Facts about Webobjects

I heard that Apple deprecated WebObjects, is this true? Simple answer: NO!. Long answer: only the development tools are deprecated. The WebObjects runtime itself is far from being deprecated. In fact, Apple is working hard on upgrading the WebObjects frameworks so that they become the best tools for the Web 2.0 world. We just saw the start of this invigorated focus with the release of WebObjects 5.4 with Leopard. It looks like it will be an exciting year, so we hope to see you at WWDC 2008 :-)

As an aside, some may wonder why Apple chose to deprecate the WebObjects tool set? The primary reason is because the old tools were based on the ObjectiveC version of EOF which in turn was based on the Cocoa-Java bridge which was eliminated in Leopard.

I installed Xcode 3 and can't find any WebObjects tools or templates, what am I suppose to do now? Starting with the release of Xcode 2.4 on Tiger, Apple announced that they were deprecating the WebObjects tools (EOModeler, WebObjects Builder and RuleEditor). As of Xcode 3, the WebObjects tools and project templates are no longer included with the Developer Tools installation (you still need to install the Developer Tools to get the WO frameworks and examples). You can build existing WebObjects projects with Xcode 3, but it is no longer possible to create new ones. So if you want to have a complete IDE (and a much better WebObjects developer experience) we recommend you move to WOLips.

OK, I guess I have to move to WOLips, what is that all about? WOLips is a community developed, open-source project that provides replacements for all of the deprecated WebObjects tools. WOLips is based on Eclipse, an open-source, cross platform, and extensible Java IDE that many feel offers a much better Java development experience than Xcode ever did. There are plenty of additional plugins for Eclipse that can be used to improve your code and make you more productive. Also, because Eclipse is cross-platform, WebObjects developers on Windows are no longer saddled with obsolete and second class development tools.

Apple will not open-source WebObjects. Apple don't have any plans to release the WebObjects frameworks as open-source. Don't forget that even if the WebObjects frameworks are not open-source, you can extend it with open-source frameworks like Project Wonder, and the development tools (WOLips) are open-source.

Can you explain the license? The WebObjects license allow you to :

We do understand that many organizations can't deploy on Mac OS X Server, but for development, do yourself a flavor and use Apple computers. Really you should... And since you can run Windows, Linux and Solaris in virtual machines on any Macs released since mid-2006, you have no reason of not using Mac OS X as your WebObjects development platform.

My organization needs official support. If you develop and deploy on Mac OS X, you can buy support contracts from Apple. This is a big plus if your organization need official support.

WebObjects don't have a public roadmap. Apple never release public roadmaps, but you can buy a developer package (ADC Select or ADC Premier), those packages will give you access to betas of Mac OS X, including new versions of WebObjects. You should also attend Apple's WWDC if you want to be part of WebObjects future.

I want to contact the WebObjects team at Apple. Use the webobjects@apple.com email address for any general inquiries and feedback. If you want to log a bug report, use Radar.