Weborganic
"VBSF allowed us to develop PageSeeder in a completely object-oriented
framework which makes the code easier to write, understand and maintain. It also gives us
the freedom to mix and match PageSeeder with different databases. Using VBSF we were able
to get PageSeeder to work with Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Oracle and
Borland's JDataStore without any changes to the source code."
Philip Rutherford
Director of Web Development
Weborganic Pty Ltd
About Weborganic
The founders of Weborganic were among the first to use the WWW to develop a delivery
system for education. Out of this experience they created a way of capturing the
interactions between on-line teachers and their students. At WWW7 they won the IBM Java Brainwave Award
for that concept and formed Weborganic Pty Ltd to develop it into a product -
PageSeeder™ .
PageSeeder™ v1.0 has now been released and introduces a completely new way of
perceiving web interactions by enabling the users of a web site to contribute to the
content.
PageSeeder™
PageSeeder™ allows you to plant seeds anywhere in your web pages.
They appear as seed symbols  and act as interaction points. A page user can post a comment by
clicking on a seed. The comment will be listed at that position in the page. Another user
will see the comments right next to area to which they relate.
Figure 1 Comments listed next to the related content
To view the contents of a comment you click on it's subject line and the
contents appear in a new window. The contents appear in a small pop-up window that floats
above the original web page. Once this window is open you can see all the comments at that
seed.
Figure 2 Content of a comment in a pop-up window
Groups of pages can be associated with email lists which are then maintained
automatically by PageSeeder™. Users can subscribe to an email list related to a group
of pages. They are then notified of any new comments via email and are kept up to date
with the latest discussion.
PageSeeder™ is also capable of much more. Below are just some of its other
features:
- posting and replying to comments via e-mail
- moderated and unmoderated topics
- moderation and administration via a web browser
- secure comments restricted to specific groups
- doesn't require browser plug-ins
- fully customizable screens and graphics
- based on XML and XLink open standards
- written in Java so it can be installed on most systems
How PageSeeder™ uses VBSF™
PageSeeder comments are stored in an XLink database separate from the web
page to which they refer. They are inserted dynamically into the page by a Java servlet
when the page is requested. VBSF sits between the Java servlet and the database and
translates object oriented instructions on the Java side into SQL commands on the database
side. The Java code is less complex and easier to maintain because it doesn't need to deal
with anything at the database level. This also means that any of a number of standard
database engines can be used as the underlying database without any changes to the source
code.
Figure 3 Comments are inserted dynamically into the page when it is
requested.
Not only does VBSF encourage better Java code but it also facilitated the development
of the Weborganic framework. This framework creates all the screens and layouts in
PageSeeder. It is a system of XML templates developed by Weborganic which pulls in
external data in an object oriented manner. VBSF in turn translates these object oriented
requests into SQL and retrieves the actual data from a relational database. A simple
example of a Weborganic template is shown below:
<tmpl:template>
<html><head><title>Comment Header</title></head>
<body>
<b><tmpl:subst href="#comment.subject" />
- <tmpl:subst href="#comment.authorName" />
- <tmpl:subst href="#comment.date" /></b>
</body>
<tmpl:template>
The output of this template would be:
An Interesting Comment - Philip Rutherford - 1998-11-19 10:31:17.326
As well has making PageSeeder much easier to develop these templates can be modified by
PageSeeder users who want to customize any of PageSeeder's screens or layouts.
Further Information
Weborganic Home Page Contains
links to a full list of features, documentation, download and purchase information.
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