MicroDoc announces the availability of it's Eclipse Services Program (ESP). ESP helps customers to leverage the momentum of the Eclipse Open Source platform as a basis of either a tool- or runtime solution.

"We see a huge demand for Eclipse based solutions not only for development environments but also as a runtime platform. MicroDoc is successfully building these systems for 2 years now, it's about time to start the Eclipse Service platform" said MicroDoc CTO Hans Kamutzki.

What ESP does

For customers using or planning to use Eclipse as a runtime platform, ESP offers the following services:

• Design and review of the overall software and system architecture including server and client design
• Tailoring of the Eclipse runtime environment (RCP or eRCP) for the target platform(s).
• Use of eRCP in embedded environments like handhelds, smart phones and headless systems
• Integration of SOA based infrastructure into Eclipse based clients

For customers using or planning to use Eclipse as a development platform ESP offers the following services:

• Create a standardized development platform from already available components supporting the whole software development lifecycle starting with modeling, development, test and support
• Extend the Eclipse Development Environment (CDT or JDT) with new tools like (graphical) editors for new file types, (code) generators, workflow integration
• Build new development environments for new, yet unsupported languages.

How it works

Using ESP usually starts with a design and assessment phase where the overall project plan and architecture is discussed and evaluated. As part of this phase MicroDoc engineers can recommend:

• software runtime components based on technical viability, maturity and their experience
• development tool chain
• architectural solutions

Depending on the outcome of this phase MicroDoc can

• help jumpstart customer teams either through coaching or technically dedicated workshops
• take over the development of customer components
• periodically review and QA the customer solution to make sure that quality gates are met

Customer benefits

Participating in MicroDoc's EDP will enable customer teams to quickly become productive using the Eclipse platform. MicroDoc engineers will participate in customer projects based on their expertise, thus enabling the projects to always get substantiated support be it tool integration or runtime considerations.

Further information

• Fleetboard uses OSGi as a basis for their next generation telematics solution
  
• An overview about Eclipse Rich Client platform (PDF 1,6MB)