[TAP5] Module Autodiscovery Suggestion...

[James Carman <ja...@carmanconsulting.com>]

Howard,

TapestryIoC currently uses a Manifest entry to auto-discover modules.
Wouldn't it be easier to use a text file of sorts to do this rather than the
manifest file?  If you look at your project's source code (not the build
files), then you don't know who's registered as a module.  You have to count
on the build itself to set that up for you properly.  How about a simple
META-INF/tapestryioc.conf file or something with one module class name per
line?  It's much easier (and intuitive) to edit a simple text file to get
your stuff set up correctly.  The java.util.ServiceLoader in JDK6 does
something similar.

James

Re: [TAP5] Module Autodiscovery Suggestion...

[Howard Lewis Ship <hl...@gmail.com>]

Well, Maven takes care of the busy work, and this truly is meta data.  It
seems to me that this is the correct use of Manifest meta data, rather than
re-inventing the wheel.

On the other hand, it's much easier for people to create a flat file than a
Manifest entry. Usually there's just a single class name.  It's probably
less code to find and load those flat files than it is to access the
manifests.  Good idea, but low priority ... but something to be finalized
before graduating out of alpha.

On 5/15/07, James Carman <ja...@carmanconsulting.com> wrote:
>
> Howard,
>
> TapestryIoC currently uses a Manifest entry to auto-discover modules.
> Wouldn't it be easier to use a text file of sorts to do this rather than
> the
> manifest file?  If you look at your project's source code (not the build
> files), then you don't know who's registered as a module.  You have to
> count
> on the build itself to set that up for you properly.  How about a simple
> META-INF/tapestryioc.conf file or something with one module class name per
> line?  It's much easier (and intuitive) to edit a simple text file to get
> your stuff set up correctly.  The java.util.ServiceLoader in JDK6 does
> something similar.
>
> James
>



-- 
Howard M. Lewis Ship
TWD Consulting, Inc.
Independent J2EE / Open-Source Java Consultant
Creator and PMC Chair, Apache Tapestry
Creator, Apache HiveMind

Professional Tapestry training, mentoring, support
and project work.  http://howardlewisship.com