Re: [Webmacro-devel] The webapp: I need help with WM config hassl es

[Brian G. <br...@qu...>]

> I think it would be great to add this Constructor, but it's a bit more
> complicated.  The args to the WM constructor are used to determine the
> Broker instance.  Currently the key used to retreive the Broker for a
> Servlet is just the ServletContext.  Since the broker manages the settings,
> you would want a separate broker instance for each ServletContext/Settings
> combination AFAICT.
> 
> The best approach may be to implement a new Broker class that the new WM
> constructor would use.  Then the new Broker could handle the various kinds
> of settings that you want to throw at it transparently.
> 
> btw, this seems like a lot of extra complexity in order to accommodate this
> particular functionality.  I'm guessing that the idea here is that this
> would require less system resources than lots of separate Web apps.  Perhaps
> this should be a post 1.0 enhancement?  Just a thought.  (I like to follow
> the XP model of building the simplest solution first and then refactoring.)

It makes sense, but could be messy.  

Eric and I (motivated by suggestions from Marc) have discussed what we
think is the sensible refactoring here -- create an entity called
WMInstance.  This is the missing concept, and what complicates the
various construction woes.

A big part of the problem is that the WM object is a thin facade onto
the broker.  Better would be to have factory methods for locating WM
instances -- getWM(config-file), getWM(Servlet), etc.  They would
either find the right instance or create a new one.  Then, if you
wanted to manage instances yourself, you could do so.  An instance
would "own" a broker, its settings, etc.  

The other part of the problem is just that the names for the major
classes, like Broker, are inappropriately chosen, which is confusing.