[Webmacro-devel] The webapp: I need help with WM config hassles

[Marc P. <ma...@an...>]

Hi all,

I'm trying to create instances of WM at runtime based on the "modules" a 
user has configured in this webapp I'm writing. Basically each "module" has 
its own properties file with settings for the webapp, but also they can 
supply WebMacro properties that would normally be in WebMacro.properties.

The problem is that I need to load templates from the webapp context, but 
if I use the WM(Servlet) constructor I cannot force it to use a specific 
.properties file for the settings.

If I don't use the WM(Servlet) constructor, things won't work obviously. 
I'm using the delegating template provider and need to use webapp:/WEB- 
INF/templates (for example) as a path.

I think I would need to introduce a new ctor for WM - WM(Servlet, String 
configFile). What do you think?

Following on from this, I actually want my webapp to predetermine some of 
the settings, without them existing in a file. For example I want to set 
the template provider to the delegating template provider, and set the 
default template path to webapp:/WEB-INF/templates and webapp:/templates 
and webapp:/ - and still allow the module writer to override this with new 
settings in their module properties file.

To do this programmatically I would plan to create a Properties object and 
set my template path properties on it. Then I would create another 
Properties and set the first Properties I created as its "ancestor" in the 
constructor - and then load the module's specific properties into it.

THEN I would pass that Properties to the constructor of WM... which I 
can't. Is there any reason anyone can see why I can't just add a ctor to WM 
that takes a Properties object instead of the filename? Of coure I'd have 
to add WM(Servlet, Properties) too.

Thoughts?

Marc