[Seaside] Seaside without HTTP

James Foster Smalltalk at JGFoster.net
Fri Mar 6 06:00:29 UTC 2009


Hi Steve,

On Mar 5, 2009, at 6:14 PM, Steve Wart wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I just listened to James Robertson's interview with Julian Fitzell  
> today and I thought it was great.
>
> I'd like to set up an server for an iPhone app that might have an  
> HTTP component for some features but for the most part it won't be  
> web-based (I'll probably be using Objective-C and some WebKit views  
> with Javascript).
>
> It seems that Seaside is the right choice but I'm wondering if  
> anyone has any suggestions about how I might approach the problem.
>
> In general, I am thinking about a game server type of environment  
> that supports the following sorts of interactions:
>
> * secure user authentication
> * create or join an existing game (basic app logic)
> * navigate around with a WebView using a Google JavaScript API
>  (probably with custom controls overlayed either as divs or native  
> iPhone components calling Javascript from Obj-C)
> * maintain a shared domain model for the connected users within a  
> game, distinct from other sessions that may be running
> * keep track of various attributes associated with the user sessions  
> (e.g. current IP address, GIS coordinates)
>
> Is this an appropriate use of Seaside or would I be better of just  
> starting from scratch with GemStone or Magma?
>
> I definitely want the "brains" of my app in Smalltalk

As I understand it you are looking at writing an iPhone application  
that will be a client (written in Objective-C) and are considering  
what to use for the server (written in Smalltalk). While Seaside can  
serve documents in other than HTML (XML, RSS, etc.), I tend to view  
those as adjuncts to a web application framework (though I could be  
wrong).

I assume that you will be using TCP/IP to communicate between your  
client and server. Do you have a particular protocol in mind? Is there  
any reason to try to use SOAP (for example)? I guess I'd be inclined  
to start simple. If Objective-C has some decent HTTP client class,  
then it could make sense to use HTTP as the protocol, and then using  
Seaside to generate HTML might make sense (and would have the added  
advantage that you could test the server with a web browser).

I've not used Magma, and have an obvious bias for GemStone. How much  
persistent data do you anticipate needing?

James

> Cheers,
> Steve
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