In my never ending quest to perfect Cocoon, I have a proposal
that will make some problems easier to solve. It is the
merging of ServerPagesGenerator and FileGenerator Components.
The reason is that the only real difference between them is
that the ServerPages Generator compiles an XML file with the
root "xsp:page".
By merging the two, we use automatic discovery of the type of
file we are dealing with, and act accordingly. I can't tell
you the number of times I have either had to declare all pages
in a URL space as ServerPages, or do some crazy Sitemap
workarounds for a page or two just because I needed XSP in
a couple of locations.
For example, If I have a general pipeline declaration that
works like this:
<map:generate src="docs/{1}.xml"/>
<map:transform src="stylesheets/1.xsl"/>
<map:transform src="stylesheets/2.xsl"/>
<map:transform src="stylesheets/3.xsl"/>
<map:serialize>
Then I would have to add another entry like this:
<map:generate type="serverpages" src="docs/{1}.xml"/>
<map:transform src="stylesheets/1.xsl"/>
<map:transform src="stylesheets/2.xsl"/>
<map:transform src="stylesheets/3.xsl"/>
<map:serialize>
for XSP pages in the same general URL space. The only
difference is the generator type. So I either use
fancy selector logic, an additional matcher entry, or
make all my pages in a URL space XSP pages. It depends
on the cost.
The merging of ServerPagesGenerator and FileGenerator will
allow automatic discovery of the two scenarios without
complex logic--easing administration duties.
This also eases development as pages are migrated to/from
XSP depending on business needs.
Another side benefit is that the FileGenerator already has
logic that determines if a file has been modified--we can
leverage that to determine whether we want our XSP regenerated.
Thoughts, Comments?
S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
