Preface

Who should read this Book?

• You want to build a multi-user mobile application.
• You have to build a Java based business application.
• You need to decide on the IT strategy of your organisation
• You would like to show off the great library you have built but have hardly time for the good looking UI that it deserves

If any of the above scenarios is relevant in your situation, you might want to consider Section 1.3 on what to read and in which order.

This Book is Open and Free

• Access is simple. To download the book you do not need to register or pay subscription fees. To cater for individual preferences the book is available in various formats. Eventually, there should also be a printed version. And translations.
• Reuse/rehash is simple. This book is released under the Creative Commons (CC-BY) license. See Appendix A for details.
• Contribution is simple. That’s why the source files are all available on Github and we maintain a continuous integration (CI) infrastructure for building the book. The necessary information to help you to contribute is available on the Scout wiki.¹

In short, you are allowed to freely use, share and adapt this book, as long as you respect the conditions of the license mentioned above.

The Scout Community

The community around Scout is its most valuable asset. It is active, growing and friendly. This is why it deserves to be mentioned right here. The Scout forum² is the central place for the Scout community to share ideas, ask questions and get help. Other, less interactive community resources are the Scout wiki pages³ , the Scout homepage⁴ , the blog⁵ , and twitter⁶ .

The simplest way to become a community member yourself is to start with downloading Scout from the Eclipse download site⁷ , installing the software as described in Appendix B, and continue reading here.

The Current State

With the Eclipse Kepler release a first (and still rough) version of the Eclipse Scout book is available. In its current state, this book provides a reasonable introduction into the Eclipse Scout framework. To allow for external contributions from the Scout community, the book’s setup has been designed to invite collaboration⁸

Over time – and with each new Scout release – this book is intened to be updated and extended to cover more aspects with every release.

Thanks!

Many ideas regarding various aspects of this book, such the book’s setup, were copied from freely available resources on the web. Significant impact had ”Pharo by Example”⁹ .

Last but not least, we thank BSI Business Systems Integration AG¹⁰ for its contribution of Eclipse Scout to the open source community. For its dedication to open standards and the support to further evolve Scout and its growing community.