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macaroni · Oct 31, 2003, 01:30 PM

just a question, how did they do the iTunes Music Store?

Is it just enclodes in a webview and other custom views and retrieving HTML pages from
Apple's site?

Thanks...

Angus_D · Oct 31, 2003, 02:18 PM

No, it's a WebObjects application generating XML.

yeslekmc · Oct 31, 2003, 04:44 PM

Originally posted by Angus_D:
No, it's a WebObjects application generating XML.

Can you expand on this remark a bit? Thanks!

Angus_D · Oct 31, 2003, 04:48 PM

Originally posted by yeslekmc:
Can you expand on this remark a bit? Thanks!

What do you mean?

yeslekmc · Oct 31, 2003, 06:27 PM

Originally posted by Angus_D:
What do you mean?

I've never used WebObjects before. However, I always assumed (and perhaps wrongly) that it is a server-side technology (similar to JSP, PHP, ASP, etc...) that could generate dynamic HTML for display in web browsers. But from your comment, I assume that you imply that one can write Win32 (and other platform) native applications with WebObjects? Does this mean that WebObjects has its own IDE that can be run natively on Windows, Mac OS, etc. for development of native applicaitons? Or does it only run on Mac OS X but can build for multiple platforms?

Or do you mean that WebObjects is a class library that can be invoked to genreate dynamic XML in a Cocoa or Win32 application, and that XML is then rendered by the application on its native platform?

It is not clear to me on what you mean; I'd just like to understand it better.

Many Thanks!

K++ · Oct 31, 2003, 06:50 PM

WebObjects is a server side technology that normally is used to create dynamic HTML content, much like PHP or ASP. In this situation the WebObjects program is producing XML rather than an actual HTML page.

That HTML is then interpreted by iTunes and the iTunes Music Store is constructed.

Anders · Nov 10, 2003, 09:16 AM

So the iTunes is a highly optimised web browser (optimized for iTMS that is)

Have anyone been able to request a page outside iTunes and seen how iTMS would look like in a standart browser

Angus_D · Nov 10, 2003, 10:59 AM

Originally posted by Anders:
So the iTunes is a highly optimised web browser (optimized for iTMS that is)

Well, in that it downloads XML over HTTP.

Have anyone been able to request a page outside iTunes and seen how iTMS would look like in a standart browser

Yes, there were some links some time ago and it is, as I said above, just some XML.

Angus_D · Nov 10, 2003, 11:03 AM

Originally posted by yeslekmc:
But from your comment, I assume that you imply that one can write Win32 (and other platform) native applications with WebObjects?

I don't understand where I implied that. WebObjects is Java, and you can create java front-ends to WO applications which run server-side in order to present a GUI on the desktop. This is, however, not what is happening in this case.

Or do you mean that WebObjects is a class library that can be invoked to genreate dynamic XML in a Cocoa or Win32 application, and that XML is then rendered by the application on its native platform?

No, the WebObjects application is running server-side (obviously, you don't have the iTMS running locally with all the content), and is generating XML to interact with the client, which is an application written in C++/Carbon. iTunes forms an HTTP request, sends it to the iTMS server, which then replies in XML. iTunes reads the XML and uses that to build its GUI representation.