David Rosenstrauch

Apache Cocoon is one of the most interesting, innovative, and powerful platforms for dynamic content generation, though not as well known as the others. A subproject of the Apache XML project, Cocoon is one of the lesser-known offerings from the folks at the all-open-source Apache Software Foundation, having garnered less attention than some of its more popular cousins like Struts. But Cocoon is worth a look. It's not just Cocoon's use of XML in content generation that makes it so interesting; it's how it uses XML. Cocoon's authors clearly have a deep experience with and an understanding of XML - what it is and isn't good for - and Cocoon's simple but powerful architecture reflects that experience. XML isn't used here just "because everyone's using it." Rather, Cocoon exploits XML's strength for separating content from presentation. (As we know now, the lack of tha... (more)