WebObjects: NeXT бағдарламалық қызметі мен аясы

Java web application server and framework originally developed by NeXT Software

WebObjects is a discontinued Java web application server and a server based web application framework originally developed by NeXT Software, Inc.

WebObject's hallmark features are its object orientation, database connectivity, and prototyping tools. Applications created with WebObjects can be deployed as web sites, Java WebStart desktop applications, and/or standards based web services. The deployment runtime is pure Java, allowing developers to deploy WebObjects applications on platforms that support Java. One can use the included WebObjects Java SE application server or deploy on third party Java EE application servers such as JBoss, Apache Tomcat, WebLogic Server or IBM WebSphere. WebObjects was maintained by Apple for quite a while. However, because Apple has stopped maintaining the software, it now is instead maintained by an online community of volunteers. This community calls it "Project Wonder".

WebObjects was created by NeXT Software, Inc., first publicly demonstrated at the Object World conference in 1995 and released to the public in March 1996. The time and cost benefits of rapid, object oriented development attracted major corporations to WebObjects in the early days of e commerce, with clients including BBC News, Dell Computer, Disney, DreamWorks SKG, Fannie Mae, GE Capital, Merrill Lynch, and Motorola.

In 2009, Apple stopped issuing new releases of WebObjects outside Apple. The community decided to continue development with Project Wonder, an open source framework which is built on top of the core WebObjects frameworks and which extends them. For example, Project Wonder has updated development tools and provides a REST framework that was not part of the original WebObjects package. Though once included in the default installation of Mac OS X Server, WebObjects was no longer installed by default starting with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server and shortly after, Apple ceased promoting or selling WebObjects. As of 2016, WebObjects is actively supported by its developer community, the "WOCommunity Association", by extending the core frameworks and providing fixes with Project Wonder. The organization last held a Worldwide WebObjects Developer Conference, WOWODC, in 2013. In May 2016, Apple confirmed that WebObjects had been discontinued.

As of 2016 most WebObjects architects and engineers are using the tools being developed by the WebObjects community. These tools run within the Eclipse IDE and are open source. The WebObjects plug ins for Eclipse are known as WOLips. Building WebObjects frameworks and applications for deployment is typically achieved using the WOProject set of tools for Apache Ant or Apache Maven. These tools are distributed with WOLips.

A WebObjects application is essentially a server side executable, created by combining prebuilt application framework objects with the developer's own custom code. WebObjects' frameworks can be broken down into three core parts:

The WebObjects Framework (WOF) is at the highest level of the system. It is responsible for the application's user interface and state management. It uses a template based approach to take that object graph and turn it into HTML, or other tag based information display standards, such as XML or SMIL. It provides an environment where you can use and create reusable components. Components are chunks of presentation (HTML) and functionality (Java code) often with a parameter list to enhance reusability. WebObjects Builder is used to create the HTML templates and creates the linking, for instance, a Java String object to interface objects like an input field in a web form. The Enterprise Objects Framework (EOF) is, perhaps, the hallmark feature of WebObjects. EOF communicates with relational databases and turns database rows into an object graph. Using EOModeler the developer can create an abstraction of the database in the forms of Java objects. In order to access or insert information into the database the developer simply accesses the Java Enterprise Objects (EOs) from their business logic. After that EOF manages the Enterprise Objects and automatically creates the required SQL code to commit the changes to the database. Java Foundation. Both Enterprise Objects and WebObjects rest on the aptly named Java Foundation classes. This framework contains the fundamental data structure implementations and utilities used throughout the rest of WebObjects. Examples include basic value and collection classes, such as arrays, dictionaries (objects that contain key value pairs) and formatting classes. Java Foundation is similar to the Foundation framework contained in Apple's Cocoa API for macOS desktop applications, however Java Foundation is written in Pure Java as opposed to Cocoa's Objective C (with its Java bridge runtime wrapper). Foundation classes are prefixed with the letters "NS" (a reference to their NeXTSTEP OS heritage). Since the transition of WebObjects to Java in 2000, the functionality of many of Apple's Java Foundation classes is replicated in Sun's own JDK. However, they persist largely for reasons of backwards compatibility and developers are free to use whichever frameworks they prefer.

Since 2007, the community has held an annual conference for WebObjects developers, WOWODC. In 2007 and 2008, the conference was held the weekend before WWDC, and in 2009, the community promoted two conferences: WOWODC West in San Francisco on June 6 and 7, immediately before WWDC, and WOWODC East in Montreal on August 29 and 30. WOWODC 2010 was held in Montreal on August 27, 28 and 29, 2010. WOWODC 2011 was held in Montreal on July 1, 2 and 3 in 2011. WOWODC 2012 was held in Montreal on June 30, July 1 and 2, 2012. WOWODC 2013 was held in Montreal. WOWODC 2014 was held in Montreal (April 12, 13 and 14). WOWODC 2015 was held in Hamburg on April 25, 26 and 27. WOWODC 2016 was held in Montréal on June 24, 25 and 26