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DaGuy · Jul 1, 2003, 10:52 AM

One of the goodies that I have access to is the Safari SDK. I was out on vacation (without a computer, I survived) and just begun to take a look at its capabilities. My mind is to pulling tricks on me, so I need to share my thoughts.

The SDK, seems to be very well thought out and implemented. Correct if I'm wrong, but this API opens up a ton of possibilities including the building of dynamic web servers (something like Tomcat but in Objective-C).

At first thought, it seems that if we had some secure session management in WebKit then this thing can be an alternative to JSP/Servlet technology.

How off based am I? Should I just finish reading the WebKit documentation before letting my imagination get out of control?
Need not answer this... I'll read page two.

Angus_D · Jul 1, 2003, 01:24 PM

WebKit is for client side functionality not server-side stuff... Apple's server-side stuff is WebObjects.

DaGuy · Jul 1, 2003, 10:52 PM

True. But isn't that a lot of firepower? Why limited to the client side only. The classes that have nothing to do with rendering seem to provide an arsenal of goodies for server side programming.

WO has to compete with J2EE and .NET. That's a tough battle. Why not rearchitect/blend WO with this new WebKit and provide some creative alternatives. I bet Apple can do great if they go after this at some point in the future. Don't you think?

Angus_D · Jul 2, 2003, 06:44 AM

I don't really see where they overlap. If you want a high performance webserver, they exist. Write a module to connect to your application server. From there, I don't see what your application server would gain from WebKit.

DaGuy · Jul 2, 2003, 10:38 AM

Originally posted by Angus_D:
I don't really see where they overlap. If you want a high performance webserver, they exist. Write a module to connect to your application server. From there, I don't see what your application server would gain from WebKit.

You are correct. I'm just pointing out the potential for some interesting growth in the Cocoa fields. Think about what Java Servlets are at a very high level.

Servlets are just lightweight servers that can statefully handle HTTP requests and responses. It looks to me that the API on WebKit pretty much does all this with perhaps the exception of session management and security. Not too shaby and with room to grow. Remember that Java started out as a language to run toasters and coffee makers.

Why reinvent the wheel? Well the current wheel is kinda rough on the edges and definitely getting more and more complex -doesn't even look like a wheel anymore. If you put this together with the fact that Cocoa can be cross platform (without a virtual machine) then the future looks pretty interesting.

Angus_D · Jul 2, 2003, 12:35 PM

You do realise that WebObjects existed in Objective-C a long time before it was ported to Java? 5.x is Java-only, however.

Statefulness is one of the main features which makes application servers useful. As is database connectivity. Of course you could build your own application server in Cocoa, but the question is, why bother?

Gametes · Jul 2, 2003, 12:58 PM

You'd have to do it all with Data classes and NSURL... the docs for the Webkit say it isn't suitable for non-GUI applications. I guess it isn't tuned for just dealing with data only, but more designed for views. I dunno.

DaGuy · Jul 2, 2003, 09:27 PM

Yes, I'm (painfully) aware that WO was originally in Objective-C. I dished out the $499 for the first version of MacOSX Server -aqua stuff was not out yet. It shipped with a WO. That environment was so buggy that I never bother to learn WO.

Today I'm pretty bored with J2EE and .NET is not my bag. WO in its current form seems to be some kind of odd hybrid. Apple must not be to pleased with it either, since they don't seem to market it aggressively.

In any event, thanks for your responses. I just went of a tangent thinking about all the neat things one can do with WebKit.