Folks, A few days ago I was suggesting it might be useful to be able to specify the layout of domain objects through an external JSON file. Well, this is now done, checked in, documented.
You can read about the feature on the Isis site (along with some new capabilities of the recently implemented DeveloperUtilitiesService); see [1], [2]. Or, you could listen to my dulcet tones in a screencast that describes these features, [3]. As ever, feedback welcome. One bit of feedback I've had already is: doesn't this undermine the naked objects pattern? Well, no, I don't think so. The layout file is not mandatory, it's just a different way to specify the metadata. It isn't typesafe, that's true; but if there's a typo in the json file, there's no real harm (properties not listed will still be rendered). My thought is that initial prototyping would still be done using annotations (@MemberOrder, at least); only later on as the model stabilizes would the developer spend a bit of time creating a layout file. And even then, the DeveloperUtilitiesService makes the creation of the file pretty trivial. Let me know how you get on with this new feature... Cheers Dan [1] http://isis.apache.org/core/dynamic-layouts.html [2] http://isis.apache.org/core/services/developer-utilities-service.html [3] http://isis.apache.org/getting-started/screencasts.html
