From user-return-3393-apmail-forrest-user-archive=forrest.apache.org@forrest.apache.org Sat Mar 11 05:56:04 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: apmail-forrest-user-archive@www.apache.org Received: (qmail 24967 invoked from network); 11 Mar 2006 05:56:03 -0000 Received: from hermes.apache.org (HELO mail.apache.org) (209.237.227.199) by minotaur.apache.org with SMTP; 11 Mar 2006 05:56:03 -0000 Received: (qmail 88554 invoked by uid 500); 11 Mar 2006 05:56:03 -0000 Delivered-To: apmail-forrest-user-archive@forrest.apache.org Received: (qmail 88518 invoked by uid 500); 11 Mar 2006 05:56:02 -0000 Mailing-List: contact user-help@forrest.apache.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk list-help: list-unsubscribe: List-Post: Reply-To: user@forrest.apache.org List-Id: Delivered-To: mailing list user@forrest.apache.org Received: (qmail 88509 invoked by uid 99); 11 Mar 2006 05:56:02 -0000 Received: from asf.osuosl.org (HELO asf.osuosl.org) (140.211.166.49) by apache.org (qpsmtpd/0.29) with ESMTP; Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:56:02 -0800 X-ASF-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.0 required=10.0 tests=SPF_PASS X-Spam-Check-By: apache.org Received-SPF: pass (asf.osuosl.org: domain of brian.dube@gmail.com designates 64.233.166.183 as permitted sender) Received: from [64.233.166.183] (HELO pproxy.gmail.com) (64.233.166.183) by apache.org (qpsmtpd/0.29) with ESMTP; Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:56:01 -0800 Received: by pproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id 57so514121pya for ; Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:55:40 -0800 (PST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=aJR1g+Jql5iQY6uAyIPRyK5cdZ9vBkRShDgXPgohuluDZgX9hTIFDNCqm+dBR0DotcQ18XLXV7KBgk6rJsgNNyFmoO8uhcj0aC3k3lLbmbG9/Jwq3ZCbPuA3BuHD1z3AbPDQiO2dtXbbKUHM2XEhJwIrOxr1PrgQ8BPumJxpbIU= Received: by 10.35.84.12 with SMTP id m12mr751232pyl; Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:55:40 -0800 (PST) Received: from ?192.168.10.4? ( [68.191.177.46]) by mx.gmail.com with ESMTP id y78sm390243pyg.2006.03.10.21.55.40; Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:55:40 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <44126652.3020608@gmail.com> Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 23:55:30 -0600 From: Brian M Dube User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5 (Windows/20051201) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: user@forrest.apache.org Subject: Use case: Forrest or Cocoon? Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Checked: Checked by ClamAV on apache.org X-Spam-Rating: minotaur.apache.org 1.6.2 0/1000/N The message below describes my experience with Forrest 0.7. Over the past few months I've been working to convert a site--built by someone else with Dreamweaver--to Forrest. Lately I find myself revisiting the question of what the goal really is. I initially chose Forrest over Cocoon because I misunderstood that Cocoon is used only as a servlet (similar to Forrest's dynamic mode as in 'forrest run') and this is not easily accomplished in our current hosting environment. I now see that Cocoon offers several methods to achieve offline or static generation of content. My question then is what do I gain by using Forrest? This question surely depends on the use case, so I will try to describe that now. My goal is to separate content from presentation. The current material is a nightmare to maintain when you have to dig through presentational markup to find the content you need to edit. This is the same reason that a new global layout or look to the site is no trivial task. I chose Forrest thinking that I could use the content of the old site and format it as XML of some sort, and then use stylesheets to render the site as it appears now--the difference being that it would be much easier to maintain. So far, with a custom skin, this is working. I can reproduce the site in Forrest with my custom skin and life goes on. But I have to wonder if I'm on the right track. To summarize my use case, I maintain a site that is a real mess. Layout is accomplished with tables and other presentational markup that was already deprecated when the site was designed. Do I gain anything by using Forrest rather than Cocoon directly? Thank you, Brian