This section gives an overview of EGL support for web and mobile applications.
EGL Rich UI is a technology for writing applications that will be deployed on application servers. The technology builds on an idea central to EGL: write simple code, which is converted automatically to output that is useful for running a business. The output in this case is client-side JavaScript™, called client-side because the JavaScript runs in the browser, not on the remote machine that serves the page. Client-side JavaScript is important because it makes the page more responsive, providing greater flexibility so that the user's experience can go beyond receiving and submitting a page. After the user clicks a radio button, for example, the logic might respond by changing the content of a text box. The change occurs quickly because the JavaScript runs locally and, in most cases, redraws only one area of the page.
An extension of client-side JavaScript is Ajax, a technology that permits the runtime invocation of remote code and the subsequent update of a portion of a web page, even as the user continues working elsewhere on the page. After the user selects a purchase order from a list box, for example, the JavaScript logic might request transmission of order-item details from the remote web server and then place those details in a table displayed to the user. In this way, the application can access content from the server but can save time by selecting, at run time, which content is transmitted.
You deploy the output of a Rich UI application to an EGL web project or to a non-EGL dynamic web project. The project might be configured for an application server such as WebSphere® Application Server, which is fully compliant with Java™ EE, or for an application server such as Apache Tomcat, which is partially compliant with Java EE.
Also, the topics subordinate to this one provide much detail on the programming model.