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WebObjects with Scala

Version 263.1 by Ravi Mendis on 2009/09/15 20:23
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What is Scala?

Scala is a modern language not unlike Groovy.
It is said to be more powerful (and faster) than Groovy or Rails which has been the reason for its adoption at sites like Twitter.

                             Objective-C                                 Java     Scala            
 Mutable/Immuable Datatypes Collections (e.g: NSArray/NSMutableArray)    No        All datatypes   
 Closures                        (extensions)                            No        Built-in        
 Concurrency                    Grand Central Dispatch (extensions)     Threads  Actors            

Why Use Scala?

With Web 2.0, building concurrent WebObjects applications is a must.
Developing and maintaining a concurrent or multi-threaded WebObjects application can be challenging.

Scala offers concurrency built into the language.
So it may offer new solutions to allowing concurrency in WebObjects.

Can WebObjects be Programmed With Scala?

Yes. It is very simple.
Scala compiles to java bytecode. Hence using it with WebObjects is fairly straightforward.

How to Develop WebObjects With Scala

  1. Install the Scala eclipse IDE
  2. Add Scala support to your project
    1. Right-click your project in the WO Explorer
    2. In the context menu select Scala -> Add Scala Nature
  3. Convert or use .scala instead of .java source
Warning

Note

This is for Eclipse/WOLips developers

WO Scala Example

The following is a mixed Java/Scala version of the WO Movies D2W app.
All the EO logic and WO components are in Scala.
Only the Application class is Java.

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Setup

  1. Install and run the OpenBase OBMovies database.
  2. Right-click on Application.java and run as a WOApplication (as usual).

EO Templates

See: Scala templates