I came into the Cocoon2 stronghold not just because I was caught in the hype. But, also, because I liked the principles on which Cocoon was founded. The fact that Cocoon is based on Avalon is a good thing.
I am a fan of Avalon not only because it has the best written white paper on the subject of frameworks and component reuse, but also because those folks put the talk into practically - a robust working framework. Do I know all about Avalon? No, I do not - I have alot to learn and I am working on it. But, I enjoy learning from the masters. Cocoon seems to have some great philosophies and concepts. But, it has been a painful experience because of inadequate details of information. I consider all those contributing to the Cocoon effort to be GIANTS in conceiving and implementing the servlet engine and framework. I wish to learn from these master, also. But, the information provided always leaves too much to be desired. The information provided is like a cocoon that dies on the vine before it can become a butterfly. I cannot learn from the masters if they inform me on about 98-99 percent of a subject and leave out the remaining 1 or 2 percent. I need two things at the moment - authentication and LDAP connection. I spent many many painful hours searching for information on authentication relative to the Cocoon framework. After reading and searching for what seemed like forever (especially when bosses would like to see some progress), I found a great document at http://radio.weblogs.com/0103021/stories/2002/02/28/usingTheSunriseComponent s.html. This information was marvelous - allowed me to have insight that until then was impossible. The author was a master - except IT DOESN'T work. Well, 99 percent works, but the author left out how to do logout, mentioned that he would explain it, but never did. That cocoon died before finishing and flourishing into a butterfly. All of my study is down the drain, the 99 percent that was great has no value because the missing 1 percent is needed to produce authentication within the Cocoon framework. My disappointment cannot be expressed. LDAP - oh boy, how I searched. Found three different writings - 1) LDAPProcessor, 2)LDAPTransformer, and 3) LDAP Taglib - all of which have no dates. Information without dates is worse than worthless because it actually becomes mis-information. I have spent exorbitant amounts of time trying to get LDAP to work within the Cocoon framework. Am I ignorant? YES, but now that we have that concluded, that fact does not get my project to spread its wings and flourish. I am currently working on the information found at http://xml.apcahe.org/cocoon/userdocs/transofrmer/ldap-transformer.html. What a terse piece of information. When things are not working as planned, how does one learn how to proceed? The information gives no clue. Am I a master as you guys are? Absolutely not, but I am willing to learn from the masters. But, once again the information is so terse that us lesser mortals can gain no comprehension. That information is not gonna make it to a butterfly - it done croaked. Please note that i refer only to information - not documentation. Documentation is not expected from open source efforts. Information, adequate information, IS expected. I was reading http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/2002/02/13/cocoon2.html - the second to last sentence says that many projects are using Cocoon. I wanted to be among those butterflies, but i ain't gonna make it out of the cocoon stage. Everyone was sure that I had chosen the wrong set of 'tools' to use for the project. Have I proved them to be correct? I am the pinnacle of idiocity - many projects can do it, but I CANNOT - wow... I and several others have been working on Cocoon for several months. We use Torque to develop the database schema and accessor classes. We write Cocoon actions for the middle tier business logic. The business logic of course 'talks' with the Torque classes. The desire is to have the Cocoon framework handle the presentation - but, at our current rate - we are never gonna make it to a... Is their a master out there somewhere who can fill me in on those missing tidbits of information? I make a good student - not very bright, but I pay close attention when the masters speak... thanx, Ray --------------------------------------------------------------------- Please check that your question has not already been answered in the FAQ before posting. <http://xml.apache.org/cocoon/faq/index.html> To unsubscribe, e-mail: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
