Hi Stefan Yes Cocoon can do these things, it's both flexible and extensible.
> What little I understand so far, high, high-level: > - Input > 1) I create XML/XSLT files that define the input pages > for the user (web-based for now only), e.g. for a > summary input page and a detail input page Take a look at cforms, Cocoon's form framework, the forms can be generated from form definitions you author. Cforms also takes care of validation and data-binding. > 2) I set up the appropriate pipelines, mappings, etc. > that process these XML/XSLT files and store them > "somewhere" Yup > What I would like to understand: > 1) Data storage: Can the user input be stored in XML > files exclusively or do I need a database (SQL)? Which > tranformer (?) do I include in the pipeline to store > the data provided by the user? You could write the data to the filesystem but sooner or later you'll probably want to put it in a database. Generally you would extract user data in Cocoons 'flow' layer and process this in business objects that access the database etc. There are some articles on the Cocoon wiki, http://wiki.apache.org/cocoon/, that describe how to use OR mapping frameworks with Cocoon for persistence. Flow is described on the Cocoon website http://cocoon.apache.org/2.1/userdocs/flow/index.html and demonstrated in the Cocoon samples. > > 2a) If I need to use SQL: Can the database schema be > created by Cocoon automatically for me and adapt to > changes in the definition of e.g. a detail (wishful > thinking) If using Hibernate it can generate the DDL to create your schema from the mapping files you write. Hibernate also provides a schema update tool for synchronizing the database schema with your persistent objects as you evolve them. > > 2b) If I can use XML files: How can I link summaries > with their detailed entries? > > 3) For both - what are my search possiblities, e.g. > can I search by a date range and a certain title > keyword? I haven't needed to provide search capability in my Cocoon apps however there is a Lucene 'block' in Cocoon's samples that demonstrates this kind of functionality. > > 4) How would another software client connect to cocoon > to e.g. create a new issue? Cocoon supports SOAP services through Axis or you could define a REST-style interface to do this. If you haven't done so already I'd recommend downloading and installing Cocoon and taking a look at the samples that come with the distribution, this will give you a good idea of the possibilities it offers. Cheers Adam --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
