Hello All,
I am about to start putting together a tutorial on using Cocoon to develop web applications. The approach I plan to take is use case driven and incremental, where complexity is built up over the course of the tutorial. Currently, my plan is to approach things from two perspectives, presentation and control. The model and business logic will be provided but will not be explicitly considered in the tutorial except as an API. The tutorial will be designed to give all those working on a project an understanding of the separation of concerns, Cocoon's place in the application, the sitemap, pipelines, Generators, Transformers, Serializers, flow, and at least an introduction to CForms. I'm tempted to include a section on Hibernate but, I really would like not to require a database to actually have to be run. One of the goals is to have it work work with a default Cocoon installation, minimal or otherwise. One of the lesser goals is to demonstrate Cocoon's flexibility while at the same time pointing out some of the dangers of that flexibility. The tutorial will be as much about method and process as it is about Cocoon.
As you can see this will be quite an undertaking. I would like to align the tutorial with the community's thinking as much as possible. While I think I have a good understanding of the community, both in agreement and in disagreement, I've learned not to assume to much. If there are any aspects of any of the topics above you feel that are essential, any points you would like emphasized, any relationships made clear or any comments you care to make about this undertaking, I would be most interested in hearing them. While I have favored approaches to developing with Cocoon, I recognize that other approaches are valid and am willing to discuss and demonstrate them in the tutorial.
Right now, I'm also planing on using aggregation. I know that VPC's are coming. Does anyone know what their status is at the moment and a time frame for their release? I'd much rather use these.
My intention is to make the pieces available for comments as they are completed. As with all my projects, this will be done iterative and incremental manner. As things stand now I would suspect that the first part should be completed by mid January. (assuming no unexpected work comes in)
Thanks for your time, comments and help.
Glen Ezkovich HardBop Consulting glen at hard-bop.com http://www.hard-bop.com
A Proverb for Paranoids:
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers."
- Thomas Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow
