Introduction to WebObjects Overview

WebObjects is an application server with tools, technologies, and capabilities to create Internet and intranet applications. It has an object-oriented architecture that promotes quick development of reusable web components. WebObjects is extremely scalable and supports high transaction volumes.

WebObjects solves some common problems—dynamic webpage generation, user forms and input, state management, and interface with databases—that usually consume most of a your development time. This allows you to focus on presentation, your data model and business logic.

This document introduces the architecture, technologies, development tools, and development approaches. After reading this document, you will be able to make an informed decision about which approach to use.

Who Should Read This Document

WebObjects Overview is written for developers who want to start using WebObjects and need to choose an approach. However, anyone interested in WebObjects technology will benefit from reading this document.

This document does not assume you have a background in object-oriented programming. However, WebObjects is based on object-oriented frameworks written in Java. You should be familiar with object-oriented programming if you intend to write WebObjects applications.

An advantage of WebObjects is the database connectivity and rapid prototyping tools it provides. To fully appreciate WebObjects, you should have some understanding of databases, although this document doesn’t require it.

Because WebObjects provides several distinct approaches to developing applications, this document discusses them one by one and compares their pros and cons to help you decide which approach is appropriate for your application.

Organization of This Document

This document has the following chapters:

• About Web Objects introduces the technologies of WebObjects and how they fit together. The technologies include APIs and tools for creating HTML-based, desktop, and web services applications. WebObjects also supports some J2EE integration.

• Choosing Your Approach summarizes the pros and cons of each approach and suggests a development process to evaluate which approach or combination of approaches is appropriate for your application.

There is also a glossary, Glossary, which contains definitions of common object-oriented programming, web, and database terms used in this document.