Melati

Melati is a tool for producing documents from databases. This is particularly good for building websites backed by a database. It is written in Java and provides the following features:

• a generic database administration system, allowing the site manager to edit both the contents and the structure of the database through a simple web interface.
• a templating engine, using "templets" (sub-templates) provides an easy mechanism for rendering persistent objects as interface elements (eg HTML input boxes, dropdowns).
• a cookie-based or a HTTP-based access control mechanism.
• full integration with POEM (Persistent Object Engine for Melati).
  POEM provides:
  • industrial-strength open source object database technology.
  • an API which enables the database to be seen as a collection of Java objects, via a (genuinely!) easy-to-use transparent persistence layer on top of JDBC.
  • a low level security model allowing restrictions to be placed on tables, rows and fields.
  • a three way unification of jdbc, sql and java metadata.

Melati's design builds on our experience with previous systems we have deployed successfully on a number of commercial sites: we feel that it enables a particularly elegant and productive way of working.