[Modeling-users] Greetings and questions

[Matthew P. <pa...@dm...>]

Hi,
	I came across Modeling as a result of discovering WebObjects just
recently.  I read through the docs on how to build web apps in WebObjects
and how to build and use Enterprise Objects, and I was very pleased with
the well-designed architecture of the EOF.  It truly is the most
sophisticated and powerful Enterprise Object architecture that I have
seen.
	My motivation for looking for a good Enterprise Object framework
is that for the past year and a half, I have been programming in PHP and I
have been very frustrated with the lack of good tools like WebObjects for
PHP.  Unless I want to write very disorganized and unmaintainable code, I
need tools like a solid Object-relational layer and a good MVC framework.
I actually tried to do this myself (www.sf.net/projects/doulos), and met
with some success (I just finished my first project in this framework, a
conference registration system), but I found that I lacked the solid
design ideas that WebObjects has.
	I debated rewriting WebObjects (in a highly simplified form)  for
PHP, but since PHP works by instantiating a new process in Apache that
lives for a little while, returns some HTML and then dies, the idea of
creating something like WebObjects that depends on a constantly running
server for PHP is probably not a good idea.  Its possible to do this, but
it would be using PHP to write a server, something it was never intended
for.
	So, I turned to Python, and I discovered your excellent initiative
to take the great ideas in WebObjects and make them freely available
through the GPL.  What you are working on is exactly what I need, and I
want to try to understand how I can best utilize your work.
	I have the following questions:

1. Is it your long-term goal to try to reproduce in Python everything that
Apple did in their EOF?

2. Roughly speaking, how much of their functionality have you reproduced
to this point, and what remains?

3. I understand you use Zope as your application server for your test
projects.  Do you have any code for a sample project that utilizes your
O/R layer with Zope?  What I mean is, do you have a web program that
allows the user to interact with the DB using Modeling?  Your examples in
the tests/ dir seemed be just the setting up of the Modeling classes, not
the actual usage of them in a program.  I noticed you also discussed this
in your user guide, but it would be really helpful to see all of the code
for a full project.  How does Zope compare to the web components approach
of WebObjects?

4. As a follow-up question, have you written any full-fledged
production-level products using Modeling?

5. I noticed that Apple has the full API to WebObjects accessible online.
Did you have any other sources for figuring out how to reverse engineer
WebObjects?

Thanks a lot for your thoughts!  I am going to try and get something
working in Modeling now!

						Matt


______________________________________________________________
Matthew Patton                                  pa...@dm...
DiscipleMakers Headquarters: (814)234-7975 x32