Outline for a getting started document

[Eric Dobbs <er...@dobbse.net>]

Hi All (and especially Cameron Riley).

Here are some thoughts I have about getting started with
Turbine.  These are my impressions after four or five months
of working with Turbine.  I'd appreciate it if those on the
list with more Turbine experience would offer a reality
check on this...  It's rough, but a start.  I've tried to
use the xdocs conventions.  It seems pretty easy to write
stuff this way.

-Eric

<section name="The really big picture:">
<p>
As you are developing your new Turbine application, you will
be working mainly in three our four areas:
</p>
<dl>
   <dd>
   1. design and create your object model
   </dd>
   <dd>
   2. create ApplicationTools (tools used in conjunction with
      the pull service)
   </dd>
   <dd>
   3. create templates that use the ApplicationTools
   </dd>
   <dd>
   (1.5 in some cases you may be creating services that sit
        roughly between the object model and the
        ApplicationTools.
   </dd>
</dl>

<p>
Item 1 is the Model in the Model-View-Controller design
pattern.  In Turbine, this is a combination of the
project-schema.xml file you will create to define your
object model, and the various files Torque will create from
your project-schema.xml.
</p>

<p>
Item 2, roughly speaking, is a bridge between your object
model and the templates.  If you are in a large shop, this
is where the programmers will create an API for the web
designers.  If you are in a small shop, you still want to
use the Pull model because it will make it much easier to
modify your web application down the road.
</p>

<p>
Item 3 is the View.  This is where you build the user
interface for your web application.  In Turbine these are
typically Velocity templates.
</p>

<p>
The Turbine servlet is the Controller.  Item 1.5 is how
you extend the functionality of the controller in very
flexible ways.
</p>

<p>
You can use JSP instead of Velocity, in which case item 2
will consist of JSP tag libraries, and item 3 will be JSP
templates that use those tag libraries.
</p>
</section>

<section name="Getting to know the TDK:">
<p>
Download the latest TDK and install it.
</p>

<p>
Login with username 'turbine' and password 'turbine'
</p>

<p>
Insert a couple entries into the sample application, edit
them, delete them.  Play with Flux by adding a couple users,
groups, roles, and permissions.  These two examples are
fairly basic web applications, but they contain all the
ingredients of more complex applications.
</p>

<p>
Item 1:  look at WEB-INF/build/project/*-schema.xml and at
WEB-INF/src/java/org/mycompany/newapp/om/*Peer.java and at
WEB-INF/src/sql/*
These are the Model part of the picture.
</p>

<p>
Item 2:  look at ...<br/>
TODO: need a pull version of the sample application so we
can have an ApplicationTool to look at.
</p>

<p>
Item 3:  look at ./templates/screens/*.vm to see examples
of Velocity templates.
</p>

<p>
Item 1.5:  look at the javadoc for TurbineSecurity as an
example of the service
</p>
</section>

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