Proposal: new initialization mechanism

[co...@eng.sun.com]

Hi,

In order to finish with the Interceptors, we need to have them
configurable using  server.xml. While it is possible with the
current code, I think it is important  to change  it.

My proposal is to use a mechanism similar with Ant's task
configuration. In fact, as a starting point I want to use Ant's
current code, with the required changes to configure arbitrary
objects instead of Task.

In addition to the current ant behavior, we want:
- more than one level.
- configurable attribute/property mapping
- ability to set non-primitive types ( using introspection)

This will replace the current code that has everything hardcoded.

Note that this will affect the syntax of server.xml - since server.xml
is not "officially" documented, I think it is ok. The new syntax should
follow the architecture of tomcat, with Interceptors set at various
levels.

Let me know what you think, I'll start commiting the XML helpers
and add a new startup package. If you agree with the changes, the new
package will be used instead and the current startup code deprecated.
( again - it's an evolutionary change, and doesn't prevent other
mechanisms
for startup. In the original Tomcat design that was clearly designed,
and
tomcat.core have no dependency on the startup code, allowing any
kind of mechanism - server.xml is just what we use by default
and my proposal is about changing the default ).



Costin