[Seaside] Seaside vs. Aida

[Janko Mivšek]

stephane ducasse wrote:
> ok I see
> but could you show the code of the multicounter example that nicolas 
> mentioned.
> because I could not see how you got the 4 counters in a row.

I suppose that he did an equivalent of such code:

viewMAin
  | e |
  e := WebElement new.
  e
    add: CounterComponent new;
    add: CounterComponent new;
    add: CounterComponent new;
    add: CounterComponent new.
  self pageFrameWith: e title: 'multicounter'.

So it is actually the same way as you show in your Seaside example.

Janko


> On Mar 30, 2008, at 9:33 PM, Janko Mivšek wrote:
> 
>> Hi Stef,
>>
>> Let me first rename topic to Seaside vs. Aida, because that's more 
>> appropriate to the Lucas blog post anyway. He pointed to other 
>> "traditional" frameworks, not Aida :)
>>
>> stephane ducasse wrote:
>>
>>> Now I think that there is room for seaside and aida side by side. It 
>>> would be nice if both frameworks would mention their own limits.
>> > It seems that in Aida you cannot easily embed multiple times the
>>> same component on a page.
>>
>> Ok, let me start explaining Aida's component model more broadly, 
>> because it seems that is one of major misunderstandings when comparing 
>> both frameworks. Reason seems to be simply in naming and nothing more.
>>
>> In Aida we have a WebElement which start covering primitive elements 
>> like images, links or text, and ends up to the whole web page. 
>> WebElement can namely be a composite of sub elements down to primitive 
>> ones. We have therefore a consistent component model from a web page 
>> down to primitive elements.
>>
>> Just recently we started using a name "component" and introduce a 
>> class WebComponent (which is currently just an empty subclass of 
>> WebElement) to  more clearly separate components from mere elements. 
>> But where elements end and components begin, that's now a question.
>>
>> Components are supposed to be a standalone, reusable, heavy ajaxified 
>> parts of web page, but that's already every web element in Aida! 
>> Introduction of WebComponent class is therefore currently more 
>> conceptual than practical, but we hope it will evolve in practicality 
>> through the time.
>>
>> Let me allow to make a short comparison with a Seaside component 
>> model. Here a web page is a root component and you can have also 
>> subcomponents (children). So far so good, we are the same.
>>
>> First difference is how those components (say web pages) are connected 
>> and how user navigates among them, another difference is how both 
>> component models continue building a web page down to a primitive 
>> elements. Let we look at later for now.
>>
>> In Seaside you start painting a component, using a hierarchy of 
>> blocks. In Aida you continue building with smaller and smaller 
>> WebElements. Aida therefore continue using consistently the same 
>> component model down to the lowest level of web pages: basic text, 
>> images etc.
>>
>> One of the consequences of this consistency is how long are methods in 
>> Aida. You'll see that almost all are short, inside 10 line 
>> recommendation. I think this shows well the strengths of Aida 
>> component model. Other is maybe that users find Aida easy to use. Maybe.
>>
>> Let me finish with a component model example. That's how it looks a 
>> page creation method for squeak.org demo http://squeaksite.aidaweb.si :
>>
>> pageElement
>>  | e t |
>>  e := WebElement newId: #container.
>>  self headerElementTo: e.
>>  t := WebElement new.
>>  t table width: 1; cellSpacing: 0; cellPadding: 0.
>>  t cell valign: #top. t cell table cellSpacing: 0; cellPadding: 0.
>>  t cell cell add: self menuElement. t cell newRow.
>>  t cell cell add: self linksElement. t cell newRow.
>>  t cell cell add: self sideLogosElement.
>>  t newCell valign: #top;
>>     add: self bodyElement. "contents"
>>  t newCell valign: #top. t cell table cellSpacing: 0; cellPadding: 0.
>>  t cell cell add: self downloadsElement. t cell newRow.
>>  t cell cell add: self newsElement. t cell newRow.
>>  e add: t.
>>  ^e
>>
>> ...then header element:
>>
>> headerElementTo: e
>>  e add: self headerLinksElement.
>>  e add: self headerTitleElement.
>>  e add: self headerActionsElement.
>>  e add: self headerSessionElement.
>>
>> ... and finally login part in up right corner:
>>
>> headerLoginElement
>>  | e |
>>  e := WebElement newDiv.
>>  self session isLoggedIn
>>    ifTrue:
>>        [e addText: self app session user nameSurname, ' | '.
>>         e addLinkTo: self site admin text: 'Logout' view: #logout]
>>    ifFalse:
>>        [e addLinkTo: self site admin text: 'Login' view: #login].
>>  ^e
>>
>>
>> Best regards
>> Janko
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --Janko Mivšek
>> AIDA/Web
>> Smalltalk Web Application Server
>> http://www.aidaweb.si
>> _______________________________________________
>> seaside mailing list
>> seaside at lists.squeakfoundation.org
>> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/seaside
>>
> 
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> seaside at lists.squeakfoundation.org
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/seaside
> 

-- 
Janko Mivšek
AIDA/Web
Smalltalk Web Application Server
http://www.aidaweb.si