Hello,
I am investigating replacing the XML parsing of config and metadata files in
JBoss3 with Castor. I have used Castor XML and JDO before, but I am still a
beginner when it comes to doing anything non-trival with it.
I am hoping that someone might have some insight on the issues below, so I
can avoid wasting too much time in trial and error (and possible failure if
what I am trying to perform is not possible).
The problem is that in JBoss3 we have many different config and metadata
files which many different components need to have access to. Currently
there is custom XML parsing, which uses inconsistent logic to process
elements (such as handling CDATA and non-CDATA text elements, triming for
non-CDATA, property substitution and so on).
The solution is to use a framework to generate an object model from the XML
data, which will allow common processing of elements and will also simplify
higherlevel components, allowing them the concentrate on their task and not
XML.
Sounds reasonable, so here comes the snag, which I think that XML namespaces
might solve, but I am not sure how this relates to Castor (or really any
other object binding framework).
Consider the following service.xml snippet:
<server>
<mbean code="my.package.MyService" name="my:type=MyService">
<attribute name="SomeAttribute">Some Textual Data</attribute>
<attribute name="SomeConfig">
<myconfig>
<myelement/>
</myconfig>
</attribute>
</mbean>
</server>
<server>, <mbean> and <attribute> are all part of the service schema, or
really they could be part of a schema or dtd. <myconfig> and <myelement> are
specific to MyService. This is a mechanism that allows the service.xml file
to contain a snippet of service specific configuration, rather than using a
textual data attibute with a url to a file.
Currently we parse "SomeAttribute" as String and "SomeConfig" will be passed
to the service as an Element, letting it make use of any rich xml config it
needs.
Given the above, it is my understanding that I can not make a dtd or schema
that could ever be used to validate this document or genrate an object model
from. If I am wrong please drop some knowledge ;)
Based on some reason of XML namespaces, I think that it is possible to fix
this at an XML level by using something like the following:
<server xmlns="http://jboss.org/service"/>
<mbean code="my.package.MyService" name="my:type=MyService">
<attribute name="SomeAttribute">Some Textual Data</attribute>
<attribute name="SomeConfig">
<my:myconfig xmlns:my="http://my.package"/>>
<my:myelement/>
</my:myconfig>
</attribute>
</mbean>
</server>
I think this should allow an XML parser to validate this document, or at
least the service schema bits, but honestly I am not sure.
But what will Castor do? Is it possible even use Castor to generate a model
from this? Ideally I would like to tell Castor to simply map any elements
found under a <attribute> tag, as an Element and then move on.
One possible solution, which I don't like too much at all, is to use a CDATA
element to escape the <myconfig> elements. Then I treat it like textual
data, and let the service handle parsing it.
Does anyone have any insight on how I might solve this problem (and the
related snag) with Castor?
Thanks,
--jason
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