IDE’s with Ajax Support

Dietrich Kappe, Tuesday, August 29, 2006 @ 9:00 am

Back a few months ago or so, I put together a list of Java IDE's that supported Ajax. Since that time, Ajax support has been added to a few more IDE's, some IDE's on my list have been upgraded, and I've decided to add other languages beyond Java.

Of all the frameworks, GWT has seen quite a bit of growth, with two new eclipse plug-ins entering the list alongside a NetBeans project template. I've also added two Dreamweaver plug-ins, a natural given its long support over the years of rich interaction applications via JavaScript.

Zero Kode, the new visual designer for the ZK framework, joins Tibco GI as a browser-based IDE. Given that it requires a servlet container to run, it may not be suitable for anything beyond prototyping. Still, it shows how easy UI markup languages make the task of writing visual designers.

Before anyone objects, I am aware that there are other frameworks for .NET, Java and other languages. While a particular framework may be in principle supported by an IDE, unless a plug-in or IDE exists specifically for that framework, I have not included it in my matrix.







IDE Type Framework Languages License Comments
EchoStudio 2 Eclipse Plugin Echo2 Java Commercial Framework is open source. Eclipse plugin that allows you to build component trees, preview the UI, debug the application, etc. Not WYSIWYG, i.e. no drag and drop page layout.
Tibco GI Browser Based Tibco GI Javascript Commercial Free for development and publicly available web sites. Eats its own dogfood, i.e the IDE is implemented in itself and runs in IE. Is WYSIWIG and pretty slick.
Google GWT Command Line GWT Java Free Free to use for personal and commercial purposes. As for IDE integration, there's mostly just an Eclipse project generator and a "hosted mode" runtime. Being able to debug Javascript as Java in an IDE has to count for something, though, which is why I've included it.
Morfik WebOS AppsBuilder Custom IDE Morfiks Pascal, Java, C#, VB Commercial Freestanding IDE. Support several source languages including Pascal, Java, C# and VB. Drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG design. The behavior of the GUI designer is a little awkward. For example, right click doesn't give you the ability to cut and paste, etc., necessitating a roundtrip to the window's menu. Doesn't look like they have a whole lot of widgets in the evaluation version. A bunch of ther stuff thrown in, like DB integration, PDF reporting, etc.
JoyiStar Juno Custom IDE JoyiStar Java/JSP Commercial I apologize that I really haven't had a chance to look at is what in any detail. If anyone cares to contribute a review, I'd be happy to post it.
MyEclipse Eclipse Plugin J2EE Commercial With MyEclipse 4.x, the popular eclipse extension added support for JavaScript editing and debugging. With version 5.0, new features are making their way into MyEclipse, such as runtime DOM inspection, HTTP header monitoring, and cache control.
Zero Kode Browser Based ZK zul/Java Open Source IDE written in ZK that allows you to visually design a ZK application.
MX Ajax Toolbox Dreamweaver Plugin PHP Commercial Supports PHP_MySQL and PHP_ADODB on the server side.
Aptana Eclipse Plugin & Custom IDE Multiple Javascript/HTML/CSS Open Source Works with AFLAX, Dojo, MochiKit, Prototype, Rico, sript.aculo.us, Yahoo UI
Yet Another GWT Plugin Eclipse Plugin GWT Java Open Source Forked from Googlipse
Googlipse Eclipse Plugin GWT Java Open Source Wraps the create, run and compile for you.
VistaFei Eclipse Plugin GWT Java Commercial Supports visual design of UI.
GWT Plugin IntelliJ GWT Java Commercial It does all of the messy setup of the GWT Eclipse project and application creation for you. It allows you to create several GWT entities via menus: Module, Entry Point, Remote Service (client and server side classes), and Serializable classes. The automatic creation of a Remote Service with it's three files (shades of EJB) is especially nice.
Backbase Java Eclipse Plugin Backbase Engine/JSF Java/JSP Commercial Plugin based on WTP. Includes new UI component creation wizard.
Backbase .NET Visual Studio Plugin Backbase Engine C#, VB Commercial Under development
Backbase Dreamweaver Dreamweaver Plugin Backbase Engine Commercial
Visual Studio Atlas C#, VB Commercial
NetBeans GWT Project Template GWT Java Open Source
ThinkCap JX Custom IDE ThinkCap JX Framework Java/JSP Commercial A first scan makes me think that this is mostly an afterthought in a J2EE suite. In fact, the documentation states that it is based on struts. The framework is now supposedly open source.
RadRails Eclipse Plugin Ruby on Rails Ruby Open Source Can be combined with Aptana.
Oracle JDeveloper Custom IDE JSF Java Commercial The support here seems somewhat rudimentary.
jMaki Netbeans Plugin JSP/JSF Java/JSP Open Source This NetBeans 5.5 plug-in gives youdrag-and-drop insertion of jMaki components directly into your JSP pages.
Ajax Toolkit Framework Eclipse Plugin Javascript Open Source Open Source Eclipse Plugin. Really more of a toolkit for building other AJAX IDE plugins. Starts by combining Dojo and Zimbra Toolkit. Very early in it's development. From the project docs: ATF enables support of DOM browsing and JavaScript debugging by using Mozilla XULrunner to embed the Mozilla browser component (Gecko) in the Eclipse framework.


If I've left out any IDE's, and I am sure I have, or have made any mistakes or omissions, and I'm sure I've done that too, please don't hesitate to drop me a line at ajax@pathf.com.


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Comments: 5 so far

  1. Hey, your list is missing the jsc :)

    visit jsc.sourceforge.net and watch the screencasts

    Comment by zproxy, Wednesday, August 30, 2006 @ 1:55 am

  2. You missed JackBe’s NQSuite product. NQSuite is one of the few IDE’s with browser-based WYSIWYG editor.

    check it out at http://www.jackbe.com
    demos at http://www.jackbe.com/Resources/demos.php

    Also, here is the link to the demo hosted on InfoWorld
    http://www.infoworld.com/video/archives/2006/09/screencast_jack.html

    Comment by ajaxDNA, Friday, September 8, 2006 @ 4:36 pm

  3. You should toss Komodo IDE into the mix. We support multiple scripting languages, but it’s the debugging capabilities where we really shine in regards to AJAX. You can debug JavaScript (in Firefox) AND your sever side scripts at the same time, steping from client to server code and back. Also included is an HTTP proxy that integrates with the debug session in some very cool ways.

    Comment by Shane Caraveo, Thursday, March 15, 2007 @ 1:47 pm

  4. ActiveGrid (http://www.activegrid.com) Has both an open source and commercial versions.

    Comment by Mark Manning, Wednesday, October 17, 2007 @ 12:39 am

  5. Dreamweaver will never support other than brain dead, know-nothing attempts at delivering web content. Its inclusion here makes the entire article suspect.

    Comment by John L Magee, Monday, March 10, 2008 @ 10:17 pm

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