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--- forrest/site/docs_0_90/libre-intro.html (added)
+++ forrest/site/docs_0_90/libre-intro.html Wed Apr 18 01:10:58 2007
@@ -0,0 +1,1180 @@
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+</div>
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+<div class="menuitem">
+<a href="../docs_0_90/howto/multi/howto-multi.html">Introduction</a>
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+<div class="menuitem">
+<a href="../docs_0_90/howto/multi/step1.html">Step 1</a>
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+<a href="../docs_0_90/searching.html">Search Options in Forrest</a>
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+<a href="../dtdx/document-v20.html">document-v20</a>
+</div>
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+<div onclick="SwitchMenu('menu_selected_1.1.9', '../skin/')" id="menu_selected_1.1.9Title" class="menutitle" style="background-image: url('../skin/images/chapter_open.gif');">Older Docs</div>
+<div id="menu_selected_1.1.9" class="selectedmenuitemgroup" style="display: block;">
+<div class="menuitem">
+<a href="../docs_0_90/primer.html">Forrest Primer</a>
+</div>
+<div class="menupage">
+<div class="menupagetitle">Libre</div>
+</div>
+<div class="menuitem">
+<a href="../docs_0_90/dreams.html">Dream list</a>
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+<a href="../docs_0_90/howto/cvs-ssh/howto-cvs-ssh.html">CVS over SSH</a>
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+<hr>
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+</div>
+</div>
+<!--+
+ |end Menu
+ +-->
+<!--+
+ |start content
+ +-->
+<div id="content">
+<div title="Portable Document Format" class="pdflink">
+<a class="dida" href="libre-intro.pdf"><img alt="PDF -icon" src="../skin/images/pdfdoc.gif" class="skin"><br>
+ PDF</a>
+</div>
+<div class="trail">Font size:
+ <input value="Reset" class="resetfont" title="Reset text" onclick="ndeSetTextSize('reset'); return false;" type="button">
+ <input value="-a" class="smallerfont" title="Shrink text" onclick="ndeSetTextSize('decr'); return false;" type="button">
+ <input value="+a" class="biggerfont" title="Enlarge text" onclick="ndeSetTextSize('incr'); return false;" type="button">
+</div>
+<h1>Libre QuickStart</h1>
+<div class="abstract">
+ This document is the current full documentation on the "libre" generator
+ that was implanted into xml-forrest.
+ </div>
+<div id="motd-area">
+ This is documentation for development version v0.9-dev
+ (<a href="http://forrest.apache.org/versions/">More</a>)</div>
+<div id="minitoc-area">
+<ul class="minitoc">
+<li>
+<a href="#Intro">Intro</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#Using+Libre+now+%280.0+alfa%29">Using Libre now (0.0 alfa)</a>
+<ul class="minitoc">
+<li>
+<a href="#Generated+Output">Generated Output</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#Contents">libre.xml Contents</a>
+<ul class="minitoc">
+<li>
+<a href="#Building+Blocks">Building Blocks</a>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#Important+Side+Effects">Important Side Effects</a>
+<ul class="minitoc">
+<li>
+<a href="#No+libre.xml">No libre.xml</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#No+Duplicates">No Duplicates</a>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#Example+Constructs">Example Constructs</a>
+<ul class="minitoc">
+<li>
+<a href="#Sorting+your+files+or+your+menu+entries%3F">Sorting your files or your menu entries?</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#Naming+your+files+or+asking+them+their+name%3F">Naming your files or asking them their name?</a>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#Next+Libre+%280.1%29">Next Libre (0.1)</a>
+<ul class="minitoc">
+<li>
+<a href="#Itches">Itches</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#Upcoming+Features">Upcoming Features</a>
+<ul class="minitoc">
+<li>
+<a href="#Combinations+of+filter+logic">Combinations of filter logic</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#Separating+property-retrieval+from+formatting+and%0A++++++++++++testing">Separating property-retrieval from formatting and
+ testing</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#Replace+the+introspection+with+semantically+richer+named%0A++++++++++++properties+to+read.">Replace the introspection with semantically richer named
+ properties to read.</a>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#Avalonising">Avalonising</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#Unresolved+Discussions">Unresolved Discussions</a>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="#Libre+Design">Libre Design</a>
+<ul class="minitoc">
+<li>
+<a href="#Dependencies">Dependencies</a>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<a name="N10010"></a><a name="Intro"></a>
+<h2 class="underlined_10">Intro</h2>
+<div class="section">
+<div class="warning">
+<div class="label">Warning</div>
+<div class="content">
+ This document is still relevant for ideas and potential solutions.
+ However, the experimental code for Libre was removed from the scratchpad
+ on 2003-04-18 during spring cleaning. If you want to resurrect it, then
+ use the cvs tag "before_libre_departure".
+ </div>
+</div>
+<p>
+ The libre idea was born out of the cocoon book.xml itch. The actual need
+ to start scratching was introduced by the higher volume of
+ book.xml-editing-work that came along with the cocoon documentation and
+ xml-forrest efforts.
+ </p>
+<p>
+ The single idea behind it in fact is trying to automatically generate
+ part of the navigation tree which is held now in the different book.xml
+ 's. This automation effort however is held back by the lack of meta-data
+ you can extract from the filesystem itself. This is why the libre
+ approach still requires you to add this extra metadata using some
+ libre.xml file. This libre.xml however has the following main advantages
+ over the book.xml:
+ </p>
+<ul>
+
+<li>The settings are 'inherited' down the directory tree, so you do not
+ need a libre.xml on each directory level. You only need it to change
+ the subdir traversing strategy from its parent dir.</li>
+
+<li>It combines some 'filesystem-introspection'-like declarations
+ that are used in run-time filtering, sorting and attributing decisions.
+ Introspection strategies are currently based on either (1) reading properties
+ of the java.io.File object at hand, or (2) executing xpath expressions on the
+ pointed at XML file. </li>
+
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<a name="N10029"></a><a name="Using+Libre+now+%280.0+alfa%29"></a>
+<h2 class="underlined_10">Using Libre now (0.0 alfa)</h2>
+<div class="section">
+<div class="warning">
+<div class="label">Warning</div>
+<div class="content">
+ Disclaimer: most of what you read below is 'how it was intended' . To
+ what extent that matches the actual execution process is largely
+ dependent on my programming skills and thoroughness of testing.
+ <br>
+ In other words: don't expect a thing unless you've seen it work. (at
+ this time)
+ </div>
+</div>
+<a name="N10034"></a><a name="Generated+Output"></a>
+<h3 class="underlined_5">Generated Output</h3>
+<p>
+ The XML output that comes out of the generator largely follows this
+ example:
+ </p>
+<pre class="code"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<collection xmlns="http://outerx.org/yer/hierarchy/0.1">
+ <collection label="content">
+ <collection label="xdocs">
+ <item label="dreams.xml"
+ href="src/documentation/content/xdocs/dreams.xml"
+ title="Forrest dream list"/>
+ <item label="faq.xml"
+ href="src/documentation/content/xdocs/faq.xml"/>
+ <item label="book.xml"
+ href="src/documentation/content/xdocs/book.xml"/>
+ <item label="contrib.xml"
+ href="src/documentation/content/xdocs/contrib.xml"
+ title="Contribution to Forrest"/>
+ <item label="mail-archives.xml"
+ href="src/documentation/content/xdocs/mail-archives.xml"
+ title="Mail Archives"/>
+ <item label="mail-lists.xml"
+ href="src/documentation/content/xdocs/mail-lists.xml"
+ title="Mailing Lists"/>
+ <item label="license.xml"
+ href="src/documentation/content/xdocs/license.xml"
+ title="The Apache Software License"/>
+ <item label="index.xml"
+ href="src/documentation/content/xdocs/index.xml"
+ title="Welcome to Forrest"/>
+ <item label="who.xml"
+ href="src/documentation/content/xdocs/who.xml"
+ title="Who we are"/>
+ </collection>
+ </collection>
+</collection></pre>
+<p>
+ And it's not getting any harder in fact: only 2 elements,
+ <span class="codefrag"><collection></span> and <span class="codefrag"><item></span> and that
+ should do. The first maps to a menu-group in the navigation, guess
+ what the second maps to?
+ </p>
+<p>
+ The number and value (and its meaning) of the attributes on these
+ elements are specified in the libre.xml file.
+ </p>
+<a name="N1004E"></a><a name="Contents"></a>
+<h3 class="underlined_5">libre.xml Contents</h3>
+<p>
+ That libre.xml file follows the
+ src/resources/schema/dtd/libre-v10.dtd. In fact the current release
+ allows for some extra elements (I'll explain where) and some
+ unrestricted attribute CDATA types that cause some extensible xml
+ output resp. some java-introspection to be triggered. So basically the
+ DTD will be limiting you more than the runtime interpretation. (future
+ versions will try to narrow this down seriously, main reason is that a
+ more elaborate DTD allows for more XML-editor assistance in editing
+ the files.)
+ </p>
+<p>
+ The dtd:
+ </p>
+<pre class="code"><!ELEMENT libre (entry | auto)*>
+<!ELEMENT entry (label?, href?)>
+<!ATTLIST entry
+ location CDATA #REQUIRED
+>
+<!ELEMENT auto (filter?, sorter?, label?, href?)>
+<!ELEMENT label (xpath | property)>
+<!ELEMENT href (xpath | property)>
+<!ELEMENT filter (xpath | property)>
+<!ATTLIST filter
+ logic (inverse | normal) "normal"
+ clear (yes | no) "no"
+>
+<!ELEMENT sorter (xpath | property)>
+<!ATTLIST sorter
+ order (ascending | descending) "ascending"
+ clear (yes | no) "no"
+>
+<!ELEMENT xpath EMPTY>
+<!ATTLIST xpath
+ expression CDATA #REQUIRED
+>
+<!ELEMENT property EMPTY>
+<!ATTLIST property
+ name CDATA #REQUIRED
+ mask CDATA #IMPLIED
+ regex CDATA #IMPLIED
+ substitute CDATA #IMPLIED
+></pre>
+<a name="N10060"></a><a name="Building+Blocks"></a>
+<h4>Building Blocks</h4>
+<p>
+ The following elements get the following meaning when interpreted by
+ the LibreConfigBuilder
+ </p>
+<pre class="code"><libre xmlns="http://outerx.org/libre/config/0.1"></pre>
+<ul>
+
+<li>This is one of those libre.xml files, that will configure how
+ items are filteres, sorted and attributed</li>
+
+</ul>
+<pre class="code"><entry location="[relative location path]" /></pre>
+<ul>
+
+<li>Allows to manually sort out specific files or directories.</li>
+
+<li>Comparable to standard book.xml behaviour, except for the fact
+ that </li>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>libre doesn't yet support external hrefs (should be easy
+ though)</li>
+
+<li>there is no difference between <span class="codefrag"><menu></span> and
+ <span class="codefrag"><menu-item></span>, there just is <span class="codefrag"><entry></span>. It
+ will become a <span class="codefrag"><collection></span> or <span class="codefrag"><item></span> in
+ the output based on the fact if the location points to a directory resp. a
+ file.</li>
+
+<li>For locations that point to a filter it doesn't make sense, but
+ when it points to a directory it is nested <span class="codefrag"><filter></span> and
+ <span class="codefrag"><sort></span> elements get inherited down to the next level. </li>
+
+</ul>
+
+</ul>
+<div class="fixme">
+<div class="label">Fixme (mpo)</div>
+<div class="content">
+ This last remarks actually means (1) I need to update the DTD to
+ reflect this and (2) check the code for actually doing this.
+ </div>
+</div>
+<pre class="code"><auto></pre>
+<ul>
+
+<li>Automatically generates more <span class="codefrag"><collection></span>
+ and <span class="codefrag"><item></span> elements in the output, based on the
+ specifications of the nested elements: <span class="codefrag"><filter></span> (which
+ resources?) and <span class="codefrag"><sort></span> (in which order?).</li>
+
+</ul>
+<pre class="code"><filter logic="inverse" clear="no"></pre>
+<ul>
+
+<li>This element wraps a so-called AttributeReader (there are
+ currently two of them: <span class="codefrag"><xpath></span> and
+ <span class="codefrag"><property></span>)</li>
+
+<li>The AttributeReader is going to specify which
+ information-element is going to be retrieved from the file or directory it is
+ pointing at. Depending on which one is used this wrapping filter will test for
+ presence or regex match of the resource being read. Based on the outcome of
+ this test (true or false) the passed file will be accepted or not in the
+ list.</li>
+
+<li>This wrapping filter element allows to inverse the
+ acceptance-logic (accept what normally should be rejected and vice versa).</li>
+
+<li>Using the <span class="codefrag">clear="yes"</span> attribute stops the
+ inheritance of the used filter strategy from the parent directory. Instead the
+ default filter strategy (which is to accept all files) is slided in at this
+ level.</li>
+
+</ul>
+<pre class="code"><sort order="descending" clear="no"></pre>
+<ul>
+
+<li>This element wraps a so called AttributeReader (there are
+ currently two of them: <span class="codefrag"><xpath></span> and
+ <span class="codefrag"><property></span>).</li>
+
+<li>The AttributeReader is going to specify which
+ information-element is going to be retrieved from the file or directory it is
+ pointing at. This information element will be considered to be a simple
+ Key-String and <span class="codefrag"><collection></span> and <span class="codefrag"><item></span>
+ elements in the output will appear in the order defined by the alphabetic
+ sorting of these keys.</li>
+
+<li>This wrapping sort element allows to reverse the order.
+ (z->a instead of a->z)</li>
+
+<li>Using the <span class="codefrag">clear="yes"</span> attribute stops the
+ inheritance of the used sort strategy from the parent directory. Instead the
+ default sort strategy (which is to use default filesystem sorting, alphabetic
+ on filename) is slided in at this level.</li>
+
+</ul>
+<pre class="code"><label>, <href>, <YOURTAG>.... {AttributeDefinitions}</pre>
+<ul>
+
+<li>The remainder of the elements inside the
+ <span class="codefrag"><auto></span> tag specify the attributes that need to be applied to
+ the generated <span class="codefrag"><collection></span> and <span class="codefrag"><item></span>
+ elements in the output: <span class="codefrag"><item label=".." href=".." YOURTAG=".."
+ /></span>
+</li>
+
+<li>There is currently only support for adding attributes, not
+ nested elements.</li>
+
+<li>These elements all wrap a so called AttributeReader (there are
+ currently two of them: <xpath> and <property>)</li>
+
+<li>In these cases the wrapped AttributeReader is going to specify
+ which information-element is going to be retrieved from the file or directory
+ it is pointing at. This information element will be considered to be a simple
+ String-value that gets slided in as the corresponding output attribute
+ value.</li>
+
+</ul>
+<pre class="code"><xpath expression="/document/header/title/text()"></pre>
+<ul>
+
+<li>This element specifies an xpath AttributeReader to use inside
+ <span class="codefrag"><filter></span>, <span class="codefrag"><sort></span> or
+ {AttributeDefinitions}.</li>
+
+<li>It allows to specify an xpath expression that should result in
+ one single text node to be returned when applied to the root node of the xml
+ file at the location of any given entry. The contents of this text-node is the
+ string value to sort (<span class="codefrag"><sort></span> usage) or to fill in the
+ specified attribute (<span class="codefrag"><label></span>, <span class="codefrag"><href></span>...
+ use). When inside a <span class="codefrag"><filter></span>: the presence of the node
+ results in passing the test.</li>
+
+</ul>
+<div class="warning">
+<div class="label">Warning</div>
+<div class="content">
+ This currently breaks for non xml (<span class="codefrag">*.gif</span>) files, so get
+ your filter right please, and in the mean time: sorry for not being
+ able to use it in the filter yet <span class="codefrag">:-(</span>.
+ </div>
+</div>
+<pre class="code"><property name="path" regex="(\.[\\/])*(.*)" substitute="$2"/>
+<property name="name" mask="CVS"/></pre>
+<ul>
+
+<li>This element specifies an xpath AttributeReader to use inside
+ <span class="codefrag"><filter></span>, <span class="codefrag"><sort></span> or
+ {AttributeDefinitions}.</li>
+
+<li>It allows to specify a JavaBean-like property to read (this
+ introspection behavior will probably not survive the future release) on the
+ file at the 'location' of any given entry. The (object-)value of this property
+ is automatically converted to a String (toString()) that becomes the value to
+ sort (<span class="codefrag"><sort></span> usage) or to fill in the specified attribute
+ (<span class="codefrag"><label></span>, <span class="codefrag"><href></span>... use). When inside a
+ <span class="codefrag"><filter></span>, the test passes if the read property is not null
+ or "".</li>
+
+<li>Furthermore this element allows to express more elaborate
+ true-false tests (filter use) or regex substitution (other use)
+ attributes:</li>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>combination of @regex with @substitute accounts for a
+ s/{regex}/{substitute}/ kind of operation on the string property.</li>
+
+<li>while @mask or @regex by their own (filter use) allow for a
+ glob-mask or regex test to be applied on the read property.</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+</ul>
+<a name="N1016C"></a><a name="Important+Side+Effects"></a>
+<h3 class="underlined_5">Important Side Effects</h3>
+<p>
+ There are some things that libre is doing that you should be aware of.
+ </p>
+<a name="N10175"></a><a name="No+libre.xml"></a>
+<h4>No libre.xml</h4>
+<p>
+ When using an <span class="codefrag"><auto> </span>section, the filter will
+ NEVER accept the <span class="codefrag">libre.xml</span> file to be in the generated
+ output. You can however include a manual <span class="codefrag"><entry></span>
+ to point to the <span class="codefrag">libre.xml</span> file if needed.
+ </p>
+<a name="N1018B"></a><a name="No+Duplicates"></a>
+<h4>No Duplicates</h4>
+<p>
+ You can combine multiple <span class="codefrag"><entry></span> and
+ <span class="codefrag"><auto></span> elements after each other. The system will
+ make sure that the resulting list of <span class="codefrag"><collection></span>
+ and <span class="codefrag"><item></span> will not contain duplicates. So the
+ filters in <span class="codefrag"><auto></span> sections lower down the
+ <span class="codefrag">libre.xml</span> file can include already accepted files or
+ directories, they will only show up once in the output.
+ </p>
+<a name="N101A8"></a><a name="Example+Constructs"></a>
+<h3 class="underlined_5">Example Constructs</h3>
+<p>
+ Adding sorting and filtering to the filesystem with libre becomes a
+ subtle play with editable filesystem properties, smart XML content and
+ <span class="codefrag">libre.xml</span> configs. This should be considered as the
+ 'extended' contract between the following roles in the documentation
+ system: the one choosing (or creating) the DTDs, the one applying
+ those to create content and give the resulting files a name, the one
+ that sets up the directories to store those files and writes the
+ <span class="codefrag">libre.xml</span> files.
+ </p>
+<a name="N101B7"></a><a name="Sorting+your+files+or+your+menu+entries%3F"></a>
+<h4>Sorting your files or your menu entries?</h4>
+<p>
+ In every case the very pragmatic approach can become something like
+ this:
+ </p>
+<pre class="code">+ content
+ + xdocs
+ + 010Topic
+ + 010Foo
+ + 111Bar
+ + 050Aspect
+ + NotInList</pre>
+<p>
+ In combination with something that lives by the introduced
+ alphabetic order, but yet hides the ugly number-prefixes:
+ </p>
+<pre class="code"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!DOCTYPE libre PUBLIC "-//Outerthought//DTD Libre Configuration V0.1//EN" "libre-v01.dtd" >
+<libre xmlns="http://outerx.org/libre/config/0.1">
+ <auto>
+ <filter logic="normal">
+ <property name="name" regex="\d{3}(.*)"/>
+ </filter>
+ <label>
+ <property name="name" regex="\d{3}(.*)" substitute="$1"/>
+ </label>
+ </auto>
+</libre></pre>
+<p>
+ Will produce an automatic list of entries (collections and items in
+ the output) that
+ </p>
+<ul>
+
+<li>
+<span class="codefrag"><filter></span>: only resources which name starts
+ with a 3-digit pattern</li>
+
+<li>No <span class="codefrag"><sort></span>: in their natural filesystem order
+ assured by the digit-prefix</li>
+
+<li>
+<span class="codefrag"><label></span>: hold a label attribute that strips
+ of the ugly number prefix</li>
+
+</ul>
+<p>
+ Of course the advantage over book.xml only comes when more menu
+ items should be easily slided in later on, and/or deeply nested
+ directory structures can all benefit from this same
+ filenaming/sorting strategy.
+ </p>
+<a name="N101E5"></a><a name="Naming+your+files+or+asking+them+their+name%3F"></a>
+<h4>Naming your files or asking them their name?</h4>
+<p>
+ Given the poor expressiveness of the filesystem, the labels that
+ need to show up in the menu can hardly remain the filenames they are
+ now (specially if we're adding these ugly number prefixes). Instead
+ we can sign a contract with the content writer to also provide the
+ navigation system with a sensible name for his entry using XML
+ metadata that the system will pick up using an xpath expression.
+ </p>
+<pre class="code"><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!DOCTYPE libre PUBLIC "-//Outerthought//DTD Libre Configuration V0.1//EN" "libre-v01.dtd" >
+<libre xmlns="http://outerx.org/libre/config/0.1">
+ <entry location="dreams.xml" >
+ <label>
+ <xpath expression="/document/header/title/text()"/>
+ </label>
+ </entry>
+ <auto>
+ <filter>
+ <property name="name" regex="\.xml$" />
+ </filter>
+ <sorter>
+ <xpath expression="/document/header/title/text()"/>
+ </sorter>
+ <label>
+ <xpath expression="/document/header/title/text()"/>
+ </label>
+ </auto>
+</libre></pre>
+</div>
+
+<a name="N101F5"></a><a name="Next+Libre+%280.1%29"></a>
+<h2 class="underlined_10">Next Libre (0.1)</h2>
+<div class="section">
+<div class="note">
+<div class="label">Note</div>
+<div class="content">
+ Next libre is in fact largely in your hands... just drop the forrest-dev
+ <a href="../mail-lists.html">mail list</a> a line, and see what
+ happens...
+ </div>
+</div>
+<a name="N10202"></a><a name="Itches"></a>
+<h3 class="underlined_5">Itches</h3>
+<p>
+ There is quite a number of fast code patches that can/need to happen
+ </p>
+<ul>
+
+<li>package renaming and restructuring (ideas welcome, but not top of
+ mind)</li>
+
+<li>on same level: possible xmlns and/or elms/atts renaming on the
+ generated output and the libre.xml file</li>
+
+<li>when compiling you currently get 4 stupid deprecation warnings
+ that should be removed, in fact:</li>
+
+<li>LibreConfigHelper has a silly test in it to switch to own parser
+ and resolver if there is no avalon component manager in the neighborhoud
+ (historical reason is the testing outside cocoon with the command line util,
+ which should become some kind of avalon based junit task: if you have a clue
+ how to start this, throw it at us please.)</li>
+
+<li>xpath property reader needs to survive working on a non-xml
+ document (by returning nothing rather then breaking on the exception)</li>
+
+<li>general robustness and resilience towards
+ mis-configurations</li>
+
+<li>filestreams need to get closed and avalon resources need to be
+ released properly</li>
+
+<li>caching at the level of the generator needs to be set up</li>
+
+<li>in fact general performance has not been subject to loads of
+ early optimizations :-P</li>
+
+</ul>
+<a name="N1022A"></a><a name="Upcoming+Features"></a>
+<h3 class="underlined_5">Upcoming Features</h3>
+<p>
+ More importantly however there is a major set of new features that is
+ waiting to get in there. It all boils down in fact to having a more
+ expressive libre.xml file... some of the thoughts:
+ </p>
+<a name="N10233"></a><a name="Combinations+of+filter+logic"></a>
+<h4>Combinations of filter logic</h4>
+<p>
+ Some itching stuff:
+ </p>
+<ul>
+
+<li>logic="inverse" on the <filter> element seems a bit
+ awkward</li>
+
+<li>
+<em>n</em>th degree of slickness in the regexes will only bring
+ us so far, combinatory filter logic seems to be the way to go...:</li>
+
+</ul>
+<pre class="code"><!ELEMENT filter (xpath | property | and | or | not)>
+<!ELEMENT not (xpath | property | and | or | not)>
+<!ELEMENT and (xpath | property | and | or | not)+>
+<!ELEMENT or (xpath | property | and | or | not)+></pre>
+<p>
+ So we can make up some richer:
+ </p>
+<pre class="code">
+<filter>
+ <not>
+ <and>
+ <xpath .../>
+ <not><property ..../></not>
+ <or>
+ ...
+ </or>
+ </and>
+ </not>
+</filter>
+ </pre>
+<a name="N10253"></a><a name="Separating+property-retrieval+from+formatting+and%0A++++++++++++testing"></a>
+<h4>Separating property-retrieval from formatting and
+ testing</h4>
+<p>
+ Playing around with the attributes in <span class="codefrag"><property></span>:
+ </p>
+<ul>
+
+<li>poses hard to explain combinatory effects (@regex with
+ @substitute vs without, @regex can't be combined with @mask, different
+ behaviour inside <filter>== test or <sort>==formatting)</li>
+
+<li>which in fact are hard (if not impossible) to rule out by
+ modifying the DTD</li>
+
+<li>makes you wonder why it's not available on the <xpath>
+ ?</li>
+
+</ul>
+<p>
+ So maybe an example more down the lines of the following would be
+ easier to use:
+ </p>
+<pre class="code"><label><!-- same applies for the sort context -->
+ <regexformatter exp="..." substitute="....">
+ <property name="absoluteLocation" />
+ </regexformatter>
+</label></pre>
+<p>
+ Allowing the formatter to be used around the xpath reader as well.
+ And opening up the possibility to maybe format other stuff than
+ Strings: <span class="codefrag"><dateformat format="dd/mmm/yy"> </span>
+
+</p>
+<p>
+ It would also clearly distinguish the semantical difference of
+ applying a test in the <span class="codefrag"><filter></span> context:
+ </p>
+<pre class="code"><filter>
+ <regextest match="...">
+ <property ... />
+ </regextest>
+</filter></pre>
+<p>
+ And more logically introduce other tests like <span class="codefrag"><globtest
+ match="..."></span> or <span class="codefrag"><availabletest></span> or...
+ </p>
+<a name="N1028C"></a><a name="Replace+the+introspection+with+semantically+richer+named%0A++++++++++++properties+to+read."></a>
+<h4>Replace the introspection with semantically richer named
+ properties to read.</h4>
+<p>
+ Currently the <span class="codefrag"><property name="someJavaBeanProp"></span>
+ is applied in a java introspection for the
+ <span class="codefrag">getSomeJavaBeanProp()</span> on the <span class="codefrag">java.io.File</span>
+ object that is actually representing the node in the hierarchy at
+ any given time. The DTD declares the attribute as of type CDATA.
+ These decisions however:
+ </p>
+<ul>
+
+<li>lead to a lesser user guidance for the libre.xml writer using
+ an XML (and DTD) savvy editor </li>
+
+<li>leads to assuming the <span class="codefrag">libre.xml</span> editor has access
+ to and knows how to interpret jdk javadoc</li>
+
+<li>leads to poor semantical support and thus more possible RUNTIME
+ errors for those just filling in some valid CDATA value that is not mapping any
+ getter.</li>
+
+<li>leads to confusion for all, since who actually knows the subtle
+ difference between all the get*Path methods on java.io.File?</li>
+
+</ul>
+<p>
+ So the big idea here would be to go for an upfront declared list of
+ sensible and clearly defined properties that we would like to
+ read... Today's ideas about that list:
+ </p>
+<ul>
+
+<li>name</li>
+
+<li>isDirectory (isCollection?)</li>
+
+<li>abs and relPath (or abs/rel Location? why would we need
+ abs?)</li>
+
+<li>canRead</li>
+
+<li>canWrite</li>
+
+<li>lastModified</li>
+
+<li>length</li>
+
+</ul>
+<p>
+ The DTD would then list the possible attributeValues.
+ </p>
+<a name="N102D0"></a><a name="Avalonising"></a>
+<h3 class="underlined_5">Avalonising</h3>
+<p>
+ There are a number of perceived opportunities in taking up a stronger
+ dependecy towards Avalon. Some of the possibilities become clear when
+ looking into the current design...
+ </p>
+<ul>
+
+<li>Currently the EntryFactory is a abstract factory, the factory
+ part could be done by an Avalon Component manager. Which would also allow the
+ EntryFactory to become a cleaner component interface then it is now.</li>
+
+<li>Some investigation/feedback on the current hacker-way of using
+ the Composables could be nice</li>
+
+<li>The current cli part in the package is only there for testing
+ (avoiding the cocoon webapp cycle when developing/testing) it should be
+ replaced by a more formal test class that actually would take up the role
+ (probably delegate to ECM or the like) of the componentmanager to give the
+ HierarchyReader the (avalon) environment he needs.</li>
+
+</ul>
+<a name="N102E6"></a><a name="Unresolved+Discussions"></a>
+<h3 class="underlined_5">Unresolved Discussions</h3>
+<ul>
+
+<li>do we need support for nested elements inside
+ <span class="codefrag"><item></span> output (retrieved by e.g. xpath expressions)?</li>
+
+<li>do we need an extra <span class="codefrag"><constant></span> like
+ attributereader that would allow like book.xml to add fixed values for
+ expressed attributes</li>
+
+<li>clear set out inheritance rules, just doing 'something' now
+ :-(</li>
+
+<li>votes on needed file properties to replace the current (limiting
+ and semantically poor) Java-introspection</li>
+
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<a name="N10303"></a><a name="Libre+Design"></a>
+<h2 class="underlined_10">Libre Design</h2>
+<div class="section">
+<p>
+ So why is that silly 'yer' package name in there? Yer originally was
+ some all-hierarchy-structures to SAX event thing, and since some of that
+ is in here as well, we kind of picked that idea up out of the dustbin.
+ </p>
+<p>
+ So reflecting the current packagenames we kind of have these sets of
+ responsibilities
+ </p>
+<ul>
+
+<li>
+<em>*.yer.hierarchy</em>: describe in a formal way how hierarchies
+ should be built up in order to have them dumped to XML using the
+ HierarchyReader.</li>
+
+<li>
+<em>*.yer.use.cocoon</em>:house of the generator. It basically just
+ gets a reader and subscribes the next ContentHandler in the cocoon pipeline to
+ the HierarchyReader that it is using.</li>
+
+<li>
+<em>*.yer.impl</em>: hold the different implementations of the
+ *.yer.hierarchy API </li>
+
+<li>
+<em>*.yer.impl.fs</em>: (only current impl) Build the described
+ filesystem oriented implementation of the hierarchy. It is using the libre
+ configuration strategy.</li>
+
+<li>
+<em>*.yer.libre</em>: provide a generic strategy for adding
+ filtering, sorting and attributing information to a hierarchy through the use
+ of XML config files (in an XML configuration/declarative manner)</li>
+
+</ul>
+<p>
+ ... hope this somewhat clarifies how things have been setup for now.
+ </p>
+<a name="N1032E"></a><a name="Dependencies"></a>
+<h3 class="underlined_5">Dependencies</h3>
+<ul>
+
+<li>The regex stuff inside libre adds the dependency upon the oro
+ package. Basically I failed to find substitution support inside the regex
+ package (which is already in cocoon) in a timeframe comparable to just get on
+ with this using oro.</li>
+
+<li>The HierarchyGenerator is the first one in the chain (and the
+ last in fact) that actually needs the cocoon package (at least it was intended
+ this way, could be that there are some glitches on this statement)</li>
+
+<li>There is a sort of false dependency on Avalon right now (some
+ Composables in there, no real container stuff though). As expressed higher
+ there are some plans to stronger benefit from this dependency. </li>
+
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+<!--+
+ |end content
+ +-->
+<div class="clearboth"> </div>
+</div>
+<div id="footer">
+<!--+
+ |start bottomstrip
+ +-->
+<div class="lastmodified">
+<script type="text/javascript"><!--
+document.write("Last Published: " + document.lastModified);
+// --></script>
+</div>
+<div class="copyright">
+ Copyright ©
+ 2002-2007 <a href="http://www.apache.org/licenses/">The Apache Software Foundation.</a>
+</div>
+<!--+
+ |end bottomstrip
+ +-->
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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