TechnischeUniversitätHamburg-Harburg.ArbeitsbereichSoftwaresystemeTechnischeUniversitätMünchen.ArbeitsbereichSoftwareEngineeringbetrieblicherInformationssystemeO2GermanyGmbH&Co.OHGMasterThesisAComparisonofWebVisualizationFrameworksforeBusinessApplicationsUsingtheExampleofanOnlineShopSupervisors:Prof.Dr.JoahimW.SchmidtProf.Dr.FlorianMatthesResearchAssistants:RainerMüllerThomasBüchnerO2GermanyGmbH&Co.OHGSupervisor:Dipl.-Eng.DraskoKokicsubmittedby:MariaGinsburgMat.-Nr.:20519Hamburg,02.12.20032ABSTRACTDevelopingamaintainableandextensiblewebapplicationrequiresasignificantamountofdesignandplanningbeforebeginningtheimplementationitself.Nevertheless,byleveragingdevelopmentframeworks,onecanovercomemanychallengesofwebapplicationdevelopment.Thisresearchisdedicatedtotheinvestigationofthereasonsofframeworkappearance,thecurrentsituationinthisareaandthefurthertrendsoftheirdevelopment.Moreover,thecurrentsituationseesalotofunstructuredandmostlymarketinginformationabouttheavailablesolutions,thereforeitistheaimofthepapertoanalyseandclassifythevastamountofframeworkinordertoseewhichopportunitiescurrentlyareavailableforadeveloper.Theimportantissueoftheresearchistoanswerthequestionhowonecanchooseanappropriateframeworkforaparticularapplication.Duringtheinvestigation,sixframeworksofdifferenttypeswereanalysedandtestedwiththesameusecase.Thetestusecase,theO2GermanyOnlineShopprototype,waschosenasoneallowingidentifyingthecriticalissuesindevelopmentanapplicationwithaframework.Theprototypingimplementationhelpstoaccentuatethenumberofcriteriawhichareimportanttosupportaframeworkchoosingprocess.Thesecriteriaareusedtocomparethesixframeworksandcreateaschemefortheframeworkselectionforacertainproject.3TABLEOFCONTENT1.MotivationandSettingtheProblem.......................................................................................51.1.E-BusinessGrowingImportance:NewchallengesforIT..............................................51.2.WebApplicationFrameworks:MeetingtheChallenges................................................71.3.ProblemofChoosingaFramework................................................................................82.WebApplicationFrameworks–anOverview.....................................................................102.1.DynamicTechnologyfortheWeb................................................................................102.2.DesignPatternsandFrameworks..................................................................................122.3.WebApplicationFrameworks......................................................................................182.3.1.MVCOrientedApproach.......................................................................................182.3.2.XMLPublishingApproach.....................................................................................252.3.3.TemplateEngineApproach....................................................................................292.3.4.EventModelApproach...........................................................................................302.3.5.ComponentApproach.............................................................................................332.4.AdvantagesandDrawbacksofOpenSource................................................................363.PrototypeofOnlineShopApplication.................................................................................383.1.OnlineShopUse-Cases.................................................................................................383.1.1.Displayoftheproducts..........................................................................................383.1.2.HomezoneCheck...................................................................................................383.1.3.ShoppingCart........................................................................................................393.1.4.OrderingProcess...................................................................................................403.3.OnlineShopObjectModel............................................................................................413.4.JustificationoftheChoiceoftheOnlineShopasaSampleApplication.....................424.ImplementationofOnlineShopUse-CaseswiththeChosenFrameworks.........................434.1.OnlineShopPrototypeImplementationUsingApacheCocoon...................................434.1.1.PrototypeArchitecture...........................................................................................434.1.2.Shopmodule...........................................................................................................454.1.3.OrderingProcessModule......................................................................................494.1.4.HomezoneCheckModule.......................................................................................544.1.5.ErrorHandling.......................................................................................................544.2.OnlineShopprototypeimplement