[cross-posted to the jboss-user@lists.sourceforge.net mailing-list]

Hello folks,

Following-up on the discussions about making J2EE reference applications:

Even if Marc Fleury kindly created a Web-based forum for us, there is apparently a different goal here. To my understanding, a forum on J2EE design patterns (BTW, already covered by j2eepatterns-interest@java.sun.com) is quite different from a project to create J2EE reference applications.

And probably like many people here on this list, I totally dislike the idea of a web-based discussion group on jboss.org for this project, because:

- archiving cannot be made easily by outside parties other than the JBoss Group. Noone can create tools to dig through it (apart from maybe search engines).
- going through a page full of messages is quite boring when you want to read the new ones in a thread
- new message notification did not work when I tested it
- the messages can be modified/deleted by the admins running the site, anytime and without notification
- posting a message through the Web requires much bigger bandwidth than via email and requires to be online longer, inappropriate whith small devices. As noted by some people on this list, it is also inappropriate while in countries where Internet access hasn't reached the status it is in western countries
- I don't think this project should be tight to JBoss, eventhough it's probably the best application server to start, and the project could be tight to JBoss later if it is appropriate. Tighting this project to JBoss as a rule would not proove JBoss is the best J2EE application server.

Without a Sourceforge-like project management platform we wouldn't go far, but Sourceforge does not seem so reliable as a good support for Free Software or Open SOurce projects in the future. FSF/GNU Savannah seems the solution.

Given these considerations, and because waiting longer will not lead us very far, I took the liberty to create a savannah.gnu.org project. Forwarded below is the notification message from the Savannah administrators.

What do you think of the name "Entr\xe9e" (Entree)? It's "entry" in French, and to me symbolises an entry J2EE entreprise application project or set of projects. It could mean also an Entry software reference for making serious J2EE entreprise applications.

As soon as the project is approved I will send you the mailing-list address and interested people could start right away. This could start by the summary of the con
tributions on jboss-user and the J2EE design patterns jboss.org forum on this topic so far. I consider also releasing a reference document on making sound J2EE entreprise applications (about 20 pages, still draft) for comments and review. It could be a start for our design and project guidelines.

The project should be soon available on http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/entree/

Please share your constructive comments and ideas on this topic. Of course anything can be changed if it does not sound reasonable. Everything is open still, your experience and ideas are valuable.

Best regards,

-Sylvan

----- Forwarded message from savannah-hackers@gnu.org -----

Delivered-To: sylvan@ravinet.com
To: sylvan@ravinet.com
Subject: savannah.gnu.org: submission of Entr\xe9e: J2EE reference applications
From: savannah-hackers@gnu.org
Reply-To: savannah-hackers@gnu.org
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 12:50:16 -0500


A package was submitted to savannah.gnu.org.
This mail was sent to sylvan@ravinet.com, savannah-hackers@gnu.org


Sylvan Ravinet <sylvan@ravinet.com> described the package as follows:
License: lgpl
Other License:
Package: Entr\xe9e: J2EE reference applications
System name: entree
This package does NOT want to apply for inclusion in the GNU project

The goal of this project is to create reference Java J2EE/EJB applications. Reference, not in terms of functionnality, but in terms of application design/architecture. So, eventhough the applications should be somehow useful, it\'s not our main goal. We wish to use best-of-the-breed Java technologies, like randomly: JUnit, Ant, EJB 2.0+, JMX, JAAS, Cocoon, SOAP, aspectj, xdoclet and sound software engineering processes/methods (including design patterns) and documentation.

The outcome should be reference components/applications and possibly an application framework. Although we do not wish to depend on a single vendor, however Free Software, the first target application server is JBoss/Tomcat. Our work is made available as Free Software (like speech of course!).

This is an attempt to realize ideas from a discussion on the jboss-user@lists.sourceforge.net mailing-list.
\"It does not exist yet but I\'m working on it.\"

----- End forwarded message -----

--
http://sylvan.ravinet.com/