-----Original Message----- Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 11:45 PM Subject: Request For Architecture Suggestions
Hi Everyone. Please help. I have just been assigned to build a simple and small portal site in JSP. I am rather new to JSP. (I do know how to code C, C++, C#, VB, VB.NET, ASP.NET, ASP, HTML, XML, XSL, and also know a little Java). I am familiar with 3-tier architecture, the RUP, MVC, OOA, OOD, and OOP principles. I want to use the MVC design pattern for this JSP site. What I don't know is whether or not I should use "struts" framework or roll my own container. From the looks of things, it might be a bit more than I need and, since I am new to JSP, it might be a bit too ambitions. I would like to do something "like" struts, but something kind of smaller implementation, less complex. I am looking for a simple architecture. (Note-- I am reading and studying a lot, but I want to get the "industry perspective" from veteran JSP programmers.) (Note-- The site will be JSP running on JRun in Windows NT/IIS5, will be less than 100 pages, will be driven by SQLServer or Oracle, will have about a total of support about 100 casual users, and will be an intranet site.) And so, I ask... What do you think? What do you suggest? Any help at all is appreciated (including outright directions, links, and reading suggestions). Thank you very much. --Mark. Hi Mark, I was in the same boat that you're in. I was a VB 6 programmer and found myself having to switch instantly over to JSP and build a Web app. You are ahead of the game, though, because you are familiar with MVC. I've done a lot of reading, research, and studying, and still feel like there's tons more I need to know. Anyway, I've found that, while I would love to use struts because that would allow me to truly follow the MVC paradigm, the fact that I'm working alone and teaching myself, while still trying to get the application out in a timely manner, means that struts is too much for me without any guidance or mentoring. So, what I've settled for is to create the JSPs using Dreamweaver MX, because that allows me to work with Fireworks to slice up the images the graphics person gives me, and then I can set everything up very nicely using MX. I'm using CSS for formatting, which keeps the HTML very clean. I'm also using transitional XHTML rather than HTML. In order to separate the business logic from the presentation, I use JavaBeans (I write those using JBuilder). This way, there are only minimal JSP tags in the page and very few, if any, scriptlets. So far, for the small modules I'm working on currently, that is sufficient. I'll be working on something very large soon, so I'm really interested in what other people would have to say about your situation. I'm still sort of in the same boat as you are when it comes to building a large Web application. An excellent book on CSS is Eric Meyer's "Eric Meyer on CSS". I find that any of the O'Reilly books are amazing for learning anything you need to know on JSP, Java, or JavaBeans. For tutorials and information on all this, try the following sites: Builder.com: http://builder.com.com/ InformIT: http://www.informit.com/ Webmonkey: http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/ TechRepublic: http://www.techrepublic.com Fawcette: http://www.fawcette.com/ O'Reilly: http://www.oreilly.com/ W3Schools Online (free tutorials): http://www.w3schools.com I hope that helps you at least a little. It's good that you're familiar with OOP and know some Java. That'll go a long way in helping you to architect this correctly. Cheers, Val =========================================================================== To unsubscribe: mailto [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body: "signoff JSP-INTEREST". For digest: mailto [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body: "set JSP-INTEREST DIGEST". Some relevant archives, FAQs and Forums on JSPs can be found at: http://java.sun.com/products/jsp http://archives.java.sun.com/jsp-interest.html http://forums.java.sun.com http://www.jspinsider.com
