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   <title>Introduction and Comparison to SWT</title>
   <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../../PRODUCT_PLUGIN/book.css" type="text/css"/>
 </head>
 <body>

   <h1>Introduction to the RAP Widget Toolkit</h1>
   <p>
     At the core of RAP operates the RAP Widget Toolkit (RWT), which largely implements the same
     API as the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT). That is why many projects that build upon SWT
     (like <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/JFace">JFace</a>)
     can run on RWT with little or no modifications. It can
     also be used <a href="application-setup.html#workbench">with or without the Eclipse 3.x workbench layer</a>.
    </p>
   <p>
     <small> NOTE: “RWT“ refers to this toolkit specifically, while “RAP” refers to the
     project in its entirety, including its ports of JFace, Workbench and Forms, OSGI
     integration, add-ons, Branding and Interaction Design API, tooling, demos and custom themes.</small>
   </p>
   <p>
     RWT implements most (40+) <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/swt/widgets/">
     SWT Widgets</a>, including their events and layout manager. It also supports SWT-like
     key and mouse event handling, drag and drop and painting (on <em>Canvas</em>).
     If you are not already familiar with SWT, we recommend to first learn the SWT basics
     (almost all valid for RWT) by reading the official documentation
     and <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/swt/snippets/">snippets</a> provided by the
     <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/swt/">SWT project homepage</a>.
     A full reference specific to RWT can be found
     <a href="../reference/api/overview-summary.html">here</a>.
   </p>

   <h1>Differences between the RWT and SWT</h1>
   <p>
     RAP generally follows the rule <q>If it compiles, it works</q>. That means that all SWT API
     implemented in RWT is working <i>within the requirements set by SWT</i>.
     If an SWT feature is not implemented, the corresponding API is also missing.
     If this is the case, it is likely because it's hard or impossible to implement in RWT.
     In some cases, SWT classes and methods are implemented as empty stubs to enable single-sourcing,
     but only where this is a valid according of the SWT documentation of the API.
     Examples are the Accessibility API and some SWT constants that are marked as <em>HINT</em>.
   </p>
   <p>
     SWT was developed for desktop applications, but RWT is used to build web applications.
     For this reason, there are some features that SWT supports that RWT does not,
     while RWT adds some features that are tailored to the specific requirements of web
     application development.
     However, RWT does not add any new API to the classes adopted from SWT.
     All RWT-specific features are accessible by API in the namespace
     <em><a href="../reference/api/index.html">org.eclipse.rap.rwt</a></em>.
     Many are activated using a
     widget's
     <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/Widget.html#setData(java.lang.String, java.lang.Object)">setData</a></em>
     method with a constant from the
     <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/rap/rwt/RWT.html">RWT</a></em>
     class as the
     key. Example:
   </p>
     <pre class="lang-java">table.setData( RWT.MARKUP_ENABLED, Boolean.TRUE )</pre>
   <p>
     Other additional features may be accessed via <a href="client.html#service">client services</a>.
   </p>

   <h2>Notable Additional Features</h2>
   <ul>

     <li id="client" style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Client Class and  Client Services</b>
       <br/>
       All features specific to the RAP client (which is exchangeable as of RAP 2.0)
       are handled by the client class and the client services.
       This includes support for browser history, JavaScript execution and retrieving the clients
       time zone offset.
       The <code>Client</code> interface and client services are documented in more detail
       <a href="client.html">here</a>.
     </li>


     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>HTTP File Upload</b>
       <br/>
       Unlike SWT, RWT can not simply access the user's file system and read data from it.
       As an alternative, the
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/rap/rwt/widgets/FileUpload.html">FileUpload</a></em>
       widget can be used. The widget looks like a button, but when clicked will open the file picker
       dialog of the user's browser.
       After a file has been selected, it can programmatically be send to any HTTP server.
       <br/>
       <strong> Important:</strong> The widget only allows <i>sending</i> the file to a given URL,
       it does not handle <i>receiving</i> it.
       If you require a complete solution for uploading and
       opening the file in your application, consider using the
       <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/RAP/Incubator/File_Upload">FileDialog</a>
       implementation based on the <em>FileUpload</em> widget.
     </li>

     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Markup in Widgets</b>
       <br/>
       Several widgets in RWT support a subset of HTML in their text property.
       Detailed information can be found <a href="markup.html">here</a>.
     </li>

     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Fixed Columns</b>
       <br/>
       It is possible in RWT to exclude some columns from Tree or Table from scrolling.
       Find out more about it <a href="tree-table.html#fixedcolumns">here</a>.
     </li>

     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Theming</b>
       <br/>
       In SWT, the default visual representation of an widget is determined by the operating
       system. In RAP this is done by the
       <a href="theming.html">theming</a>
       which can be adjusted by the developer using CSS.
     </li>

     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Multi-User Environment</b><br/>
       RAP operates in a multi-user environment and provides some additional API that helps
       dealing with the consequences.
       An detailed introduction can be found <a href="scopes.html">here</a>.
     </li>

   </ul>

   <h2>Notable Limitations</h2>
   <ul>

     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Unimplemented Features</b>
       <br/>
       While the API for touch event handling and accessibility configuration is present in RWT,
       it does not natively support either. This is a valid implementation according to the SWT
       documentation.
     </li>

     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Unimplemented Widgets:</b>
       <em>StyledText</em>, <em>Tracker</em>, <em>TaskBar</em>, <em>Tray</em>
       <br/>
       These widgets are currently not available in RWT.
     </li>

     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Painting Limitations</b><br/>
       SWT can paint on any widget or image using a
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/graphics/GC.html">GC</a></em>,
       while RAP currently only allows painting on the
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/Canvas.html">Canvas</a></em>
       widget.
       In some cases the
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/graphics/GC.html#drawText(java.lang.String, int, int)">drawText</a></em>
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/graphics/GC.html#drawString(java.lang.String, int, int)">drawString</a></em>
       and
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/graphics/GC.html#drawImage(org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Image, int, int)">drawImage</a></em>
       methods may disregard the drawing order and overlap elements that are drawn later.
       Some methods are unimplemented, including <em>copyArea</em>, <em>drawPath</em>,
       <em>setClipping</em>, <em>setTransform</em>, <em>setInterpolation</em>,
       <em>setLineDash</em> and <em>setXORMode</em>.
       Performance and results of a drawing operations can differ depending on the browser.
       See also <q><a href="custom-widget.html#selfdrawing">Self-Drawing custom widgets</a></q>.
     </li>

     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Limitations in Dialogs:</b>
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/Dialog.html">Dialog</a></em>,
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/ColorDialog.html">ColorDialog</a></em>,
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/FontDialog.html">FontDialog</a></em>,
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/MessageBox.html">MessageBox</a></em>
       <br/>
       When using the
       <a href="application-setup.html#compat">JEE compatibility mode</a>,
       opening a dialog does not block program execution.
       To obtain their return value, a callback must be registered using the RWT-specific class
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/rap/rwt/widgets/DialogUtil.html">DialogUtil</a></em>.
     </li>

     <li id="browser" style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Limitations of the Browser widget</b>
       <br/>
       Since the
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/browser/Browser.html">Browser</a></em>
       widget is based on the HTML <em>iframe</em> element, there are some restrictions.
       Detailed information can be found <a href="web-embedding.html">here</a>.
     </li>

     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Limitations in Mouse and Key Events</b>
       <br/>
       See <q><a href="key-and-mouse-events.html">Mouse and Key Event Handling in RAP</a></q>.
     </li>

     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b id="verify">Limitations in Verify and Modify Events:</b>
       <br/>
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/SWT.html#Modify">Modify</a></em>
       and
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/SWT.html#Verify">Verify</a></em>
       events are not fired instantaneously, but with a small delay, possibly
       combining a number of changes into one event. Also, the values of the
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/events/VerifyEvent.html">VerifyEvent</a></em>
       fields
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/events/VerifyEvent.html#text">text</a></em>,
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/events/VerifyEvent.html#start">start</a></em>
       and
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/events/VerifyEvent.html#end">end</a></em>
       currently always report the entire text to have changed.
       The <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/RAP/ClientScripting">ClientScripting</a> project was
       started specifically to provide an alternative.
     </li>

     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Limitations in Drag and Drop</b>
       <br/>
       In
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/dnd/DragSourceEvent.html">DragSourceEvent</a></em>,
       the fields
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/dnd/DragSourceEvent.html#image">image</a></em>,
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/dnd/DragSourceEvent.html#offsetX">offsetX</a></em>
       and
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/dnd/DragSourceEvent.html#offsetY">offsetY</a></em>
       have no effect.
       <em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/dnd/DropTargetEvent.html">DropTargetEvent</a></em>s
       may be omitted while the mouse cursor is still in motion.
     </li>

     <li style="margin-bottom:10px">
       <b>Limitations when using background threads</b>
       <br/>
       See articles <a href="threads.html">Session access from a background thread</a>
       and <a href="server-push.html">Server Push</a>.
     </li>

   </ul>
 </body>
 </html>
	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
	"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
	<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	<head>
	<meta name="copyright" content="Copyright (c) 2012, 2013 EclipseSource. This page is made available under license. For full details see the LEGAL in the documentation book that contains this page."/>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>
	<title>Introduction and Comparison to SWT</title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="../../../PRODUCT_PLUGIN/book.css" type="text/css"/>
	</head>
	<body>

	<h1>Introduction to the RAP Widget Toolkit</h1>
	<p>
	At the core of RAP operates the RAP Widget Toolkit (RWT), which largely implements the same
	API as the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT). That is why many projects that build upon SWT
	(like <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/JFace">JFace</a>)
	can run on RWT with little or no modifications. It can
	also be used <a href="application-setup.html#workbench">with or without the Eclipse 3.x workbench layer</a>.
	</p>
	<p>
	<small> NOTE: “RWT“ refers to this toolkit specifically, while “RAP” refers to the
	project in its entirety, including its ports of JFace, Workbench and Forms, OSGI
	integration, add-ons, Branding and Interaction Design API, tooling, demos and custom themes.</small>
	</p>
	<p>
	RWT implements most (40+) <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/swt/widgets/">
	SWT Widgets</a>, including their events and layout manager. It also supports SWT-like
	key and mouse event handling, drag and drop and painting (on <em>Canvas</em>).
	If you are not already familiar with SWT, we recommend to first learn the SWT basics
	(almost all valid for RWT) by reading the official documentation
	and <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/swt/snippets/">snippets</a> provided by the
	<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/swt/">SWT project homepage</a>.
	A full reference specific to RWT can be found
	<a href="../reference/api/overview-summary.html">here</a>.
	</p>

	<h1>Differences between the RWT and SWT</h1>
	<p>
	RAP generally follows the rule <q>If it compiles, it works</q>. That means that all SWT API
	implemented in RWT is working <i>within the requirements set by SWT</i>.
	If an SWT feature is not implemented, the corresponding API is also missing.
	If this is the case, it is likely because it's hard or impossible to implement in RWT.
	In some cases, SWT classes and methods are implemented as empty stubs to enable single-sourcing,
	but only where this is a valid according of the SWT documentation of the API.
	Examples are the Accessibility API and some SWT constants that are marked as <em>HINT</em>.
	</p>
	<p>
	SWT was developed for desktop applications, but RWT is used to build web applications.
	For this reason, there are some features that SWT supports that RWT does not,
	while RWT adds some features that are tailored to the specific requirements of web
	application development.
	However, RWT does not add any new API to the classes adopted from SWT.
	All RWT-specific features are accessible by API in the namespace
	<em><a href="../reference/api/index.html">org.eclipse.rap.rwt</a></em>.
	Many are activated using a
	widget's
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/Widget.html#setData(java.lang.String, java.lang.Object)">setData</a></em>
	method with a constant from the
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/rap/rwt/RWT.html">RWT</a></em>
	class as the
	key. Example:
	</p>
	<pre class="lang-java">table.setData( RWT.MARKUP_ENABLED, Boolean.TRUE )</pre>
	<p>
	Other additional features may be accessed via <a href="client.html#service">client services</a>.
	</p>

	<h2>Notable Additional Features</h2>
	<ul>

	<li id="client" style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Client Class and Client Services</b>
	<br/>
	All features specific to the RAP client (which is exchangeable as of RAP 2.0)
	are handled by the client class and the client services.
	This includes support for browser history, JavaScript execution and retrieving the clients
	time zone offset.
	The <code>Client</code> interface and client services are documented in more detail
	<a href="client.html">here</a>.
	</li>


	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>HTTP File Upload</b>
	<br/>
	Unlike SWT, RWT can not simply access the user's file system and read data from it.
	As an alternative, the
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/rap/rwt/widgets/FileUpload.html">FileUpload</a></em>
	widget can be used. The widget looks like a button, but when clicked will open the file picker
	dialog of the user's browser.
	After a file has been selected, it can programmatically be send to any HTTP server.
	<br/>
	<strong> Important:</strong> The widget only allows <i>sending</i> the file to a given URL,
	it does not handle <i>receiving</i> it.
	If you require a complete solution for uploading and
	opening the file in your application, consider using the
	<a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/RAP/Incubator/File_Upload">FileDialog</a>
	implementation based on the <em>FileUpload</em> widget.
	</li>

	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Markup in Widgets</b>
	<br/>
	Several widgets in RWT support a subset of HTML in their text property.
	Detailed information can be found <a href="markup.html">here</a>.
	</li>

	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Fixed Columns</b>
	<br/>
	It is possible in RWT to exclude some columns from Tree or Table from scrolling.
	Find out more about it <a href="tree-table.html#fixedcolumns">here</a>.
	</li>

	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Theming</b>
	<br/>
	In SWT, the default visual representation of an widget is determined by the operating
	system. In RAP this is done by the
	<a href="theming.html">theming</a>
	which can be adjusted by the developer using CSS.
	</li>

	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Multi-User Environment</b><br/>
	RAP operates in a multi-user environment and provides some additional API that helps
	dealing with the consequences.
	An detailed introduction can be found <a href="scopes.html">here</a>.
	</li>

	</ul>

	<h2>Notable Limitations</h2>
	<ul>

	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Unimplemented Features</b>
	<br/>
	While the API for touch event handling and accessibility configuration is present in RWT,
	it does not natively support either. This is a valid implementation according to the SWT
	documentation.
	</li>

	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Unimplemented Widgets:</b>
	<em>StyledText</em>, <em>Tracker</em>, <em>TaskBar</em>, <em>Tray</em>
	<br/>
	These widgets are currently not available in RWT.
	</li>

	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Painting Limitations</b><br/>
	SWT can paint on any widget or image using a
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/graphics/GC.html">GC</a></em>,
	while RAP currently only allows painting on the
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/Canvas.html">Canvas</a></em>
	widget.
	In some cases the
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/graphics/GC.html#drawText(java.lang.String, int, int)">drawText</a></em>
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/graphics/GC.html#drawString(java.lang.String, int, int)">drawString</a></em>
	and
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/graphics/GC.html#drawImage(org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Image, int, int)">drawImage</a></em>
	methods may disregard the drawing order and overlap elements that are drawn later.
	Some methods are unimplemented, including <em>copyArea</em>, <em>drawPath</em>,
	<em>setClipping</em>, <em>setTransform</em>, <em>setInterpolation</em>,
	<em>setLineDash</em> and <em>setXORMode</em>.
	Performance and results of a drawing operations can differ depending on the browser.
	See also <q><a href="custom-widget.html#selfdrawing">Self-Drawing custom widgets</a></q>.
	</li>

	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Limitations in Dialogs:</b>
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/Dialog.html">Dialog</a></em>,
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/ColorDialog.html">ColorDialog</a></em>,
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/FontDialog.html">FontDialog</a></em>,
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/MessageBox.html">MessageBox</a></em>
	<br/>
	When using the
	<a href="application-setup.html#compat">JEE compatibility mode</a>,
	opening a dialog does not block program execution.
	To obtain their return value, a callback must be registered using the RWT-specific class
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/rap/rwt/widgets/DialogUtil.html">DialogUtil</a></em>.
	</li>

	<li id="browser" style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Limitations of the Browser widget</b>
	<br/>
	Since the
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/browser/Browser.html">Browser</a></em>
	widget is based on the HTML <em>iframe</em> element, there are some restrictions.
	Detailed information can be found <a href="web-embedding.html">here</a>.
	</li>

	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Limitations in Mouse and Key Events</b>
	<br/>
	See <q><a href="key-and-mouse-events.html">Mouse and Key Event Handling in RAP</a></q>.
	</li>

	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b id="verify">Limitations in Verify and Modify Events:</b>
	<br/>
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/SWT.html#Modify">Modify</a></em>
	and
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/SWT.html#Verify">Verify</a></em>
	events are not fired instantaneously, but with a small delay, possibly
	combining a number of changes into one event. Also, the values of the
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/events/VerifyEvent.html">VerifyEvent</a></em>
	fields
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/events/VerifyEvent.html#text">text</a></em>,
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/events/VerifyEvent.html#start">start</a></em>
	and
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/events/VerifyEvent.html#end">end</a></em>
	currently always report the entire text to have changed.
	The <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/RAP/ClientScripting">ClientScripting</a> project was
	started specifically to provide an alternative.
	</li>

	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Limitations in Drag and Drop</b>
	<br/>
	In
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/dnd/DragSourceEvent.html">DragSourceEvent</a></em>,
	the fields
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/dnd/DragSourceEvent.html#image">image</a></em>,
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/dnd/DragSourceEvent.html#offsetX">offsetX</a></em>
	and
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/dnd/DragSourceEvent.html#offsetY">offsetY</a></em>
	have no effect.
	<em><a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/swt/dnd/DropTargetEvent.html">DropTargetEvent</a></em>s
	may be omitted while the mouse cursor is still in motion.
	</li>

	<li style="margin-bottom:10px">
	<b>Limitations when using background threads</b>
	<br/>
	See articles <a href="threads.html">Session access from a background thread</a>
	and <a href="server-push.html">Server Push</a>.
	</li>

	</ul>
	</body>
	</html>