I like the idea but I wonder how practical it will be and if users could
get themselves in trouble.
For example, what would happen if a set of applications was deployed
using tomcat & cxf and then the user attempted to switch to jetty &
axis? Granted, with the plugin approach they could create similar
problems but since it's a little more difficult to install/uninstall a
plugin which might provide some more safeguards.
I guess we could always keep track of the previous state and warn the
user if they are attempting to change the configuration on a subsequent
restart when applications are deployed that have been configured for the
prior configuration.
Joe
Jason Dillon wrote:
How big would one assembly be if we include *everything* like jetty,
tomcat, axis2, cxf, everything. Not turned on though... then just
provide people with a way to switch between personalities from the
command line, and make one of them as default, so that if the server
starts to boot up with no personality (hehe), then it will apply the
default to itself when bootstrapping?
Its probably gonna make the assembly zip a wee bit larger, but we'd only
have one of em... so build time would be much faster, and if people want
to try out different bits they don't have to redownload all that other
stuff... but also, everything we need to make a javaee server is already
in the assembly zip, so don't have to worry about networking muck to get
the right personality up and running.
Thoughts?
--jason
On Feb 9, 2007, at 12:32 PM, Paul McMahan wrote:
On 2/8/07, Jason Dillon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I'm definitely *NOT* in-favor of 8 assemblies.
Ditto. Even if there was time and manpower to test every possible
assembly then I still don't think the end user would be prepared to
make an informed choice about which one to download.
On Feb 8, 2007, at 6:37 AM, Matt Hogstrom wrote:
> If there is a plugin option then I think the TCK discussion becomes
> simpler. Anyway, for those more skilled in that art than I what
> are the community thoughts on how to address our expanding set of
> pluggable components?
I think that presenting the user with lots of choices is a good thing
if geronimo can :
1.) provide a TCK tested default assembly
2.) help users make informed decisions about changing the defaults
3.) make it easy to enact their decisions
4.) allow them to change their minds later
With that in mind, I think the ideal scenario (from a user's
perspective) would be to provide one fully tested JEE5 assembly from
the download page and then make it easy to swap out components after
installation using plugins. Components that have passed the TCK in
any assembly can be marked as such in the plugin catalog, along with
any other useful information about that component such as which JEE
spec it implements, etc. Components that are mutually exclusive like
cxf and axis2, jetty and tomcat, etc can provide metadata that will
prompt the plugin system to uninstall the component that is being
replaced.
There are lots of details and what-ifs that would need to be worked
out before this approach can be fully realized. But if there's
consensus around it then the next release could at least take a step
in the right direction. AFAIK most if not all of the necessary
functionality and infrastructure are already in place.
Best wishes,
Paul
