2009/12/22 - Apache Xang has been retired.

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Xang 1.0.0
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Introduction
 

Apache Xang lets you quickly build data-driven, cross-platform Web applications that integrate disparate data sources. The Xang architecture cleanly separates data, logic and presentation. It is based on open industry standards such as HTTP, XML, XSL, DOM and ECMAScript (JavaScript).

The Xang system extends the behavior of existing web servers to allow authors to create applications that respond to requests and generate dynamic output synthesized from different data sources.

A Xang application is defined by a single .XAP file that aggregates multiple data sources, makes that data URL addressable and defines custom methods to access that data. These custom methods can be invoked through simple HTTP requests, via a Web browser or simple client side API.

Data sources are aggregated into one unified hierarchy via XML includes and Java plug-ins which implement the standard DOM APIs. These plug-ins provide two-way access to the data via the DOM API.

A .XAP file is an XML text file that defines the data sources, the mapping of requests to methods, and the logic of the methods. The structure of the .XAP file is a hierarchy of URL addressable elements.

This .XAP file is stored on a Web server and when a client requests this file, the Xang system loads the file and passes the request on to the logic in the file. The Xang system follows these steps:

  • Identify the element addressed by the requested URL.
  • Map the HTTP request to an application method on the targeted element
  • Gather a body of script available to the command handler for the targeted element
  • Dispatch the HTTP request to the command handler

The structure of the .XAP file is a hierarchy of URL addressable elements

The 'name' attribute on Elements is used to perform a lookup based on the path of the URL of the request.

For example: the URL http://localhost/samples/default.xap/inventory/products/product27/ identifies a Xang app "default.xap", and within that file there is an element with the name attribute of 'inventory'. Within that element is an element with a name attribute of 'products' and so on.

In a Xang application, methods can be invoked via URLs. The Xang engine will use information from the URL request to location the target method to invoke.

For example, with a sample application of

<xap onGet='doGet();' onGetPurchase='run_purchase();'>

the URL of http://localhost/samples/default.xap/?do:method=purchase would be interpreted by the engine to invoke the method identified by the onGetPurchase attribute of the root element.

The HTTP Method header (usually GET or POST) is used to identify the base method and the 'do:method' parameter is used to identify the extended method. These two things are put together to form the name of an attribute which is the 'handler' for that method. So onGetPurchase identifies the handler for an HTTP GET request with a do:method parameter of 'purchase'. The default HTTP GET request would be handled by the method identified by the 'onGet' attribute.

The 'onGet' attribute defines the actual code that handles the request. This code is expressed in script. This can be made independent of script language, and in the future will be able to invoke Java directly.

This attribute is only a snippet of script, usually a function call. The full body of script is pulled from a sub-element whose tag is <script>. This script has the actual code definition.

In addition, the full body of script is the aggregation of all script sub-elements at the target node, plus all the script sub-elements of each parent of the target node. Essentially this creates a system of code inheritance. Requests targeted to deeply nested child elements will be handled by code declared and defined by some parent element.

The method handlers are 'inherited' from their parent elements. The dispatching algorithm looks at the target element specified by the URL, and if the requested method is not specified there, it traverses up the DOM tree to the root. If no attribute is corresponding to the requested method is found, an error is reported.


Xang Features
 
  • Supports ECMAScript

Getting to work with Xang
 

For instructions and some suggestions about how to get started using Xang, see Getting Started.


Glossary
 
DOM API
The W3C defined set of interfaces for accessing XML data.


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