Yet Another Web Application Framework: Shocks
From watching the struts-dev mailing list, I discovered a new Servlet Framework called Shocks. The thing that interests me about this framework is that the author looked extensively at Struts and WebWork both before creating it. It's feature-set sounds nice too:
It has an aspect-oriented workflow engine that can add crosscutting system logic (like form processing, L10N, security, logging, etc) dynamically at runtime (without having to mess around with the bytecode). It can trade actions across classloader boundaries, enabling web applications to span across multiple .WAR files. This allows users to drop in a new .WAR with new metadata and new actions, which updates the application workflow at runtime across all modules in the application namespace. It handles workflow versioning and version rollback (in case you make changes you come to regret). It does instance pooling of all components and sequences. Every aspect of the system can be managed with JMX at runtime.
Sounds like Spring, eh? Yes, says the author.
I think there are appreciable differences that have yet to be realized between the two (I haven't read their code at all), but definitely a lot of conceptual crossover.
I would think that introducing a new framework into the mix (and convincing folks to use it) must be pretty tough at this point, unless you create an IDE to go with it or introduce it in a book. BTW, did you know you can use Tiles with Spring.
Posted by Kris Thompson on November 18, 2003 at 03:33 PM MST #
Posted by Sam Newman on November 20, 2003 at 10:59 PM MST #