[Stw-devs] Next step ...

[Vincent M. <vm...@oc...>]

Here is the current status of STW :
- it works fine ! It has a single web page listing in a table latest =
versions of software. The data is fetched every 15 minutes
- it still missing the following :
  - a nicely designed web page (to be provided by Lyonel),
  - a server where to host it and leave it running for a while (to be =
done by Dominique)

However, I'd like to begin thinking about the next step. I'd like to =
implement the following in this next step :
- add persistence for data, i.e. all definition of data to retrieve are =
stored in a database (results are still stored in memory for the time =
being until next iteration)
- modify the current model with the following :
  - each deck can belong to several categories. For example the "Castor" =
deck will belong to both "Open Source Software" category and to "XML" =
category
- add a simple admin web-based interface to add new definitions to the =
database, query existing entries and modify existing entries (these will =
be provided using very simple GUI. For example adding a new entry will =
consist of forms and we'll enter the regexp to use as a string)

That's all. It looks very limited. However, it does introduce several =
key elements :
- a database
- a mechanism for persisting the data.

I propose to use EJB 2.0 for the persistence. Thus I can see 2 choices :
- Resin-CMP (a limited implementation of J2EE/EJB for enough for our =
purpose). It does implement local interfaces and relationships. However =
I don't know what databases are supported as it does not let you =
customize the mapping between the container and the database
- Orion Server 1.5.2, which supports all databases

Both are free for non-commercial use.

For the databases there are several choices :
- Hypersonic SQL,
- MySQL
- PostGre

Hypersonic has the advantage of being really small (< 100k) but I don't =
know if it works with Resin-CMP (it does with Orion Server though).

STW will be delivered as an EAR file instead of a WAR file (as it is =
now).

If we use Orion Server, then we loose the run-at feature of Resin but I =
it is extremely simple to spawn new threads from a servlet and sleep in =
a forever while loop in order to reproduce the same effect.

What do you think ?
Thanks

-Vincent Massol