[FormProc-developer] Configuration

[Kerry T. <ke...@to...>]

I'd like to step into this conversation and offer a suggestion.  Have a
look at the Apache-Jakarta Avalon framework source and see how it
handles configuration.  It has the same functionality that FormProc has
now, but instead of passing a JDOM or DOM Element, it passes a
Configuration object that resulted from some DOM or JDOM code (I didn't
look close enough to know how it implements the configuration file
parsing--but I shouldn't have to of course.  As a framework user, all I
need to be concerned with is the Configuration class API in the
Javadocs).

The Avalon page is:
http://jakarta.apache.org/avalon/

The Configuration classes are in
org.apache.avalon.framework.configuration:
Avalon-4.0/src/java/org/apache/avalon/framework/configuration

-Kerry

> > The reason I like passing an Element in is because 1.) it allows the
> > class to configure itself and 2.) the configuration information can
> > take advantage of the nice structures which XML provides.
> 
> I don't understand how you get something more than what Collections
provide
> in XML, especially since XML is still a moving target in a lot of
areas. A
> rule can still configure itself if you hardcore model the contract
with
> either a Collection (easiest) or with a FormProc-specific class.
Collections
> don't take away Rule's self configuration. Maybe it just seems that
way
> because you're using DOM, which I still think you should revisit.

-- 
Kerry Todyruik <ke...@to...>