Systems, methods and computer program products for automating packaging and provisioning of j2ee web modules to eclipse-based rich clients

A method for automating packaging and provisioning of J2EE Web Modules to an Eclipse-based Rich Client, the method consisting of:

• deploying a J2EE Web application to an application server, the J2EE Web application being packaged as a plugin sent to the Eclipse-based Rich Client via a dynamic update site having a feature/plugin packager;
• publishing the J2EE Web Application to the dynamic update Eclipse site;
• connecting to the dynamic update Eclipse site;
• selecting the J2EE Web application having the J2EE Web Modules for provisioning;
• versioning each component of the J2EE application;
• determining interdependencies of each component;
• referencing interdependent components in a descriptor file and generating the interdependent components;
• determining user access control for each component;
• generating feature and plugin jar files from each component;
• signing the feature and plugin jar files with a certificate supplied by an administrator;
• rewriting descriptor files for each component with contents required by a target platform;
• performing at least one of implementing a user supplied feature/plugin and triggering the generated feature/plugin packager for creating a feature/plugin, the triggering being based on the user access control for each component;
• running the application on the Eclipse-based Rich Client;
• and
• synchronizing data between the local client and the application server, such that the J2EE application runs synchronously on the Eclipse-based Rich Client and the application server;
• wherein the dynamic update Eclipse site automatically updates itself based on the J2EE Web Modules deployed in the application server.