Re: Java Client : who is using it ?
Re: Java Client : who is using it ?
- Subject: Re: Java Client : who is using it ?
- From: Florijan Stamenkovic <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 22:14:55 +0200
Philippe,
We are currently working on one large project, and have plans for
future Java Client projects based on WO. I can not go into much
details, but will try to point out as much relevant information as
possible.
Our large project is a database system targeted at companies who
could use good centralized data management (that's specific, huh?).
We chose the JC approach to this because of the amounts of data that
are being put into the system, and desired output capabilities. Our
client app is a regular Swing application, and utilizes EOF only for
data retrieval and management. It pretty much comes down to using
EOEnterpriseObject, EOClassDescription, EOEditingContext, Foundation,
and RMI built into EOF. The Swing part is substantially more
complicated. We are talking at the moment about a couple dozen
different data input forms, highly specialized, and plenty of
architecture around general data procedures. There is a lot of
advanced manipulation involved ("advanced" implying that simple user
actions may trigger complicated data manips, as opposed to "type into
the field, store into the eo"). There is also plenty of summarizing
of data, visualizing etc. All of this makes us really happy to
offload as much as possible processing, validation, summarizing etc
to the client processor. Of course, there is the responsiveness of
the app to consider as well; there are no lags on data validation
etc, the app behaves like the data is locally stored (after the
initial fetching delay that is).
The client side app is around 45000 lines. During it's development
I've made a couple thousand more lines of general EOF + Swing code,
and isolated it for further projects built with the same approach.
We could not achieve this with a web based app, I doubt we could come
anywhere near even if we invested a lot of sweat into AJAXing it all.
As for the EOF part, it is irreplaceable to us, as it is just so damn
good. I have looked into alternatives, even thought of writing custom
server side frameworks, but none of it could replace EOF in any
acceptable implementation cost / time. We *need* EOF to take care of
it's part for us, otherwise as a small development company we can not
make this product come true. We believed Apple when they said that we
could do it. I remember reading dozens of times in their docs about
not reinventing the wheel. Reusing stuff. Building on top of... Well,
it only works if the big guys don't start to pull the rug from under
your feet.
Are we satsified with this approach, assuming nothing gets dropped?
YES. YES. YES. YES. Swing is getting better and better, Java in
general as well. JFX says it will refresh things up, AND be
compatible Swing. Java 2D and 3D are getting better as well. The
platform is growing in capability. Not even mentioning the plethora
of fantastic third party code that can be found (printing, graphing,
GUI improvements...). And WO provides enormous data sharing
capability for it. Which is AFAIK furthest down the road in it's line
of business, AND provides a way to output the same data easily in
browsers. And yes, there is other good stuff out there, but am I
wrong in seeing this also as an excellent choice?
Sorry if I am over-advocating. It feels warranted by the current
state of things.
Best regards,
Florijan
p.s. - except for Philippe here, I know of only three or four other
people who use WO this way. I continuously wonder why there aren't
more of us...
Hi,
I changed the subject of the mail because your mail content was no
more appropriate ;-)
I completely agree with your mail. In the WO FF session of the last
WWDC, I explained that the lack of support of Java Client is a very
bad thing for some developpers because we are working on very big
projects.
For my part, we have worked on several applications with Java
Client for a very well known bank. And there is a big project in
France involving 50 universities. There is a web site (http://
www.cocktail.org) only in french. The home page lists a part of
applications developed with Java Client and there are a lot ... And
there is a developer in this team who makes incredible stuff with
Java Client.
The Apple WO team needs to know how Java Client is used. So the
best thing is to send an email to Pierre Frisch, the manager of WO
team with a description of the project. And if you are allowed to
speak publicly about your project, please, send it to the list too.
Philippe Rabier
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