J2EE developers -- let me know what you think about this

[Argo]

I'm in the process of writing a project that will simplify web app development. It's really hard to explain - but this is how it will work:

You create web pages via interactive forms editor and the pages are saved into xml file. When writing your servlet all you need to do is to write a class that will implement a function for each web page the class will need to handle. The framework will call corresponding function based on which page client requested and call that function, passing a complete document object (loaded from xml file). At that point the function can modify the htm document (via api calls, each html objects has a matching java class). The end result is later on rendered by the framework to the http client.

I hope I'm explaining this right. Those of you who work on java web applications (websphere, tomcat, weblogic) let me know what you think.


Thanks.

 

[manly]

Sounds very object-oriented. 😛

Have you tried WebLogic Workshop?

 

[Argo]

Originally posted by: manly
Sounds very object-oriented. 😛

Have you tried WebLogic Workshop?

It is pretty object oriented. I kinda got inspired by MFC and ASP.net. Never tried Weblogic workshop, is it similar to what I got here?

 

[manly]

I don't think WebLogic Workshop is similar to your concept. But it's BEA's attempt at Java web application development for the masses.

I haven't messed with Workshop in a while, but it's got one of the smoothest Swing GUIs in existence.

 

[kamper]

So basically you're going to make vb style gui development for java webapps. That's a lofty ideal but if you can pull it off well then I'd say more power to you... But stuff like this has been done, maybe not exactly the same thing but similar. Are you familiar with struts and jsf? There are a million jakarta projects bouncing around that deal with web interface generation that I suggest you check out; velocity is the only name that comes to mind. I think I also saw some projects in the jakarta commons that made objects for each html element and allowed you to create them programatically.

There is also a proprietary system called intraweb that essentially does exactly what you describe with a step up: the components you manipulate are abstract ("Button" or "TextBox" or "Form" or "Page") and the html is generated behind the scenes. I have not used the java version so I don't know if the interface creation is fully point-and-click but I'm pretty sure it integrates with JBuilder. I have used the Delphi version which was as close to desktop gui development as I think you'll ever get but it definitely had its drawbacks.

My personal opinion is that the intricacies of writing html/css/javascript guis are not well suited to making large complex pages with automated tools. The html system was not designed for web applications so anything that uses it that way will inevitably be a bit of a hack. I've only seen a little bit of Microsoft's fat web clients but to me they seem like a step in the right direction (one of few areas where I really agree with MS's innovations 🙂). Until we have a remote gui system that is designed to handle interactive applications that is as universally accepted as html... well, I don't know what but it will be cool.