Good feedback, thanks Dan. I can work on improving along those lines. Anyone else have ideas or a +1 for what Dan suggests?
Sent from my iPhone On Aug 19, 2011, at 15:44, Dan Allen <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 04:17, Jason Porter <[email protected]> wrote: > I would greatly appreciate feedback people have for the items in > https://github.com/LightGuard/seam_site_awestruct/tree/develop/tutorial. They > will be the base for our getting started guide for Seam 3. The pages are > backed by an example that can be checked out and built (possibly broken right > now, I haven't tried to build / run it for a while). > > > Jason, there's a lot of great content in this tutorial so far. I like that > you cite the motivation for each snippet rather than just saying "paste this > code". For instance, you do a nice job explaining the purpose of the BOM and > the need for the Java EE APIs as a provided scope dep. I also like that you > forewarn the developer of potential missteps to prevent them from tripping up > early on and getting discouraged. > > I would like to see the tutorial be more development-oriented rather than > configuration-oriented. At first glance of the index, we see that the > tutorial is structured based on the activation of Seam modules (i.e., > configuration). Each section begins with dependency configuration, followed > by configuration for activating features of Java EE or a Seam module. As a > reader, I'm looking at this saying "wow, all I'm doing is configuring > stuff"...and that leaves it being very dry. I don't think this is the right > way to structure it. > > (To cite a very specific example, showing the configuration for the > transaction interceptor in beans.xml is way too premature. That should be > added once we visit persistence the first time). > > So we are still stuck in the "I can tell you everything you'll need to setup > so that you can code" mentality. Rather, what we want is, "I want to write > code, stop me when I need to configure something so I can continue writing > code." and "How am I doing?" We need to feed the reader those rewards and > assurances. > > What I like about the play framework tutorial is that it focuses on adding > some code, configuring it to run, then seeing the result. To get there with > this tutorial, here is the general idea of the structure I would propose: > > - Starting the project > (create an alternative version of the first chapter for starting the project > using Seam Forge) > - Creating your first pages with pretty URLs > - Querying the database and displaying the results > - Authenticating a user > - Handling errors gracefully > - Writing integration tests > - ... > > Then you just cover the configuration as it comes along. Take it in stride. > If a developer wants to see just the instructions for how to activate a Seam > module, that's what the reference guide is for. Here we need to be in a flow. > You should try to show code first, then show the configuration to activate it > (unless you need the API deps, then maybe switch it) and finally, tell them > how to run the application at that stage. > > For instance, I want to see what's in conferences.xhtml. Maybe at first, it's > just a shell since we haven't queried the database. So we just have > placeholders where the data will be. But at least the user can run it and see > that the pretty URLs are working. > > If you want, at the very beginning of each section you can mention which > modules will get used, and which ones will be activated for the first time. > Something like: > > "In this section, we'll setup Seam Faces and use it to map URLs to JSF views. > We'll also use more features of Seam XXX that you configured in the last > section." > > I think you can re-purpose the existing content into this new structure > rather easily. > > Let me know if you need more specific feedback. > > -Dan > > p.s. I also think that this structure will make the tutorial a lot more fun > to write. > > -- > Dan Allen > Principal Software Engineer, Red Hat | Author of Seam in Action > Registered Linux User #231597 > > http://www.google.com/profiles/dan.j.allen#about > http://mojavelinux.com > http://mojavelinux.com/seaminaction >
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