Hi and showcase

Hi there,

I just wanted to let you know that a couple of days ago we substituted
our static, plain-HTML web site with a "Sitemeshed version" and the
transition has been smooth as silk and the users are happy as can be
with the new unified design.

The site is still based in plain HTML, as this is a static site, but
we have done is just let them create plain HTML simple documents
without menus, headers, etc and we then use Sitemesh to decorate the
pages with the apropriate menu based on where the page is located and
some preferences.

We have a web application that allows users to specify the directory
structure and then they simply replicate the directory tree with
Dreamweaver and create the simple documents. From the database we
create .jsp documents "on the fly" that generate the menus, the
breadcrumbs (html in this case) etc.

We also use Sitemesh to integrate some dynamic applications hosted at
different machines, thanks to a Proxying servlet we developed so we
make Sitemesh think that the remote application is part of the "file
system" to be decorated.

As we were transitioning from a static site to a dynamic one, we were
quite careful with performance and created an architecture that
pre-renders in static html or .jsp's the "dynamic"
menus/breadcrumb/news items lists... and all the content that comes
from the database. That allowed us to have a "dynamic site" with
almost no degradation in performance.

Just for reference, we are using Resin as servlet container and I
think the only modification we did to Sitemesh was a small filter to
get Resin to re-apply the decorator when a .jsp file had changed,
otherwise the content was cached and the modification was not being
picked up.

Just for information and in case it gives someone ideas about what can
be done with Sitemesh.

Right now they want to migrate to a full CMS, but this allowed us to
have a nice migration path instead of a radical change. And we still
have to see if the "full CMS" works as nicely as Sitemesh for us ;).

Cheers!
D.

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