Mailing-List: contact commons-user-help@jakarta.apache.org; run by ezmlm
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 23:01:53 +0100
Subject: Re: [betwixt] Use interface, if class if proxy
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v482)
From: robert burrell donkin <robertburrelldonkin@blueyonder.co.uk>
To: "Jakarta Commons Users List" <commons-user@jakarta.apache.org>
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
In-Reply-To: <bij6g8$r3s$1@sea.gmane.org>
Message-Id: <3B985C24-D9A3-11D7-BB2B-003065DC754C@blueyonder.co.uk>


On Wednesday, August 27, 2003, at 10:07 PM, Christoph Gaffga wrote:

> I've implemented a way to customize the serialization of EJBs through
> dot-betwixt-files.
>
> My solution looks up the dot-betwixt-file if the class to serialize is a
> Proxy. I only changed some lines in XMLIntrospector.findByXMLDescriptor.
>
>     protected synchronized XMLBeanInfo findByXMLDescriptor( Class aClass 
> ) {
>         Class showClass = aClass;
>
>         // If the class is a Proxy, use the interface
>         if ( Proxy.isProxyClass(aClass) && aClass.getInterfaces().length 
> >
> 0 ) {
>             showClass = aClass.getInterfaces()[0];
>         }
>
>         // trim the package name
>         String name = showClass.getName();
>         int idx = name.lastIndexOf( '.' );
>         if ( idx >= 0 ) {
>             name = name.substring( idx + 1 );
>         }
>         name += ".betwixt";
>
>         URL url = showClass.getResource( name ); // Use showClass
> classloader
>
> This works fine.
>
> I have two questions left:
>
> - How/Where can I change behavior to use the interface-Description instead
> of the classes one if no dot-betwixt-file ist found?

one way to approach this problem would be by creating a registry which 
would allow an interface class to be substituted for any class 
implementing it. this has the advantage of being generic (it allows any 
implementation of an interface to be serialized in the same form which may 
be an advantage to some users).

this should be pretty easy so i might even take a look at it myself (if no 
one beats me to it).

> - Is there any chance to integrate my mechanism into betwixt? Is there
> anybody else also interested in such a behavior?

i (for one) am quite intrigued by these ideas but i don't have a direct 
use. i believe that there's a certain level of demand amongst the cocoon 
community (it's just a pity that betwixt isn't finished yet. too little 
time :(

if you are interested in contributing to betwixt then there are a few 
things to keep in mind:

1. please read the guidelines (this saves everybody's energy)
2. please make sure you're patching CVS HEAD. betwixt has undergone 
extensive refactoring since the last release.
3. please don't lose enthusiasm if it takes a while for the patch to get 
committed. i've got a ton of code laying around on my machine (a lot of it 
from patches) which i really need to get polished off and committed but i'
m trying to be careful about the design and get it right (this time).

- robert