One of the main enhancements for Willowgarden DP2 will be a vastly improved architecture for the data mapping layer. The goal is to allow archetypes (domain objects) to be loaded and saved via one or more storage systems and formats with minimal loss of data integrity. In other words, I want to be able to load an archetype from a database and save it to an XML file. And I want to be able to load an archetype from an imported XML file and save it to the database. Or maybe you need to save something to CSV. Or maybe you need to convert something to RSS, or Atom.

This goes way beyond the “Active Record” pattern that Ruby on Rails has made popular. The downside is it’s slightly more complex. The upside is that it’s vastly more configurable, extensible, and ultimately useful.

I’ll have some comprehensive examples of these new data mapping features ready in time for DP2, so check back soon for the latest news.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 22nd, 2006 at 8:57 am and is filed under Willowgarden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.