At 11:16 11/06/2001 Monday, you wrote:
>Margaret/Ray/MM, thanks for the insight into the future of Spectra, and like
>others I have a few questions and insights....
>
> >>The COAPI is one part of Spectra -- the
> >>other services, the Webtop, etc. making up the rest. We see the COAPI as a
> >>set of tags and services for managing content. It's this technology that
> >>we're re-architecting now in Java for inclusion in a future version of the
> >>ColdFusion server.
>
>Okay, and correct me if I am wrong, the COAPI *IS* effecitively Spectra?
>
>++ extracts from Allaire Spectra Docs
>
>*** At Allaire Spectra's core, technically, is a programming model dubbed
>the ContentObject API, or COAPI
>
>"** The ContentObject API, or COAPI, forms the foundation for all Web
>systems built and managed with Allaire Spectra. Using an object-based
>programming approach, the COAPI is used to model the information assets and
>business processes specific to your organization.**
>
>**All key services provided by Allaire Spectra leverage the COAPI, and
>therefore all applications and sites built on the COAPI can easily leverage
>these additional services**
>
>
>
>
>
>Spectra is simply a model based around this technology described above. The
>six core services are delivered and managed through the COAPI.
>
>Indeed other roles and services have a crucial part within it as it stands
>but the Webtop is simply an app built with the Spectra method (and as was
>always stated, the Webtop is more of a shortcut to repetitive tasks
>etc...and was meant as help app for the newbie?)
>
>So in this mould - if the entire COAPI is built into CF.X then surely there
>is NO NEED FOR THE CSS or SPECTRA as a whole?
My understanding is that the COAPI is the part of Spectra that enables
services such as PLP, Workflow, Reporting, Publishing etc.
If the COAPI is rolled into CF.X then the services would exist as custom
tag _families_ much as they do today. These services and custom tags are
what I would expect to see being developed and worked on in the Community
Source Site. I expect that the webtop would be developed and enhanced there
too.
The question I would really like to have answered is:
Exactly which tags will be embedded into CF.X and which will remain as
custom tags?
I suspect though that no-one at Macromedia is in a position to fully answer
this yet as it will only be during the beta cycles that it becomes clear
which tags will be embedded in the final release, and it will be due to
market forces to ship the product that some get left out.
>Surely you can't be serious about customers still buying Spectra either in
>the future or at present when it will be bundled with with the server
>technology (users are not that dumb are they?), which will in my opinion
>would have to dramatically increase in cost to recupe lost revenue for
>Spectra sales and the technology being adopted..
I'm also curious about this. I expect that there will be several versions
of CF - Single User, Professional, Enterprise etc. One of the versions
would probably enable the use of Spectra tags and would have an increased
price tag.
>Effectively CF.X is going to be a hybrid product of ColdFusion, JRun, and
>Spectra[?] with maybe a new development platform say the COAPI Studio which
>will allow developers to utilise and integrate all these services into
>scalable applications.
>
>With the present outlook for Spectra - you would be running two "versions"
>of exactly the same product - one open source and one java based within the
>server technology. If one changes, say a tag within the CSS model, it would
>have to change within the server technology which would lead to endless
>service packs and/or patches which would lead to massive costs.?!
I don't necessarily see that this is a problem. Currently Spectra works as
Custom Tags that use CF native tags to implement functionality. If the
developers of Spectra want something added to the ColdFusion core
functionality they have to wait until a maintenance release to have it
added (such as StructSort()). There isn't any real reason that this should
change for a CF with the COAPI tags embedded. If someone in the CSS site
wants to change the way they interact with one of the COAPI tags they can
suggest it as an enhancement to the CF engine for a maintenance release.
>This leads me to a subject which I think has been overlooked and also, I
>think, is Spectra howitzer - the ContentObject Database! Jeez, whats going
>to happen to that? this would have to ship with the server tech too? Or will
>this only be available to Spectra license holders? without the CODB and
>CO's, the COAPI is effectively useless, as it is this excellent DB schema
>(for me anyway) which attracts developers - a DB which you do not need to
>rebuild for a new app/job? its a RDBMS dream.....
I can't see any reason why this can't work the same as Client variables do
at the moment. If you want to use Spectra you can install a CODB from the
CF Administrator.
>I think that the users of both technologies could do with more information
>regading where their $ will be going, I personally would like to see
>Spectra and all its core services adopted and rolled into CF.X (I would
>happily pay a little more for the server tech with these services on board.)
I would dearly love to see the whole gamut of Spectra tags rolled directly
into the CF engine, but I think that is probably a bit unrealistic. I will
settle for some of the core tags such as the CFA_ContentObject* family, the
CFA_Type* family, the Security tags, and a few others. Future releases of
CF after this would probably increase the number of embedded tags if the
market demanded it.
>But hey thats my �0.02p but I hope others can add.
>
>Neil
>
><!------------------------------
>Neil Clark
>Senior Web Applications Engineer
>Spectra / CF / XML / Cerebro
>Macromedia Alliance Partner
>MCB Digital Limited - London
>[T]: 020 8941 3232
>[F]: 020 8941 4333
>[M]: 07719 448 227
>[E]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>-------------------------------->
>
>'A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as
>something to aim at.'
>
>
>
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