[Archetype JavaScript Framework] Archetype engine abstraction

[Swiip]

As Temsa has already announced, the main feature of the next 0.10.0 version is not focused on new features for user, but a huge core enhancement which allows Archetype to run on top of either Prototype or jQuery.

We consider Archetype as a real JavaScript Web Framework based on existing and optimized JavaScript libraries. Our objective is not to replace these JavaScript libraries but to build a new solution on top of it. So, Archetype needs a base library (or a set of base libraries) to work on, and we call this library: Archetype’s engine.

We both, Temsa and I, are some kind of “children” of Prototype (that explain the name of Archetype), but our project has grown up and the direct dependency of Archetype to Prototype is not anymore exclusively needed, neither mandatory. So Archetype needs an engine yes, but it doesn’t have to be Prototype.

For the 0.10.0 release, we worked on an abstraction layer between Archetype’s core and the engine used. With it, we can write a wrapper to any JavaScript library which implements the required functionalities.

As jQuery is really active this last month, we have considered this should be our second wrapper (Prototype was of course the first one). With this new enhancement you will be able to use the whole Archetypes’ functionalities without requiring Prototype and rely instead on jQuery.

We wonder if next engine implementation would not be a Dojo wrapper (however this isn’t planned at the moment) in order to cover the main libraries of the JavaScript world. Of course, the best should be to implements a wrapper for all libraries, but that represent a huge work.

Just two precisions:

• If you already implemented an application with Archetype and Prototype, this upgrade will not allow you to switch on jQuery. If the Archetype’s core will work, all the Prototype’s functionalities you use on your application will not work (we didn’t map the whole Prototype’s API with jQuery!).


• We’re not going to remove Prototype from our framework in favour of jQuery! We still enjoy Prototype (and I still choose it if I can have only one) but we think that the possibility of choosing your prefered engine can please more users and ease integration of Archetype on rich and already existing JavaScript environments.

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Envoyé par Swiip dans Archetype JavaScript Framework le 2/04/2009 04:42:00 PM

[Swiip]