I'm not sold on Struts, but I use it. I have
nothing against the idea of using Cocoon as sole platform for generic webapps.
However, as one foreign minister said "I'm not convinced" :) Therefore, I'm not
comfortable to suggest this approach to others.
Recently, I had to design a webapp. I even
didn't consider Cocoon. We have a tight schedule. None of the developers know
about Cocoon, and I had reservations about their familiarity with XML/XSL stuff.
It's a totally different world for most Java programmers. It would be too risky
to pick Cocoon.
Struts is very natural when it comes to
interactive webapps. It supports familiar procedural thinking with well known
design patterns. It's relatively easy to jump start. Cocoon is from different
mind set. However, when I had to design document generation module for Struts
based app, I immidiately thought about Cocoon. It was very natural to try it. I
didn't have troubles to plug into Struts: Struts handled all user interaction,
when we gathered all parameters, the HTTP request is sent for Cocoon to generate
a document. It worked seamlessly. The only problem was that some people were not
convinced that Cocoon is as scalable as JSP. The prejudice was so strong, that
for them it was somehow seen better to generate input XML with JSP, then feed it
into document processor. Whereas in Cocoon design there wouldn't be
streamed XML, the XSP would send database input directly into the pipeline with
custom serializer.
Cocoon is hard sell for generic webapps in
Java world. When you explain the architecture of Cocoon, everyone gets excited.
I've seen it many times. When it coms to actual implementation, people get
concerned that "it's an overkill for our situation, we don't have time" etc. It
really shines in non-trivial circumstances.
Argyn
-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Hohls [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 1:47 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: presentation help needed: Cocoon apps vs other apps?We also havedevelopers here that are "sold" on Struts - I would liketo better understand where and how these two approachesdiffer or overlap; how to know which one to choose and,ideally, how and where they can actually work together!My 2cDerek
