Apple WebObjects 3.5 - Manual (Page 20)

Chapter 1 What Is a WebObjects Application?
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The following sections describe the WebObjects application ingredients in
more detail.
Components
To write a WebObjects application, you create components and then connect
them. A component is a web page, or a portion of one, that has both content and
behavior. Usually a component represents an entire page, so the word “page” is
used interchangeably with the word “component.” However, remember, that
not all components represent an entire page. For example, a component might
represent only a header or footer of a page, and you can nest that component
inside of a component that does represent the entire page.
Each component is located in its own directory, named Component .wo , and
generally contains these parts:
• A template that specifies how the component looks
• Code that specifies how the component acts
• Bindings that associate the component’s template with its code
Figure 1 shows the contents of the Main.wo component from the HelloWorld
example. ( Main.wo is almost always the name of the first page of a WebObjects
application.) In this example, the Main.wo component contains three files: a
template in the form of an HTML file ( Main.html ), the code file ( Main.wos ), and the
declarations file ( Main.wod ), which contains the bindings between the template
and the code.
Figure 1. The Contents of a WebScript Component Directory
Typically, components contain some form of the three files shown in Figure 1;
however, any given component might contain more or fewer files. For example,
components whose code is written in a compiled language do not contain code
Main.html
Main.wo
Main.wod Main.wos