Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

[RFC] GridBox - an Application Framework

Author:Mike Murry
Posted:12/2/1999; 8:35:13 AM
Topic:[RFC] GridBox - an Application Framework
Msg #:13370
Prev/Next:13369 / 13371

For the past few weeks I have been working on a putting together some specs for a Frontier Application Framework. I've had the idea rolling around in my head for quite awhile but never had a reason to implement one. Now I do. I thought that this may be of interest to other Frontier users so I'm going to open this up to the entire community.

A little background

A few months ago I started working on a Project Manager Application for my company to use internally. Word got around and the big boys in New York wanted to use it across all our offices. They only thing they insisted on was that it be built in ColdFusion. So I took my Frontier code and ported it over to ColdFusion. Not a big deal really, but I would much rather have left in Frontier because it handles some things a little easier than ColdFusion does.

My ColdFusion code is based on an Application Framework called Fusebox, and I thought that I could sneak Frontier in through the backdoor if I could develop a similiar framework in Frontier. With that in mind, I started working on the specs in my spare moments.

What is GridBox

GridBox is my version of Fusebox for Frontier. My goals are two-fold. One, I wanted a way to use Frontier and ColdFusion together. If I could build apps that could talk easily to each other, I could use ColdFusion where it made sense and Frontier where it made sense. Second, the more I used Fusebox to build apps, the more I realized how benificial it is to have a framework to work with. I spent less time on the implementation and more time coding. I pumped out the ColdFusion version in less than two weeks even though I had to build my own membership infastructure.

I have setup a temporary site with all the specs if anyone is interested in working on this with me.

http://gridbox.editthispage.com/

BTW, this is a Manila site. I have been putting off writing these specs because of my dislike for writing. With Manila writing is actually fun (I can't believe I said that!!). And it was so easy to write in the browser that was able to take the ideas in my head and put them down on (Manila) paper in less than 16 hours. And File->Save has been erased from my brain. Very liberating!!




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