NAME
OpenFrame - An Application Framework for Perl and the Web
SYNOPSIS
# See the examples/ directoryDESCRIPTION
The OpenFrame Application Framework
Introduction
The OpenFrame application framework takes a lot of complicated ideas, and tries to simplify them into a single point that allows for multiple applications to take care of multiple presentations, without the time consuming parts (mainly the application) having to be rewritten several times.
This document attempts to provide an overview of what OpenFrame does and how it could be made to work for you.
Framework Overview
At the heart of the framework lies the server class. An OpenFrame server is a simple device that takes a request from one mechanism and translates it into one that OpenFrame can understand. Once a request is generated in the form of an AbstractRequest object the server passes control to OpenFrame's slot system. The slot system is a simple way of plugging in new functionality to the system, without it having an effect on old functionality. To get a basic understanding of what slots do, imagine a pipe. Each section of the pipe dyes the water a different colour, provided that the water is the right colour that flows into it is correct. If it isn't, the water keeps flowing, but it doesn't change colour. Right, now replace slots for sections, and objects for water.
Slots execute linearly - that is, one after the other. Each slot tells the slot pipeline that it wants certain objects in order to function. When a slot executes it may return an object which the pipeline will keep and remember. Later on in the pipeline if that object is needed by a different slot then the pipeline can provide it. The only difference between this and our magical colour changing water is that at the end of the slot pipeline there should be something that our server understands -- an AbstractResponse object.
The AbstractResponse object is used as a container for the data (for example, HTML) and is passed by the OpenFrame server to the person who asked for it originally in the AbstractRequest object. Once the request is complete, everything that we learnt -- any object that was generated along the slot pipeline -- is thrown away, so that the next request can begin afresh.
Slots can be plugged quickly in and out of the pipeline, as the server doesn't care what happens in the pipeline and the elements of the pipeline don't care what happens to the other elements, and none of the elements care what happens to anything they generate -- they just want to do their thing, and be done with.
Slot Dispatch
Another useful part of OpenFrame is that the slots need not reside on the local system. The slot system allows for multiple dispatch mechanisms. The fastest, and most obvious way of course, is to dispatch them locally and write them in Perl. However, another way of doing it is to write them in Java, and dispatch them using the SOAP. These dispatch mechanisms are easily extended to work for any calling mechanism, and any programming language.
This doesn't mean that you should only consider SOAP-based dispatch if you are planning on writing slots in other languages. You can distribute the load of your OpenFrame server by moving various slots to various other places.
Slots can be Clever
Slots can also be a little bit cunning.
Sometimes a slot knows that it must be executed, and although there are some things that it must have, sometimes it would be nice to have a few things, but not absolutely necessary. Rather than confusing things, a slot can simply request that it has everything that a pipeline knows, and then query the pipeline programatically to see if it knows anything that is useful. In fact, it can blend requesting the entire pipeline, with requesting individual elements, so the functionality in the slot can be quite circuitous.
Another place where slots can be clever is what they return. Often executing a slot at the top of the slot pipeline means that another slot has to execute at the bottom of the pipeline. To allow for this, slots can return a single object, or a single class name, or any combination of either in a list. When the slot pipeline sees that a slot has returned a class name, it pushes the class to the bottom of the pipeline and tells it to use all the properties of the slot that returned it. For instance, if a slot that is dispatched via SOAP returns a class name, then the returned class would be placed in the pipeline and would be dispatched with SOAP to the same place that the original slot was dispatched to.
Slots out of the Box
Out of the box OpenFrame provides some pretty powerful functionality from its slots. Fotango (the nice people that let us write OpenFrame) want to use OpenFrame as an Application Server, so the majority of the slots reflect that purpose. However, they are all open source, and are all bundled in the OpenFrame distribution. This means that out of the box OpenFrame can operate as as Application Server for the web.
The slots that build this functionality are simple. Listed in order of execution:
Slot Name Slot Purpose
OpenFrame::Slot::Images serve images immediately
OpenFrame::Slot::Session restore or generate a session
OpenFrame::Slot::Dispatch dispatch an application
OpenFrame::Slot::Generator generate content
OpenFrame::Slot::SessionSaver save the sessionThe application dispatcher slot is (we think) quite clever, so we'd like to tell you more about it, but that exists outside the scope of this document. For more information, see OpenFrame::AppWrite.
MAILING LIST
There is a mailing list for general OpenFrame discussion. You can sign up at: http://www.astray.com/mailman/listinfo/openframe
IRC
There is also an OpenFrame IRC channel: #openframe on irc.rhizomatic.net.
PORTABILITY
OpenFrame is pretty much as portable as Perl. We have tested it on the following varied platforms:
Operating System Architecture
Caldera OpenLinux 3.1 i386
Darwin 5.1 PowerPC
Debian Linux 2.1 StrongARM
Debian Linux 2.2 Alpha
Debian Linux 2.2 i386
Debian Linux 2.2 PowerPC
Debian Linux 2.2 Sparc
FreeBSD 4.4 i386
Mandrake Linux 8.1 i386
NetBSD 1.5.1 Alpha
RedHat Linux 7.1 Itanium
RedHat Linux 7.2 i386
SunOS 5.8 Sparc
SuSE Linux 7 i386
SuSE Linux 7 S/390
Tru64 5.1a Alpha
TurboLinux 6.5 i386
Slackware 8.0 i386SEE ALSO
OpenFrame::Install OpenFrame::AppWrite OpenFrame::Slot
AUTHOR
James A. Duncan <jduncan@fotango.com>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2001, Fotango Ltd.
This module is free software; you can redistribute it or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.