Single-Sourcing for Desktop and Web Applications with EMF Parsley

While Java allows a compiled program to run on different operating systems where a Java Virtual Machine is installed, a Java desktop application cannot be directly executed as a web application and vice-versa. Additional tools and techniques must be employed to achieve a "single-sourcing" mechanism. The Eclipse project EMF Parsley, built on top of EMF, aims to simplify implementing EMF applications by hiding most EMF internal details, providing some reusable UI (User Interface) components, and providing declarative customization mechanisms through a DSL with IDE support. In this paper, we show how EMF Parsley allows the developer to achieve "single-sourcing" for desktop and web applications: the developer can implement a desktop application that can also be deployed as a web application, re-using most of the source code, including the UI code, with a minimal effort to specify a small set of specific classes to start the application for the specific running platform.