Third-party libraries are used to minimize development efforts. As open source project under GPL license no proprietary code must be included in the ea-Geier system. Each module or library integrated in the system must be open source.
Why didn’t we use an existing third-party framework, which incorporates all those functions and even the functionality of the base system of the ea-Geier? We looked very hard, but did not find any which satisfied completely. There were some which we really liked, but were only available for php5. On the other hand we did not want to be completely dependent on a third-party framework. All third-party libraries used are wrapped by ea-Geier specific classes. If for any reason we have to move to another library, only the wrapper class has to be adjusted.
- ADOdb is a database wrapper which allows to handle different database engines.
- FakeMail a fake mail server which allows to send mails without actually sending them.
- Prototype is a JavaScript framework which provides AJAX support as well as standardized JavaScript functions.
- Selenium-Core is a test tool for web applications.
- SimpleTest is a test tool for unit tests.
- Smarty is a template engine which allows the separation of code and representation.
- Swift a mail wrapper.