WebObjects is maybe Apple’s best kept secret. As we all know, Apple is very good at keeping secrets before a product is released. It is unusual that Apple does not publicize a released product well, but such seems to be the case with WebObjects.
WebObjects is a cross-platform Web server development and deployment technology. It is free both for development and deployment.
Perhaps the best thing about WebObjects is the Enterprise Objects Framework (EOF). An Enterprise Object (EO) is a business object equivalent to a Java Bean. In EOF you can build a complete model, either for a new database or for an existing legacy database. EOF handles all the object-relational mapping – you don’t have to write any SQL. EOF interfaces to most popular relational database managers.
WebObjects was invented by Bruce Ong and a few others at NeXT in 1994. It built on the strength of EOF.
Did you know – without WebObjects Dell wouldn’t exist? That’s right Dell’s online store was originally built in WebObjects and this was what made Dell successful (at least for a while).
iTunes, the Apple Store, and .mac are also built with WebObjects. WebObjects is a complete solution for building dynamic Web pages. WebObjects does most things you will find in the J2EE world (struts, Hibernate, Spring, etc, etc) only it does it all under one umbrella in an integrated fashion. Being Java based, you can also create three-tier client-server desktop applications.
Here is a recommendation from a Norman Richards, a J2EE Expert.
A Tutorial for getting started with Eclipse
Lately, Ruby and Ruby on Rails has been getting a lot of accolades. While these may make it easy to produce small applications, it seems they have limitations when compared to WebObjects and EOF.
Some people think that Apple is dropping WebObjects because in 2006, it announced that it was deprecating the development tools. WWDC 2007 showed a renewed commitment to WebObjects from Apple to provide the best Web server deployment platform, with a commitment to Eclipse-based development tools developed by the WebObjects community at large. Much of the efforts of both Apple and the community is to provide the best Web 2.0 experience available, and much has been done to incorporate AJAX. And yes it is all still free.
