Hello, I was adviced to ask my question here too, so I hope it's not off-topic.
Basically, what I'd like to know is: should I rewrite my web application using Cocoon over Christmas break, or will it add more problems than solve the ones I currently have? And will this be feasible given the time frame and the fact that I've only skimmed the Cocoon documentation and examples? Background: I'm a PhD student who writes her own (open source) web application to gather research data. Currently it's written in Java, servlets, JSPs, XML, XSL. The "database" consists of several servers that connect through CORBA and the "GUI" is created by the following process: Form-definition.xml --> generate query to CORBA-servers --> modify form-definition.xml with query-result --> transform to HTML input form using XSL --> parse request parameters to figure out what has happened --> generate the correct format for storing the data in the CORBA-servers. It's easier when the data only has to be displayed, because the process then stops after the transformation to HTML. I'm running into problems now, the most important is the fact that I cannot handle a list of data (e.g. a list of appointments, consisting of date + person): I want to display the list and be able to add a new "row" or modify a "row". An even more complicated version is a form where part of the form is a list and the rest is simple key-value pair. An example of the latter: +------------------------------------------------+ | name of GP: _____ | | name of nurse: _______ | | | | medication | | drug1 dosis Administered at (5 columns) | | drug2 dosis Administered at (5 columns) | | etc. | +------------------------------------------------+ My questions: - how much time would an average person need to get acquainted enough with Cocoon to rewrite this application, when starting from almost zero knowledge of Cocoon? - I was told I need to write my own "actions" or "generator" to get access to my CORBA servers, what would be the quickest/easiest approach? - I've read about forms and form beans where the bean has a property for every input field in the form. This would require a lot of handcoded beans, while it removes the generic nature I have in my software now. Is it possible to automatically generate both form and form bean from a definition file and process all in a similar way? - Can I solve this list problem with Cocoon? Thanks for the advice. Bye, Helma --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
