Access to top-level configuration tree in Excalibur?

["John E. Collins" <jc...@cs.umn.edu>]

I have an application that builds an arbitrarily complex dependency 
graph among small analysis modules at runtime, using a a Configuration 
derived from the XML configuration file. Most of the modules are not 
Excalibur components, but are managed by a component, so all but the 
leaves of the graph are accessible through that component's 
Configuration. But there are other components, the leaves of the graph, 
that are separate Excalibur components, and whose dependencies are 
expressed in their individual Configuration trees. We want to make the 
configuration visible and modifiable at runtime, which requires access 
to the top-level configuration tree. I can get the configuration tree 
for the individual components, but I cannot see how to get the top-level 
tree. Is there such a thing? Is it available in any useful way?

Any suggestions would be welcome.

John Collins
University of Minnesota

Re: Access to top-level configuration tree in Excalibur?

[John Collins <jc...@cs.umn.edu>]

Carsten Ziegeler wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> sorry for the late response. An answer from Berin Loritsch got stuck in
> the moderation of this list. This is the answer from Berin:
> 
> "Excalibur was designed around each component only knowing and being
> able to deal with their own information.  It was a conscious design
> decision.  There are ways around the model, but typically you have to
> mount the configuration tree to a JNDI context and load it when you need it.
> 
> Another way to deal with the arbitrarily complex graph is to have
> multiple levels of Excalibur containers.  Essentially you have a top
> level that manages the configuration and stands up the child Excalibur
> container that manages the graphs that you have set up.  That is the way
> to do it that matches the design of the Excalibur framework."

Thanks. Although this does not sound unreasonable, I respect the 
Excalibur design, and we have found what I think is a better way. That 
is to simply give the component that contains the configuration editor a 
list of the roles of the components that can be reconfigured, and have 
it look them up one by one and ask them to report their individual 
configuration trees. Because it then has the association of references 
to configurations, if the user makes a change, it can be directly 
propagated to the correct component.

Best regards,

John Collins


> 
> 
> John E. Collins wrote:
>> I have an application that builds an arbitrarily complex dependency
>> graph among small analysis modules at runtime, using a a Configuration
>> derived from the XML configuration file. Most of the modules are not
>> Excalibur components, but are managed by a component, so all but the
>> leaves of the graph are accessible through that component's
>> Configuration. But there are other components, the leaves of the graph,
>> that are separate Excalibur components, and whose dependencies are
>> expressed in their individual Configuration trees. We want to make the
>> configuration visible and modifiable at runtime, which requires access
>> to the top-level configuration tree. I can get the configuration tree
>> for the individual components, but I cannot see how to get the top-level
>> tree. Is there such a thing? Is it available in any useful way?
>>
>> Any suggestions would be welcome.
>>
>> John Collins
>> University of Minnesota
> 
> 

Re: Access to top-level configuration tree in Excalibur?

[Carsten Ziegeler <cz...@apache.org>]

Hi,

sorry for the late response. An answer from Berin Loritsch got stuck in
the moderation of this list. This is the answer from Berin:

"Excalibur was designed around each component only knowing and being
able to deal with their own information.  It was a conscious design
decision.  There are ways around the model, but typically you have to
mount the configuration tree to a JNDI context and load it when you need it.

Another way to deal with the arbitrarily complex graph is to have
multiple levels of Excalibur containers.  Essentially you have a top
level that manages the configuration and stands up the child Excalibur
container that manages the graphs that you have set up.  That is the way
to do it that matches the design of the Excalibur framework."


John E. Collins wrote:
> I have an application that builds an arbitrarily complex dependency
> graph among small analysis modules at runtime, using a a Configuration
> derived from the XML configuration file. Most of the modules are not
> Excalibur components, but are managed by a component, so all but the
> leaves of the graph are accessible through that component's
> Configuration. But there are other components, the leaves of the graph,
> that are separate Excalibur components, and whose dependencies are
> expressed in their individual Configuration trees. We want to make the
> configuration visible and modifiable at runtime, which requires access
> to the top-level configuration tree. I can get the configuration tree
> for the individual components, but I cannot see how to get the top-level
> tree. Is there such a thing? Is it available in any useful way?
> 
> Any suggestions would be welcome.
> 
> John Collins
> University of Minnesota


-- 
Carsten Ziegeler
cziegeler@apache.org

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