forrest:views - x output formats, one config

Together with the ViewHelper and the BusinessHelper (to be implemented) plugin this plugin is following the DispatcherView pattern and building the final view which will be delivered to the client. This implementation follows exactly the pattern shown on corej2eepatterns.com

A view will be configured by a config file which basically contains the following tags (it is still evolving):

<forrest:view type="xhtml">
  <forrest:css url="common.css"/>
  <forrest:contract name="meta"/>
  <forrest:hook name="container">
   <forrest:contract name="feedback"/>
  </forrest:hook />
</forrest:view>

The view tag's @type determines the final output format. The idea is to configure different output formats within a forrest:views. That means a forrest:views can contain n different "forrest:view" configurations for n different formats.
In short: x formats, one config. :)

<forrest:views
  xmlns:forrest="http://apache.org/forrest/templates/1.0">
<forrest:view type="xhtml">
  <forrest:css url="common.css"/>
  <forrest:contract name="meta"/>
  <forrest:hook name="container">
   <forrest:contract name="feedback"/>
  </forrest:hook />
</forrest:view>
<forrest:view type="fo">
  <forrest:hook name="container">
   <forrest:contract name="feedback"/>
  </forrest:hook />
</forrest:view>
/forrest:views>

viewHelper class/implementation - a class/implementation which will access the presentation model and transform its models. In other words it is a presentation producing factory.

Each forrest:css will be transformed into a <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" url="{$root}skin/{url}"> tag (in html output [only format that has an implementation]). This tags are designed to help web-designers to freely implemend their own css-implementations for a view.

Each forrest:hook will be transformed into a <div/> tag (in html output [only format that has an implementation]). This tags are designed to help web-designers to freely move around and group contracts into design container.

Each forrest:contract will dispatch a xml file (ViewHelper) that contains xsl:stylesheets (for now, but other implementations to transform the presentation model are/should be possible) for the different output formats of a contract. For html, the only format that we have implemented so far, we have three different kind of templates:

<xsl:templates name="{contract/@name}-css/>
Here the contract specific css will be stored.

<xsl:templates name="{contract/@name}-head/>
Here goes everything that belongs in the html head. e.g. scripts.

<xsl:templates name="{contract/@name}-body/>
Everything that belongs into the body.

businessHelper class/implementation - a class/implementation which will access businessServices to produce models for the presentation model. In other word it is a data producing factory.

Right now it is implemented for the forrest way of producing the models for the view but we will create an independent BusinessHelper to access all BusinessServices you may have in your application.

Background mailings around the views concept

• [RT] plugin infrastructure
• [RT] Forrest templates for second generation skining - towards Corium