This serves as a non-technical FAQ page to collect generic questions coming up on the WO lists and in general.
Overview
- Q. Are there overviews and comparisons between WebObjects and other technologies ?
A good general introduction can be found for the general public in various languages...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebObjects
...and for developers http://www.apple.com/webobjects/getting_started.html and http://www.apple.com/webobjects/specs.html
Comparison with other technologies for development and deployment can be found for...
...WebObjects vs other Development Technologies (Ruby on Rails, ASP, .NET, Zope...):WO:Home#Home-AlternativeTechnologiesPros%2FCons
...WebObjects vs other Application Servers:
http://www.theserverside.com/tt/articles/article.tss?l=ServerMatrix
- Q. Are there printed books about WebObjects ?
A selection of available book titles can be found here on the right: http://wocode.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/WOCode
Development
- Q. What is the future of WO Development ? How are efforts shared between Apple and the Community, ie. who does what ?
In summer 2006, Apple had decided to concentrate its engineering resources on the runtime engine of WebObjects, leaving the future responsibility for developer applications with the open source community. The main open source alternative — the Eclipse IDE with the WOLips suite of plugins (more on this below) — had matured to such an extent that its capabilities had, in many areas, surpassed those of Apple's own tools.
Apple promised to provide assistance to the community in its efforts to extend such tools and develop new ones. In a posting to the webobjects-dev mailing list Daryl Lee from Apple's WebObjects team publicly disclosed the company's new strategy for WebObjects. In short, it promised to "make WebObjects the best server-side runtime environment" by:
- Improving performance, manageability, and standards compliance
- Making WebObjects work well with ANT and the most popular IDEs, including Xcode and Eclipse
- Opening and making public all standards and formats that WebObjects depends upon
Full message from Apple: http://lists.apple.com/archives/webobjects-dev/2006/Aug/msg01144.html
- Q. How can I get started with WebObjects development on Mac OS X with XCode (= 'old' Apple Tools) ?
Apple provides a "Getting Started" Document here:
http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/GS_WebObjects/index.html
Apple includes the free Xcode developer tools bundled with new Macintosh computers, most likely on the DVD installer disc. The WebObjects development package is an optional install as part of Xcode. A good starting point is the Apple documentation and the Wikibook to create your first applications in Xcode.
As of XCode 2.4 the Apple developer tools are deprecated (but Apple stated they will continue to work for quite some time), you can look into alternative developer tool see "...develop for WebObjects without Xcode ?" below.
http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/DeveloperTools/idxWebObjects-date.html
and
http://developer.apple.com/samplecode/DeveloperTools/idxWebObjects-date.html
WebObjects - Home
and
Hello World - Your First WebObjects Application
The Wikibook also links to several printed books available.
- Q. How can I develop for WebObjects without Xcode (= 'new' Community Tools) ? How do I develop on other platforms using the Community Tools ?
Apple only makes the Xcode development environment available on Mac OS X. As of Xcode 2.4, the Apple developer tools are deprecated, meaning they won't be updated but are still working for quite some time.
You can use the following community tools which also work on other (than Mac OS X) platforms. These tools are based on the popular Eclipse IDE for Java and are open source:
- WOProject is a WebObjects cross-platform build system. It includes a set of Ant tasks to build WebObjects projects.
- WOLips is an IDE framework - an Eclipse plugin providing GUI development environment.
Wiki information on WOProject and WOLips: http://objectstyle.org/confluence/display/WOL/Home
Getting Started with Eclipse and WOLips:
http://www.objectstyle.org/confluence/display/WOL/Install+WOLips+with+Eclipse+Update+Manager
Additional tutorials: http://www.objectstyle.org/confluence/display/WOL/Tutorials
Open issues on WOLips and associated tools can be reported and tracked here:
http://objectstyle.org/jira/secure/BrowseProject.jspa?id=10001
- Q. Are there alternatives to Apple's EOModeler and WOBuilder in the Community Tools ?
As of August 2006, the following additional alternatives are available:
EOModeler -> Entity Modeler (deemed 1.0 "Beta" by developer as of Aug 2006):
See: http://objectstyle.org/woproject-old/lists/woproject-dev/2006/08/0037.html
WOBuilder -> No replacement as of yet
This is a task in progress: http://www.objectstyle.org/confluence/display/WOL/WO+Builder+Ideas
- Q. How do I determine my installed WebObjects version, the patch lists and the WO license key(s) ?
Patch list: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=70037
How to determine your installed WebObjects version: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=70074
License key on WO 5.3 is found here: /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaWebObjects.framework/Resources/License.key
Deployment
- Q. Can I deploy WebObjects on other platforms (other than OS X Server) ? What are the costs ?
Yes, the current WO 5.3 version can be deployed for free on most Java platforms, eg. using Tomcat or JBoss, but only OS X Server is officially supported. You need a WebObjects license key for deployment. Once you have installed the 5.3 development tools bundled with Xcode, this license key can be found here: /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaWebObjects.framework/Resources/License.key
As documented by Cliff Tuel, Apple Professional Services Technical Support at http://lists.apple.com/archives/webobjects-deploy/2006/Jul/msg00010.html and http://lists.apple.com/archives/webobjects-deploy/2006/Jul/msg00019.html
If you do not want to install the tools, and simply want the license key, it can be obtained from the installer package by following these instructions:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/webobjects-dev/2005/Dec/msg00191.html
and
http://lists.apple.com/archives/webobjects-dev/2005/Dec/msg00193.html
The older WO 5.2 version is officially supported for development and deployment on other platforms and can be licensed here for volume deployments http://developer.apple.com/softwarelicensing/agreements/webobjects.html - or you can buy a boxed WO 5.2 software package for $ 699 which contains a single deployment license.
- Q. What are the different deployment options for WebObjects applications ?
The following options are available:
- "Official" Deployment with "Split Install". Requires WebObjects Deployment runtime, maybe needed to recompiled on other platforms.
See here: Deployment Overview
...or Deployment using J2EE Servlet containers:
- Deploy WebObjects application in servlet containers. (Still requires the presence of the WebObjects deployment runtime on the J2EE server)
- Servlet Single Directory Deployment (SSDD) in servlet containers. (Self-contained directory, doesn't need deployment runtime installation)
...
- Q. Are there guides for WebObjects deployment/hosting on other platforms and Servlet Containers (Tomcat, JBoss...)?
 | Warning
Readers: Please help update this entry, much of the info in the links needs be updated for WO 5.3+, thanks ! |
Details and links on the following pages for Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Solaris:
http://www.objectstyle.org/confluence/display/WOCOM/Deploying+WO+On+Other+Platforms
and WebObjects - Deployment
Support Options
- Q. How and where to file a bug report to Apple / get additional support ?
Quote from Cliff Tuel, Apple Professional Services Technical Support:
If you suspect something in WebObjects isn't working correctly, please file a bug report. We do read these!
http://bugreport.apple.com
If you have questions or need support, beyond what these lists provide, here are the links for tech support:
DTS (WebObjects Developer support only)
http://developer.apple.com/products/techsupport/index.html
AppleCare Professional Services (Enterprise Dev. & Deployment support)
http://www.apple.com/services/technicalsupport
- Q. Where do I file a bug report for the new community developer tools ?
Open issues on WOLips and associated tools can be reported and tracked here:
http://objectstyle.org/jira/secure/BrowseProject.jspa?id=10001
Mailing lists
Several mailings related to WebObjects exists:
This list is to discuss development of WebObjects applications including tools, software, and techniques.
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/webobjects-dev
Another dev list (stick with the Apple one, but subscribe to this so you don't miss out on stuff
http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/webobjects-dev
This email list is for official announcements regarding new releases or other important events affecting WebObjects.
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/webobjects-announce
This list is to discuss deployment of WebObjects Applications.
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/webobjects-deploy
List for discussion of integration and usage of Project Wonder frameworks
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wonder-disc
These lists are for the various community developer tools
http://www.objectstyle.org/confluence/display/WOL/Mailing+Lists
