The new plug-in, says Canoo, provides a tight ULC integration into the Eclipse IDE, enabling developers to deliver pure Java-based RIAs with unprecedented efficiency.

UltraLightClient offers a server-side programming and execution model and is the ideal complement for the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP).

"With this standard Java library, developers will be very effective in providing rich, responsive GUIs for enterprise Web applications within J2EE and J2SE infrastructures," says the company.

UltraLightClient builds on available developer know-how by following the Swing API, yet shields the developer from the complexities of client/server code distribution by taking care of the code split and by optimizing communication. Application releases are deployed on the server only. The user interface is handled by an application-independent Java presentation engine distributed as an applet to a browser, to Eclipse RCP, or via Java Web Start.

UltraLightClient is available for purchase at http://www.canoo.com/ulc. A developer license costs US$ 1495 and includes free runtime distribution on any number of servers. A free evaluation license may be obtained for 30 days.

Dedicated wizards guide Java developers through the steps required to create a new project, automatically linking all necessary UltraLightClient libraries and defining a clean structure. The plug-in generates a sample ULC application that can be used as a template to understand the use of a launcher and the structure of a main class in ULC. Updating an existing ULC project to a new ULC version is carried out automatically. The plug-in streamlines the export procedure to deploy a productive application as an applet or using Java Web Start.

The plug-in source code and documentation is available for download at the UltraLightClient Community website (http://ulc-community.canoo.com/).