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RE: Prowler-Pre-Release [was: Re: Ozone with Cocoon 2]



On Tue, 16 May 2000, Neeme Praks wrote:
> I understand that this is something exciting, but could somebody explain
> a bit in more details what is this Prowler all about. Or point me to
> some resource where it is already explained?
> 
> I know Cocoon and Ozone on the general level and I understand that my
> combining these two, one could create some real magic ;-)
> But please, could there be some explanation of that magic? ;-)

Magic? Hmm... cool things, I hope ;)

Okay, when we started to try to store XML in ozone we quickly figured out
that a real XML repository needs more functionality and a bigger API than
just parser.parse() + persistent DOM. On the other hand from our commercial
project we've learned that many things are needed again and again in web apps
and EIPs. In most cases the biggest problem is to integrate many different data
sources in the app and accessing them in an uniform manner. Our answer to this
problems is the Prowler API. Prowler is a framework that allows you to access
XML repositories (ozoneXML, simple file store, maybe others) *and* any other
kind of data source (mail server, EJB server, SQL, whatever) via an uniform
XML interface (XPath, XUL, DOM). Besides, Prowler provides an easy but powerful
way to handle meta-data. This can be used to implement access control or
workflow or any other often needed features. (plus user management, caching,
admin tool, dynamic configuration via XML properties ...)

Although the Prowler API is a general API, it is intended to be used for web
apps in a servlet environment. So Prowler needs a publishing front-end. Cocoon
is perfect for this. Therefore we are trying to give Prowler an interface that
can be used with Cocoon directly. The best example is the XSP tag-lib that is
included in the current sources. This can be used to access Prowler (any kind
of XML repository or data source) from Cocoon without the need to write one
line of Java code.

So, these two together (Prowler and Cocoon) are maybe not magic but they will
help you to write very dynamic, very cool web apps very fast.


Falko

 > 
> Neeme
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Lars Martin [mailto:lars@softwarebuero.de]
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 5:53 PM
> > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > For all the people who can't wait any longer - here we go. Point your
> > browser to 
> > http://www.softwarebuero.de/html-download/prowler-20000516.jar
> > and download the package (appr. 3.5 MB).
> > 
> > Note: This package is a pre-release! But I hope I got all the files.
> > 
> > This package contains
> > 
> >    ./         - build.xml and Makefile
> >    ./lib      - necessary libraries (includes ozone.jar and 
> > prowler.jar)
> >    ./org      - Prowler source tree
> >    ./samples  - swing and xsp samples
> > 
> > What to do?
> > 
> > 1. install and run an ozone server; use the 'ozone.jar' to be 
> > found in the
> >    './lib' directory - only this server is working with 
> > Prowler!; use the
> >    start scripts from a public distribution, b/c I didn't 
> > include them 
> > 
> > 2. go to './samples/demo/data' and edit the file 
> > 'properties.xml'; change 
> >    the port number of all ressources, assimilate them to your 
> > ozone setup;
> >    I know, this file is not documented yet, but you only need 
> > to modify the
> >    port numbers at this time!
> > 
> > 3. start the class 'samples.demo.ProwlerDemo' and log in as 
> > 'root' without
> >    a password; you finally got it if you reach this point :-)
> >    you can play with the application
> > 
> > 4. now you can try to setup Cocoon and XSP to use with 
> > Prowler-XSP-Taglib,
> >    but this setup is explained in a new mail
> > 
> > Enjoy,
> > Lars
> > 
> > PS: Feedback is  very welcome!
> > --
> > ________________________________________________________________
> > Lars Martin                         mailto:lars@softwarebuero.de
> > softwarebuero m&b (SMB)              http://www.softwarebuero.de
> > 
> >
-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Falko Braeutigam                         mailto:falko@softwarebuero.de
softwarebuero m&b (SMB)                    http://www.softwarebuero.de