There's an old saying that the best way to learn something is to teach it.

I've been evaluating the Tapestry Web Component Framework for a new project, and I really needed to learn how to use Tapestry's multi-page sortable table.

What better way then to create an example application to share with others what I have learned?

If you've got an itch to learn a bit about how to use Tapestry's Table component, please download TapestryTables.war and try it out. I have tested this application with Tomcat 5.0, but I think it should work with any standard servlet container.

I've been exposed to Tapestry before, and I am quite fond of it, but I had never used the Table component. This particular component is very powerful and very flexible... good attributes when you need to use the component, but sometimes a source of confusion when you're first learning how to use it.

Tapestry is well documented, and examples for using the Table component are included in the distribution, but at first I couldn't quite figure out how to do what I wanted.

Happily, after a bit of judicious lurking on the Tapestry Users List I was able to figure out how to do what I needed to do.

There are some really helpful people out on this list, and I'd like to single out Jamie Orchard-Hays in particular. His patient responses in a series of exchanges with Lindsay Steele really set me on the right track.

I am delighted with the movement towards Web Component Frameworks for developing browser-based applications. With Tapestry, Echo, and now JSF it won't be long before the days of tedious JSP tags, JavaScript libraries and custom handlers pass into the mists of memories.

A critical element necessary for these open source frameworks to really take off is the wide availability of examples for the various components. A lot of really talented folks have developed some great components, but they sometimes need help in documenting and demonstrating their creations.

If you do have a chance to check out my examples, please let me know how I can improve them, and by all means feel free to pass them on and expand them. Hopefully, TapestryTables.war is just the first installment in a series.

Update: Oct. 6th, 2004 - I've updated TapestryTables.war to incorporate suggestions and add some examples of Editable tables.Update: My Tapestry examples are now hosted by a java.net project: Tapestry Web Component Examples.