I also bounced this off of a couple other people over the last day or to..

there seems to be a general consensus from folks that I talked to that
its a good idea to try and group all the CRUD (Create, Read, Update,
Delete) actions on objects grouped into a single action.

On that note, it would be good to standardize the method names as
well, perhaps to:

public String add() {}
public String update() {}
public String view() {}
public String remove() {}

Then we would have the decision of the xwork.xml which could have
actions for each of these methods on the class, like

<action name="addFoo" class="continuum-foo" method="add">

or on the jsp's we could just use the shortcut of <ww:form action="foo!add">

how does this grab folks?   I think this is a valuable step in things
since it will give us a chance to audit all of the actions, improve
the -webapp project for contributors...and -webapp is a great place
for people to start with continuum...and it will also serve as a good
swift kick towards finishing off the testing work that emmanuel will
be committing soon.

jesse




On 10/25/06, Rahul Thakur <rahul.thakur.xdev@gmail.com> wrote:
> Jesse and I tossed some ideas about having some sort of consistent
> patterns for writing Webwork actions in Continuum. Below is a transcript
> from yesterday's chat. We wanted to bring this up for discussion and
> would be great to have any ideas/suggestions other might have.
>
> Cheers,
> Rahul
>
> <snip>
>
> <rahul> hello there
> <jesse> heya
> <rahul> just had some ideas that I wanted to jot down here quickly
> <jesse> shoot
> <rahul> ok, here goes (and pls bear with me if I have to go check on
> breakfast :)  )
> <rahul> ok, i have quick run thru of the patterns/conventions that we
> are using in our internal framework
> <rahul> starting with xwork.xml , the equivalent config.xml is broken up
> into 3 files
> <rahul> 1) defines components  - lets call it components.xml
> <rahul> 2) defines pages (that are composite of layout templates +
> components) , lets call it pages.xml
> <rahul> 3)  defanes action patch mappings  (page flow) - lets call it
> mappings.xml
> <rahul> 1) follows convention that all component names are prefixed with
> 'component.' - ex:  'component.group.notifier.edit'
> <rahul> 2)  has page names prefixed with 'page.' - ex:
> 'page.notifier.summary'
> <rahul> action mappings are pretty much similar to what is there in
> xwork.xml currently - i will come to method name later
> <rahul> i am just rattling off here with notes  :) - you will have to
> help me see these elements can/do map to WW or can be made to map
> <rahul> Components are supported by component handlers - that prepare
> the display of and help render components - The java classes are
> suffixed XXXComponentHandler. I have come across this with notifiers
> <rahul> Action classes are ManageXXXXAction - that process requests
> for - edit/update/delete. I think the create one is different (I will
> have to check again)
> <rahul> methods in ManageXXXAction follow convention (like I
> mentioned) - processEditRequest, processUpdateRequest,
> processDeleteRequest
> <rahul> and validations are performed in the actions themselves (but I
> like what WW does from validation.xmls)
> <rahul> for 'result' returned from the action - 'success' and 'failure'
> are by default available and another convention is 'failure.system' for
> any internal errors
> <rahul> other results can map to the action request - 'success.edit' ,
> 'success.delete' - I am adding this from my end :)
> <rahul> so, what do you reckon?
> <rahul> sorry i haven't been able to put it in an email yet
> <jesse> reading latest
> <jesse> I have actually been kicking around something brett mentioned a
> while back about generating actions automatically for CRUD things
> <jesse> and I talked to patrick lightbody and he was a fan of all CRUD
> operations being in one object
> <jesse> which was where I had started out
> <jesse> which seemed to be what your detailing up here
> <jesse> so I think I would do ProjectNotifierAction and
> GroupNotifierAction
> <jesse> with associated add/edit/view/remove methods
> <rahul> cool! is it possible to structure xwork.xml like I said above?
> <jesse> not sure about the need of the success.edit stuff
> <jesse> you could do that by having one action and using the
> action|method syntax in the jsp
> <jesse> or just have multiple actions referencing the same class and
> using the method="x" attribute
> <rahul> ah, you are right :)
> <rahul> ok, i gotta run in a minute. do you still want to put this on
> the list?
> <jesse> its probably worth it
> <rahul> ok, mind if I just stick in the transcript with a  little
> background?
> <jesse> you have my authorization :P
> <rahul> aye cap'tn  :)
> <rahul> thanks! - i gotta run for work now
> <rahul> cheers
> <jesse> laters
>
> </snip>
>
>
>


-- 
jesse mcconnell
jesse.mcconnell@gmail.com