I'm agreeing with Rainer. I often debate with my colleagues of the achitecture unit about the benefits of Empire-db. Mostly they agree with me, but they also mention the lack of some features and integration with other frameworks. E.g. they're asking for Spring support (transaction management), caching possibilities or "Java-Object-Model" generators from existing database schema.
So, I think there are challenges awaiting the project. And only a powerful community around the Empire-db project can handle these challenges under the patronage of ASF. Best regards, Manuel Gamerdinger -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: Rainer Döbele [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Gesendet: Donnerstag, 26. Juni 2008 22:20 An: general@incubator.apache.org Betreff: Re: [PROPOSAL] Empire-db Referring to: http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/Empire-dbProposal Martijn Dashorst wrote: > I find this alarming: when there are no new challenges awaiting the > project, why join Apache? The code is stable and mature, you can just > leave it at sf.net. There doesn't seem to be a plan other than "let's > join Apache and hope the community grows automatically". If the > current core developers don't have challenges for the project, how > would the community grow? I feel a little misunderstood here. Mature does not mean finished. We can think of a lot of improvements that we just did't have the demand for yet. And we cannot implement new features just for the sake of it. For example there are currently only four DBMS supported by Empire-db: Oracle, SQL-Server, MySQL and HSQLDB. We neither have the demand nor the expertise to support other systems, but other people might have. This is a good entry point for other developers to join in the development process. There is also demand for more in-depth work in the drivers e.g. to provide better support for stored procedures or DBMS specific features. But most of all, we see Empire-db as more than just a DB layer. The true benefit comes from utilizing its metadata services in the presentation layer. With our Stuts2 extensions we show one possible solution how this can be achieved - limited to be used in conjunction with Struts2 of course. A similar thing can possibly be done for JSF, Wicket or others. And it's certainly also feasible for rich client user interfaces. This is not a trivial task and requires a sound understanding of the corresponding presentation layer framework. We can only provide the vision, but it takes some experts and a strong community to make it reality. BTW: we are currently working on a new release that will allow the definition of metadata for non relational data objects like data from flat files or Web-Services in a similar manner in order to provide a uniform client level access for data and metadata. Any help with this is deeply appreciated. > I'm not convinced yet that incubating at Apache is the best thing for > empire-db. I think that seeking out new ideas, users and (future) > committers for the project is the highest priority. Of course this can > be done whilest incubating, but having incubator plastered all over > the project won't attract more users or developers. > > Some mild marketing such as posting an article on javalobby > (java.dzone.com) or theserverside.com to get some publicity will help > the project more than becoming an Apache project. Posting articles on javalobby or theserverside.com is certainly a good idea. But isn't this another thing that a community is good for? I will certainly support anyone who is planning on doing so. Overall I am not convinced that leaving he project on sf.net and writing a view articles will really bring the project forward. IMO the ASF is the right platform. But of course I respect your opinion. Regards, Rainer --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
