Where does Dandelion come from?

Dandelion is an after-dinner project which comes first from Datatables-taglib, a first attempt to write a JSP taglib allowing to generate HTML tables improved by DataTables.

Then the project evolved to become DataTables4j, a second attempt to write a more featured library, but this time almost capable of competing with Displaytag, the reference for displaying HTML tables in Java-based web applications.

The project has continued to evolve but with the a recurring observation: the web asset management (js, css, ...) can often become a hell of a job in web apps. That's why we took those 3 decisions:

• try to create something capable of simplifying the web asset management - what a programme! :-)
• enlarge the area, from HTML tables to other components or even to wider issues still related to the web environment, like web analytics
• find a new name for the project, something's more generic, allowing us to start developing a real framework. After lengthy and not always constructive discussions, we found it: Dandelion :-)

How can I contribute to Dandelion?

In many ways actually:

• feel free to get in touch with the team to propose your idea(s), e.g. using the forum
• you can make pull requests but before:
  • please contact the team before, in order to guide you through the process
  • please read and accept the terms of contributing
• you can write articles, tutorials, blog posts, reviews or anything else about Dandelion
• you can promote Dandelion in your company or among your (nerdy) friends/colleagues
• you can follow us on Twitter
• French people are known for their catastrophic skills in foreign languages so you can also help us fixing typos in the whole documentation :-)

How can I keep updated about Dandelion and its components?

You have several options:

• you can follow us on Twitter
• you can suscribe to the General news and announcements section of our forum

Is it stable? Can it be considered production-ready?

Not yet. You may consider Dandelion (and any of its component) as production-ready as soon as a v1.0.0 is released.

How to use a SNAPSHOT version of a Dandelion module?

Whichever module is being developed, a snapshot release is always built as soon as a commit is pushed in its GitHub repository. You can of course use it, for testing purposes. It will allow you to try new features or specific bug fixes.

In order to use snapshot releases, you need to add the Sonatype OSS Snapshots repository in your Maven pom.xml file, as follows:

<repositories>
   <repository>
      <id>sonatype-nexus-snapshots</id>
      <name>Sonatype Nexus Snapshots</name>
      <url>https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots</url>
      <snapshots>
         <enabled>true</enabled>
      </snapshots>
   </repository>
</repositories>

Also, you will have to update the dependencies. If the version under development is the 0.9.0, you will have to modify the versions like this:

<dependencies>
   ...
   <dependency>
      <groupId>com.github.dandelion</groupId>
      <artifactId>datatables-jsp</artifactId>
      <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
   </dependency>         
   <dependency>
      <groupId>com.github.dandelion</groupId>
      <artifactId>datatables-servlet2</artifactId>
      <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
   </dependency>
   ...
</dependencies>

Can I use the exact same configuration with DOM and AJAX sources?

No you can't. With DOM sources (i.e. when you set some collection in the page scope), the creation of the table HTML tag and all its content is entirely managed by Dandelion-Datatables.

Whereas when using AJAX sources, Dandelion-Datatables is limited to the thead section of the table. The creation of the tbody section of the table is delegated to DataTables.

All the tag references display a "Data source compatibility" column, helping you to choose the right attribute, depending on the data source you use.