Improvements to Service Deployment

[Aaron Mulder <am...@alumni.princeton.edu>]

So I'd like to make it easier to develop services (non-J2EE-module
functions for Geronimo).

Right now, one of the obstacles is deployment.  The only option is to
write your code, create a JAR, copy the JAR into the repository, and
then deploy a service plan that has a dependency on that JAR.  You can
theoretically deploy a service plan and JAR together, but if you do,
the service plan does not see the classes in the JAR.  So redeployment
is a multi-step process (update JAR and then redeploy plan).

As of Gianny's latest, there are three deployment models possible:

1) Deploy JAR and plan together (either as separate arguments to the
deployer or with the plan packaged into the JAR).  The JAR is expanded
to become the directory for that configuration in the repository, and
we write our metadata in there

2) Copy JAR into repository, then deploy plan only where plan contains
reference to JAR (what we have today for services).  Redeploy is a
multi-step process (stop configuration, copy in new JAR, deploy new
configuration).

3) Deploy JAR and plan together (like #1) except that only the
metadata is written into the configuration directory, and the JAR (or
unpacked JAR directory structure) is used in-place (referenced by the
configuration metadata).

So I'm planning to implement #1 for service deployments, which will at
least allow redeployment when you're developing services.  I'd be
happy for someone to work on #3 for service deployments as well.

Thanks,
    Aaron