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Technical Article

Weaving Webapps

Tapestry is an open-source servlet providing a powerful framework for efficiently developing Java Web-Applications. Struts, JSP, Tag Libraries, WebWork, and now Tapestry??? Who cares? Just another web-based Java technology to sit in the attic with all the other failed frameworks? You are forgiven for thinking that, until you read their homepage. All this talk about simplicity, consistency, efficiency, robustness, scalability? yeah, yeah, yeah, more market-speak, but where are these promises on the sites of struts or JSP?
OK, Now that I have your attention for a moment lets explore more of Tomcats promises.
Tomcat does not rely on code generation, it uses a JavaBean based object model as well as a well designed engine for processing HTML templates (using OGNL expressions), creating an extremely flexible framework that completely separates the HTML from Java. Because tomcat uses its own engine, it allowed the developers to design the engine to handle much of the "glue" code that would normally exist in a Struts solution, reducing the size and complexity of applications, with some pages not needing any Java code at all. The engine also transparently handles sessions, making your lava code look more like an application rather than an unintuitive object that must be sterilised between each request.
This all sounds good in theory, but what about practice?
Althought Tapestry is very young, it is also very mature in the sense it is well thought out, and applicable to a wide range of applications from the very small to the very large. Being somewhat unusual in its nature, Tapestrys learning curve is unusally steep, requiring the understanding of several open standards, as well as working knowledge of the tomcat engine, but after a short while you discover how much work tapestry does for you, and how intuitavely it does it. Its use is not wide spread, but its use certainly confirms its power, and its future, finding its way into applications from online dating services to governmental search facilities, and to community forums such as TheServerSide.com.