Hi All!
Jumping into this thread a bit late...
On Tue, Mar 18, 2003 at 10:31:03AM -0800, Christopher Oliver wrote:
>
> You're not abusing sessions. cocoon.createSession() exists exactly for
> the purpose you mention. Nobody is suggesting that we remove it. What at
> least I was suggesting, is that because of this (that you can store
> "session" state in global JS variables) direct access to the underlying
> Session should not be needed by the average user of the flow.
I see your point mate. The automatic handling of global variables
in flow was one of the big attractions for me to use flow.
One thing I'd like to discuss a little bit more is the relationship
between individual flow interpreter instances and sub/sitemaps.
Currently, there's one flow interpreter instance created per
sitemap. So, when operating within the one sitemap everything is
fine - however it has some implications for larger applications
that use subsitemaps, etc.
The following:
<map:flow language="JavaScript">
<map:script src="context://WEB-INF/flow.js"/>
</map:flow>
defines some javascript methods that are encapsulated within that
sitemap. It would be good if we had a nice way to promote the reuse of
any javascript methods that could be reused in a sub/sitemap (I
suppose subsitemaps could just include a common script, but
perhaps there's a more attractive way).
Another area is scope. Global variables managed by
cocoon.createSession() are currently only available in the sitemap
they're defined in, essentially making them local to that sitemap.
ie. if flow.js defines:
var currentUser = null;
function login()
{
// assuming valid user
// create a session and store user object
cocoon.createSession();
currentUser = new User(username);
// continue processing and send page
}
the currentUser reference is only available in the sitemap the
flow.js was defined in. This means, subsitemaps have no reference
to it in any way - something I would like to find a solution for if
possible.
I think this was one area where Ugo (and I) were using manual session
manipulation to store cross sitemap data.
Ovidiu and I once talked about the ability to inherit flow data/methods
in subsitemaps, perhaps that's worth investigating a bit more ?
Solving these implications would allow us to use flow to control
an application at a higher level than just in one sitemap.
What do you think ?
Cheers,
Marcus
--
.....
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;$' '$$$$: Computer Systems Engineer
$: $$$$: ManageSoft GmbH
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