by a ZIETrans application developer. Once developed and tested, the project is exported as a ZIETrans rich client application, which is an Eclipse plug-in that can be installed into an Eclipse environment. An Eclipse plug-in is a component that provides a certain type of service within the context of an Eclipse environment. In the case with ZIETrans, the plug-in provides the service required to transform a host application.

Each ZIETrans rich client application plug-in depends on several runtime plug-ins. The dependencies are referred to in the rich client project's manifest file, MANIFEST.MF. You must ensure these required plug-ins are included in your local test environment and in the deployed production environment for your ZIETrans rich client plug-in to run properly. For more information see ZIETrans RCP Runtime Extension project, Testing ZIETrans rich client applications, and Deploying ZIETrans rich client applications.

Parent topic: Developing and deploying ZIETrans rich client applications