Re: [TM4J-users] TM4J project web site & XTM (was RE: new member)

[Gerd M. <Ger...@sm...>]

> > > [Kal]
> > > > There are lots of options here:
> > > >
> > > > XSLT only - good for static websites. May be restricted in functionality
> > > > JSP only  -  good for dynamic websites. Full access to API functionality
> > > > but requires Java coding skills
> > > > JSP with XSLT - good for dynamic websites Full access to API. Styling
> > > > could
> > > > be provided through XSLT without requiring Java coding.
> > > > JSP with Velocity - good for dynamic and static websistes. Potentially
> > > > full
> > > > access to API (may require an interface layer between the Java API and
> > > > Velocity - though that should be quite thin). Site developers can work
> > > > without needing to know any Java - although some functionality might
> > > > require quite a lot of scripting
> > > > JSP with Velocity and XSLT - Dynamic and static websites. Site 
> > developers
> > > > don't need to know any Java. Velocity could be used to generate XML 
> > which
> > > > is styled with XSLT.
> > > > [...]
> > >
> > > Let me just pitch in one quick thought, as I'm really tired tonight and
> > > ought to get some sleep: what about Cocoon?
> >
> >+1 from me. I've already built a simple TopicMap navigation tool
> >with TM4J on top of Cocoon. But to be honest, I don't know Velocity
> >very good, so I'm not sure about the pro's and con's. What I don't
> >like on JSP is the concept of writing Java Code in my HTML site.
> >Also, does it always need to be HTML when I use JSP ? Or is it also
> >possible to use XML ? I wouldn't like to be fixed on HTML. The
> >XML/XSLT approach it much flexible. E.g. we could print all the
> >stuff to PDF which is no problem with Cocoon.
> 
> Cocoon would be interesting to look at. I followed it in its early releases 
> but gave up when Cocoon 2 started to look Too Hard (tm ;-) Perhaps it is 
> time to face that fear and revisit it. Cocoon's flexible styling would 
> defn. be an advantage. However, if we are talking about large maps held in 
> a backend such as Ozone, it would be impractical to run the XTM 
> representation of the whole map through Cocoon each time we want to deliver 
> a single page, so we need some method to serialize fragments of the topic 
> map. JSP can provide that mechanism (it isn't limited to HTML) - in fact 
> you can use the XSL document() function to invoke a JSP which generates the 
> XML input to the XSLT processing...thats quite cool ;-)
> 
> Apart from the ability to swap stylesheets, what other advantages does 
> Cocoon offer ? Can anyone summarize them for us ?

Cocoon2 offers a complete Web-Application runtime environment. You
can intergrate various datasources, such as SQL databases, handle
formular requests and it is extentable. Also I like the stream
based concept. The data is piped via SAX events through various
stages:

                      generator (database, etc.)
                         |
                        \|/
                  +-> transformer (XSL or something hardcoded)
                  |      |
                  +------+
                        \|/
                      serializer (HTML, PDF, etc.)

All this is defined in a sitemap. The only thing that isn't 
supported yet very well is some kind of page flow definition,
i.e. which page follows after a certain formular submit and
things like that. I like Cocoon, but I'm also open to learn 
something new like Velocity.

Best Regards,
Gerd

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________________________________________________________________
Gerd Mueller                                    ge...@sm...     
SMB GmbH                                  http://www.smb-tec.com