Classifying Web Frameworks

http://www.livejournal.com/users/bchoi/96865.html There are applications with a web interface, and there are web sites that work like applications. http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/mt-tb.cgi/495 http://javangelist.snipsnap.org/space/2004-03-18#WebFrameworks:_Three_types_of_web_applications There are three types of web applications. * Data driven * Document driven * Wizard driven For every type of application there is a WebFramework type and a model which suits the application type best. * Data driven: Event driven MVC frameworks with components and listeners, like Tapestry * Document driven: Classic frameworks with actions, like Struts * Wizard driven: Continuation based frameworks Href Harmful: Actually, I would say that there are three orthogonal issues here: managing input (events, callbacks, whatever) managing state (back button, sessions, etc) managing flow (continuations vs. state machines) http://jroller.com/comments/quadzilla/Weblog/are_stateless_web_apps_practical I think that one of the cornerstones of correctly handling state in a web application is to be aware of all state transitions everywhere in the application and thus handle the data flow as well as the logic flow. This is the essence of the site structure definition in RIFE, you define datalinks that clearly define where data comes from and goes to. You're not able to access any request data unless it has been setup like this.