Working on Mach-II 1.8 'Simplicity' - New Feature Specs Ready

We're happy to see 1.6 go into RC1 because it is the last stop before the stable release. However on the coat tails of the release of Mach-II 1.6 RC1, Team Mach-II has already started working on the next release of Mach-II 1.8 which is code named "Simplicity".  There are many exciting features on the list for 1.8 which is all about productivity and toolkit enhancements.  In our normal development cycle since Mach-II 1.5, we are releasing M2SFP documents (read more on the Mach-II Specification and Feedback Process) that detail the functionality of the new features or improvements we would like to introduce in "Simplicity".

Two of the M2SFP documents have already been completed and posted on the wiki for public comment. Below are overviews for these enhancements with links to the full specification.  Team Mach-II welcomes public comments.  Feel free to use the comment functionality at the bottom of each specification on wiki to provide feedback or to ask additional questions.  In depth discussion can be started by posting a message to the Mach-II for CFML Google Group.

1. View-Loaders

One of the Mach-II XML configuration file sections that can become rather unruly is the <page-views> section. A smart developer will use some sort of convention when structuring views and page-view names. However, this becomes rather tedious over time as the size of the application grows because you have to manually add each <page-view> in XML. It can be prone to error because it's an to forget to add a new <page-view>. View loaders are a CFC that would allow a developers to load views based on convention such as using an ANT-style path matching pattern.

The addition of view loaders would allow developers to auto-register page-views by convention thus reducing a normally tedious task of registering views. Also, developers could define multiple view-loaders in the page-views section or create their own loader by extending a particular Mach-II CFC.

2. Call-Method Command

Often when writing Mach II applications the developer is required to create a method in a listener that simply calls a method in the application's service layer with out any additional logic. This requires the developer to write extra listener methods that don't really serve any purpose. Mach II should make this easier by providing a command that can be used in the Mach II configuration file to allow the framework to call a method in the service layer and optionally put the result in a event argument. Simple argument passing should be allow via the use of the new expression syntax for access elements in the event or properties objects.

Lasly, we'll have more information to come in the near future on other features on the list for "Simplicity" such as a form tag library with data binding to the introduction of packages. As always, you can follow our progress with the development of the framework by watching our official Trac roadmap or you can follow us more closely by following the Team Mach-II Twitter account at http://twitter.com/mach_ii.

We hope to keep the development cycle for this release to minimum so we can release at least two stables per year.  This will allow us to keep the forward momentum going between development cycles and allow us to focus on smaller sets of features.  So expect a short turn around between 1.6 and 1.8 because we already have 2.0 in our sights!

Before you go, be sure to check out the specification on the exciting new features we detailed above and remember that your comments go along way in keeping the project going in the direction that the community wants -- so feel free to share your thoughts with us.

2 Comments  |  0 Trackbacks  |  Announcements  |  Send
Posted 11/18/08 @ 9:00 PM by Peter J. Farrell

Comments

Nice work guys!

Posted by Sami Hoda at 11/19/08 11:21 AM

All my thoughts and feelings described in one word:

AWESOME!!!!

Posted by Jorge Loyo at 11/20/08 7:48 AM