[opencms-dev] Re: JSP Support in 4.6.0

[Jozef Hribik]

Hi Alex,
 
I have been also thinking about the JSP integration.
But what about to integrate some servlet-based templating engine e.g. Jakarta Velocity?
Could it be easier?
Of course, i would like to have JSP with Struts MVC integrated in OpenCMS to be able to integrate our e-commerce apps, but it seems to be impossible.
 
Best Regards
Jozef Hribik
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alexander Kandzior 
  To: opencms-dev at www.opencms.com 
  Sent: Monday, March 25, 2002 1:35 PM
  Subject: RE: [opencms-dev] Re: JSP Support in 4.6.0


  Dear Patrick,

  I was the one mentioning the "proof of concept". You are right in
  assuming that currently no one is working on the integration of JSP in
  OpenCms. I would very much like to change that and I also can commit
  some time to this project. 

  Here's an overview about what the issues of integrating JSP are:

  1. JSP in the VFS
  First point is that usually all resources of OpenCms are residing in the
  VFS (virtual file system). However, the JSP engine usually expects the
  JSP pages to be files in or below a certain directory of the "real" FS.
  It would be preferable to use the existing engine (e.g. Tomcats) to
  process the JSP. Therefore, all JSP in the VFS must be synchronized to
  the "real" FS, so that the JSP engine can process them. 

  2. Online / Offline Projects
  In the OpenCms project mechanism, a resource can exist twice: In the
  "Online" project and in all offline projects that you might have
  created. To keep this working, there must also be 2 versions of the JSP
  - pages that get synchronized to the "real" FS. 

  3. Access to the OpenCms object
  When a JSP gets processed, you want to have access to the OpenCms
  resources and user - related information. Which User is currently logged
  in? What are his permissions? Which files can he access? 

  4. Output - caching
  OpenCms has a sophisticaed caching mechanism. It would be preferable if
  the JSP output is also cachable using that mechanism.

  5. Static export
  This new feature in OpenCms 4.6 makes use of of URL rewriting. To enable
  this feature with JSP, this URL rewriting has somehow to be integrated. 


  My "proof of concept" solves issues 1-3. Here's how I think it should be
  done:

  In the web application directory e.g. {$TOMCAT-HOME}\webapps\opencms
  there should be a directory "jsp" with subdirectories "online" and
  "offline". Whenever a JSP page in an offline project is changed, it gets
  copied from the VFS to this "offline" directory. If it gets published,
  it is copied to the "online" directory. So the file exists in the
  OpenCms VFS and the real FS. If a request is made to a JSP page
  resource, this first is routed through the opencms servlet, as usual.
  Here, permissions get checked. If permission to the requested JSP page
  is granted, the opencms servlet (that knows which project is active and
  in which directory of the "real" FS the corrosponding JSP files reside)
  just calls the JSP, which processes and returns the output to the
  servlet through standard Java servlet chaining. This approach solves
  issues 1 + 2 from above. This BTW is also a valid model of
  Model-View-Controller (MVC) programming for JSP pages, with the opencms
  servlet being the controller. Now accessing the OpenCms object (see 3
  above) could be easily handled by just placing the current CmsObject in
  the request context that the JSP of course will have access to. 

  This approach is, of course, just a DRAFT PROPOSAL from my side. I would
  be happy to exchange some ideas around this topic. 

  Best Regards,
  Alex.


  Alexander Kandzior
  OpenCms Group





  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-opencms-dev at www.opencms.com
  [mailto:owner-opencms-dev at www.opencms.com] On Behalf Of Patrick Pyette
  Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2002 10:46 PM
  To: Opencms-Dev (E-mail)
  Subject: [opencms-dev] Re: JSP Support in 4.6.0


  About three weeks ago, I asked about the status of the JSP support in
  openCMS.  I didn't get any responses so I'm assuming that no one is
  working
  on it.   If that's the case, I'm going to try to get something to work
  myself.

  What I'd really appreciate that someone let me know what "proof of
  concept" (as is mentioned on the website) has been performed, so that I
  don't have to reinvent the wheel.  Any helpful pointers would be
  appreciated.

  Thanks,
  Pat



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