Hi Joe,
You can create a subclass of ActionServlet to load all of it's 'modules' from a directory rather
than by specifiying them in the web.xml. You could package your modules up as a jar file and load
them directly without exploding them.
The axis2 project has a simular utility for dropping in new modules.
In terms of your menu system, your new ActionServlet subclass could store a list of deployed modules
that your menu system just needs to query.
Regards,
Gareth
Joe Bermann wrote:
That's what I'm doing now, but the problem is that it forces me to
re-release the BaseApp every time I want to ship a new feature. The
BaseApp is on a slower release schedule, about once every six months,
whereas it would be nice to support new features sooner than that.
The BaseApp is performing some network management functions, and the
"features" I've been talking about are the management of additional
server types in the network. My goal is to be able to dynamically add
support for new server types without re-releasing the BaseApp.
Otherwise the new server types will go unmanaged until the next 6-month
release.
-- Joe
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Murray Collingwood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: "Struts Users Mailing List" <user@struts.apache.org>
To: "Struts Users Mailing List" <user@struts.apache.org>
Subject: Re: Adding a plug-in to a webapp
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 12:05:29 +1000
Can you deploy the entire application with all options and use the
security system to
establish which menu items appear?
This avoids the problem of different versions of baseApp and module.
It also avoids the problem of trying to look for different modules
installed.
The only issue is that there may be a larger download for your customers
when they
upgrade as the entire application is shipped each time.
Kind regards
mc
On 18 Sep 2005 at 21:27, Joe Bermann wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I’m looking for some advice on how to design a Struts-based webapp
that can
> accept dynamic plug-in components after deployment. I’ve searched the
> archives and found some interesting posts about Struts Modules and
Single
> Sign On, but I didn’t find anything that addressed my situation exactly.
>
> I have a core webapp, let’s call it BaseApp, that contains a menu of
launch
> points to various features. After BaseApp is deployed and running at a
> customer site, the time will come when I want to add a launch point
to a new
> feature there. In my current design I’ll need to re-deploy an updated
> BaseApp that contains a new menu item and the new feature. A much more
> flexible design would allow me “drop in” a new set of files that the
BaseApp
> would recognize and link to (after restarting Tomcat). This way the
BaseApp
> wouldn’t have to be updated, re-qualified, or re-deployed (a huge
savings at
> my company).
>
> One of the problems is dealing with authorization issues – the users
should
> have to log in only once and should be automatically logged out after a
> period of inactivity, regardless of where in the GUI they click.
> Unfortunately the BaseApp has already been developed with custom
security
> code; container managed security was not used. After the user’s
password is
> authorized, a special object is stored in session scope; the presence of
> that object indicates an authorized user.
>
> Another problem is upgrading the software in the field. Eventually a
new
> version of the BaseApp will be released and the deployment in the field
> needs to be upgraded. This means that any plug-ins need to be
upgraded too,
> or at least maintained (not wiped out).
>
> I’ve thought of using separate webapps (i.e. the plug-in could be
packaged
> as a new webapp) with a dynamic menu in the BaseApp, but then I’m
faced with
> the authorization problems mentioned above.
>
> Is there a standard pattern in Struts to satisfy these requirements
(will
> Struts Modules do what I need)? Is there some way to “drop in”
additional
> files into a pre-deployed webapp? Does anyone have experience with
these
> types of issues?
>
> Thanks!
>
> -- Joe
>
>
>
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