Hi,
We went through this problem and were not satisfied with "classpath" solution, first because it a bit more tricky for a on site consultant to change a classpath in Websphere than a system property and because the property file override all the properties defined in this of the jar file.
We wanted something our consultants were already familiar with and the possibility to override existing properties, but only those we actually want to change.
Consultant were familiar with log4j so we decided to add some lines of code to Castor to consider a "castor.configuration" system property and if it exist use the defined url to override the defaults.
Here is the patch (it is not against the current code base but I'd be surprise it changed a lot since then):
Index: org/exolab/castor/util/Configuration.java
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/castor/castor/src/main/org/exolab/castor/util/Configuration.java,v
retrieving revision 1.3
diff -u -r1.3 Configuration.java
--- org/exolab/castor/util/Configuration.java 26 Sep 2003 05:36:07 -0000 1.3
+++ org/exolab/castor/util/Configuration.java 17 Dec 2003 14:57:56 -0000
@@ -97,6 +97,16 @@
public abstract class Configuration
{
+ /**
+ * String specifying the name of the system property defining
+ * an URL for the castor.properties file
+ * <pre>
+ * castor.configuration
+ * </pre>
+ */
+ public static final String castorPropertiesURL = "castor.configuration";
+
+
/**
* Names of properties used in the configuration file.
*/
Index: org/exolab/castor/util/LocalConfiguration.java
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/castor/castor/src/main/org/exolab/castor/util/LocalConfiguration.java,v
retrieving revision 1.6
diff -u -r1.6 LocalConfiguration.java
--- org/exolab/castor/util/LocalConfiguration.java 26 Sep 2003 05:36:07 -0000 1.6
+++ org/exolab/castor/util/LocalConfiguration.java 17 Dec 2003 14:57:51 -0000
@@ -699,6 +699,33 @@
//-- do nothing
}
}
+
+ // -------------------------------
+ // Get the overriding configuration from the system property
+ // ignore if not found. If found, merge any existing
+ // properties.
+ try {
+ // get the system property
+ String configurationStringURL =
+ System.getProperty(castorPropertiesURL);
+ // If we do have the url, we try to load it
+ if (configurationStringURL != null) {
+ URL confURL = new URL(configurationStringURL);
+ // open stream from URL
+ InputStream uis = confURL.openStream();
+ if (uis != null) {
+ _props = new Properties(_props);
+ // load new properties
+ _props.load(uis);
+ uis.close();
+ // we do not set up the found var
+ }
+ }
+ } catch (Exception except) {
+ //Ignore
+ }
Cheers,
Claude
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nick Stuart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: 17 June 2004 16:30
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [castor-dev] Easier way to configure castor...
>
>
> Ya, that's what I figured the case would be. And for the most
> part this
> isn't a big deal as you say, stick it in the lib folder for
> web-apps and
> you're good to go. Thanks for the reply!
>
> -Nick
>
> -------Original Message-----
> --From: Leo Joncas [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> --Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 9:14 AM
> --To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> --Subject: Re: [castor-dev] Easier way to configure castor...
> --
> --We use an external castor.properties file and never mess
> with the jar.
> --
> --The only catch is that the directory containing the
> --properties file needs to be known to the classloader.
> --
> --In the case of using Castor with our JBoss-based web app,
> --that just means putting the castor.properties file in the
> --same location as the castor.jar file for loading by JBoss,
> --i.e. in the directory JBOSS_HOME\server\yourservername\lib.
> --
> --For a stand-alone Java app, that just means that your
> --CLASSPATH should include both the castor.jar file path AND
> --the path of the directory containing the castor.properties
> file, i.e.
> --
> --
> CLASSPATH=%CLASSPATH%;yourcastorpath\castor-xml.jar;yourcastorpath
> --
> --
> --Leo Joncas
> --
> --
> -------Original Message-----
> --From: Nick Stuart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> --Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 8:37 AM
> --To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> --Subject: [castor-dev] Easier way to configure castor...
> --
> --
> --I was just wondering if there would be an easier way to setup
> --Castor so that people could configure it from outside the
> --jar. I find that it can be a little annoying (all though not
> --all that difficult) to open up the jar file, edit the
> --properties file, and then repackage it or update it.
> --
> --If there is a way to do this just yell at me. :) But my idea
> --was to possibly setup up an external properties file that
> --would get read in first. And any properties in it would
> --override what ever is in the internal one. (Kind of like how
> --Ant does it currently). Currently I'm not sure how castor
> --reads the property file and uses it, i.e.. Does it read it in
> --all at once, or only when it needs to find out a setting when
> --running. Guess I'll have to take a look at this, if it's the
> --first case I would imagine this change wouldn't be all that
> --difficult, if it's the second I'm not sure what would be involved.
> --
> ---Nick
> --
> --
> --
>
>
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