CONCEPT

The Cocoon "Blue Book" is the working title for the Cocoon documentation project, run and maintained by the 'documentation task team'. Its aim is to ensure a comprehensive and up-to-date set of documents that will describe all aspects of Cocoon.

The "Blue Book" will be kept on-line (Daisy?), and be downloadable by whole, by part or by chapter. In development, the "Blue Book" will not 'reinvent the wheel', but will draw on existing offical docs, wiki pages, and past mailing list Q&A as its basis.

There are some aspects, related to the Cocoon Project, that are not addressed in the documentation, but are rather available on-line. These include:

  • Whats New
  • Future Plans (To Do List)
  • Live Sites (examples of Cocoon on/in oublic websites)
  • Cocoon Hosting
  • Latest FAQ (key FAQ will be taken up into an appropriate section of the Blue Book)

Part I: General

Part I is meant to be the most 'readable' of all the sections; with well-written text, aimed especially at the newer user and those coming to Cocoon from other 'systems' (PHP, JSP, Struts, .NET?). Emphasis will be on the scope of Cocoon's built-in, or readily available, functionality. This section will always be kept in-sync with the latest, downloadable version.

Why Cocoon: The Business Case

Quick Install: Get Going

Whirlwhind Tour: Major Concept and Features

Learning Curve: Newbie Guide

Best Practices

  • Design
  • Build
  • Debug
  • Deploy
  • Tools

Extending Cocoon

  • Configuration Options
  • Custom Components
  • Custom Blocks

Welcome to the Family: Related Applications

  • Lucene
  • FINS
  • Geoid
  • Lenya

Outside the Sandbox

How can Cocoon can interact with other tools and applications.

Beyond the Blue Book

  • Mailing List
  • Wiki
  • FAQ
  • Bugs
  • API (JavaDocs)

Part II: Use Cases

'Uses Cases' are part examples, part tutorials; aimed at demonstrating the application of Cocoon to meet real-world needs, and integrating aspects of the samples into more cohesive and complete 'demos' (that can also be used by prospective adopters to support their business case...).

  • Documentation Server
  • "General Purpose" Interactive Website
  • Database Front-end
  • Pet Store
  • Photo Album
  • Web Portal
  • Web Services Framework
  • Discussion Forums

Part III: Technical Reference

(The bulk of this part of the Blue Book is made up from existing on-line documentation; aspects of which will also be absorbed in Part I - see also section 1.4 of DocsReorgProposal)

Part IV: Appendices

Detailed Installation Guide

  • System Requirements
  • Obtaining Cocoon
  • Building: Ant and Blocks
  • Common Problems
    • Headless Unix
    • FEE (frequently encountered errors)

Notes for Cocoon Samples

Jargon

A Brief History of Cocoon

Cocoon Releases

  • Release x.x
    • Major Features
    • Key Changes
    • Areas Deprecated
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