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Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 18:57:48 -0400
Subject: Is it time to fully document the sitemap?
From: Jason Foster <jafoster@uwaterloo.ca>
To: <cocoon-dev@xml.apache.org>
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I have been on-and-off trying to understand all of the nooks and crannies of
the sitemap over the last few days, with an eye to whether it makes sense to
implement a tree traversal approach to handling requests.

If I go exclusively from the documentation for the sitemap, the answer is
"sure, not much sweat, and very few kludges".

Feeling cocky I then take a look at the example sitemap.  All of a sudden
things seem a lot less clear as I'm faced with a bunch of attributes that
seem to have significant impact on how things actually work.  I can puzzle
some of these things out, but wonder if I am missing any subtle points.

At the same time the Flowmap has returned after a long absence and I seem to
recall some small rumblings that the Sitemap has become a little crufty.
Unfortunately Cocoon v.2 (Cocoon2?) has not yet shipped, and as such the
sitemap has not been fully tested in the large.

What I think would be ideal (for me, for new users, and for potential
contributors) is for the following things to happen:

1.) the draft sitemap.dtd be completed (aligned with sitemap.xsl and the
supporting code) (maybe even turned into a Schema!)
2.) sitemap.dtd be augmented with a functional description of how the
various bits are used (which would allow me to continue with my traversal
work)
3.) a list thread detailing the strengths and weaknesses of the sitemap be
started (with an eye to evolution/revolution)
4.) a list thread that moves the Flowmap from "RT" to "Design" be started,
with an emphasis on the relationships (if any) between the Flowmap and the
Sitemap ('cause I know I'm confounded*!)

OK, now that I've proposed a whole lot of work, what am I willing (and able)
to contribute?  I can start on the dtd/schema update, based on what I am
observing within the current example sitemap.  I can also try to add in some
of the functional bits, again with an eye to traversal.

Unfortunately I have not used Cocoon in an environment where SOC is
important, nor have I used it to make "real" webapps, which mostly excludes
me from 3 and 4 (except to say that it should use a traversal model, not a
code generation model :)

Comments, criticism, slings and barbs?

Jason Foster

* or maybe the Sitemap and Flowmap are confounded?  It's hard to tell...


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