14. The Tea Framework | Java Servlet Programming (Java Series)

Java Servlet Programming, 2nd Edition > 14. The Tea Framework

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Chapter 14. The Tea Framework

Now we're ready to discuss servlet-based content creation frameworks. We'll postpone our discussion of JSP because it's the most complicated content creation alternative and start instead with a look at Tea. TeaServlet (colloquially known as Tea) is a product from the Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) formerly GO.com developed internally over the years to aid in the creation of high-traffic web sites such as ESPN.com, NFL.com, Disney.com, DisneyLand.com, Movies.com, ABC.com, and GO.com. It was recently released as open source in the hopes that others would find Tea useful and continue to enhance the tool. The strategy makes business sense; you share your tools in the hope that others will help sharpen them. Here we discuss TeaServlet 1.1.0, available at http://opensource.go.com. It requires Servlet API 2.1 or 2.2 and JDK 1.2 or later. TeaServlet's license is Apache-style, one of the least-restrictive licenses and most appealing to developers because it means you can use Tea in creating new products and sites without releasing those products as open source. This is the license model used by all Apache projects, including the Apache web server and the Tomcat server.

Tea was designed for projects run by small teams of developers and technical producers. The developer's role is the creation of "applications" written in Java and installed into the TeaServlet. A producer creates and maintains the final appearance of dynamic web pages by writing Tea templates that call upon functions provided by the developer's applications. For example, on an ESPN web site, one developer creates an application for team statistics, one developer (working independently) creates an application for player statistics, and a technical producer posts the data to the web using Tea templates. In fact, several producers working independently can use the same backend data to create targeted sites for different audiences something WDIG has done for their sites including Disney.com, Movies.com, ESPN.com, and GO.com. The templates are written in the Tea language to enforce an excellent separation of content from presentation.

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