Compartmentalization of Modules (was Re: [18111] et al)

[Joe Germuska <Jo...@Germuska.com>]

>  > I can't think of any reason to block direct links between modules; I
>>  can't speak for others, but our use cases for modules turn out to be
>>  much less strictly segregated than was apparently the intent of the
>>  original design, given how complicated certain things turn out to be.
>
>The original intent of the current module design was to provide an
>alternative way of handling multiple independent Struts apps in the same web
>app. No more, no less. It was intentionally limited, so that we could gain
>some experience with how people would want to use it, with the understanding
>that we could build on that in later releases.
>
>There are certainly many, many things that people might want to do with
>their apps that might be usefully handled by extensions to our current
>module concept. However, there are also many, many ways in which we could
>extend the module concept. Jumping around between modules arbitrarily
>*might* be useful to some people in extending what they can do with modules
>today, but at the same time, it might also allow ways of circumventing
>structure that other people want to impose on modules.
>
>In other words, I *can* think of reasons to block direct links between
>modules, and I wouldn't want to see that enabled as a standard feature.
>Making it optional / configurable might be a viable alternative, at least
>for now, if other people really feel a need for this feature in 1.2.0.

I certainly didn't mean to insult the original design of modules -- 
hope that's not how I came off.

If you had the time, it might help me if you could elaborate on the 
reasons one might want to block direct links between modules. 
Ultimately, I think we need to understand the use cases for modules. 
So far in our usage, it has been predominantly a way of segmenting a 
large app into manageably sized struts-config files.  I could be 
wrong, but I suspect that there are many other Struts users who use 
it this way, regardless of the original design intention.

Who are you blocking when you're trying to block direct links?  Page 
authors who might inadvertently violate a segmentation that you want 
preserved?  If that's the case, having a "contextRelative" boolean on 
links is probably too risky, and you'd want the configuration in the 
struts-config file where those users might be less likely to make a 
change.

Thanks
	Joe

-- 
Joe Germuska            
Joe@Germuska.com  
http://blog.germuska.com    
       "Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them 
the usual way.  This happens to us all the time with computers, and 
nobody thinks of complaining."
             -- Jef Raskin

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