Peter Donald wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Aug 2002 06:58, Igor Fedorenko wrote:
>
>> 2. Assemble-time configuration of services provided by a block An
>> example of a block that needs assemble-time service configuration
>> would be generic soap proxy block that implements whatever service
>> is provided by a soap service the block is connected to. Here is an
>> example configuration for such block <block name="my-block-remote"
>> class="com.thinkdynamics.proxy.GlueProxy"> <services> <service
>> name="com.thinkdynamics.blocks.MyBlock"/> </services> </block> To
>> support this I needed to change two things. First I needed to allow
>> service definition in assemble.xml file. This change has a value
>> of its own, for example, application assembler might want limit
>> services provided by a block. Second change was to allow definition
>> of blocks that support any service, to do that I defined
>> org.apache.avalon.phoenix.Invocable interface which extends
>> java.lang.reflect.InvocationHandler. If a block implements
>> Invocable BlockInvocationHandler calls block.invoke method instead
>> of method.invoke(block).
>
>
> One thing I have been playing with recently is the following.
>
> <block name="my-block-remote" impl="soap://www.biz.com/MyWebService">
> </block>
>
> Ignoring for the moment that I don't know anything about soap so the
> above is probably wrong way to designate a service. Alternatively you
> could look at it as remote blocks via
>
> <block name="my-block-remote"
> impl="rmi://brainstem.dyndns.org/kane/ScoreDatabase"
> factory="org.apache.avalon.factorys.RMIFactory"> </block>
>
> The above would tell the container to load a component via the
> RMIFactory using the key
> "rmi://brainstem.dyndns.org/kane/ScoreDatabase". The RMIFactory would
> implement an interface like
>
> public interface BlockFactory {
> BlockInfo createBlockInfo( String implKey );
> Object createBlock( String implKey );
> }
>
> The RMIFactory would know that it has to look up the component in the
> RMI registry and that the component exposed certain interfaces
> (basically all its remote ones). The BlockInfo would be created to
> depends on the RMIRegistry block and expose the remote services etc.
>
> I have implemented this in another container and it was relatively
> successful if a little bit more complex for the assembler.
>
> Thoughts? Would this suit your needs?
Not exactly. Soap does not have to be java, so getting "all remote
interfaces" of none-java service would be tricky. Of course, one could
write a factory that is smart enough to map soap urls into java
interfaces, but this sounds like hiding problems instead of solving them.
Btw, I still do not understand what is wrong with defining services at
assemble time. It is the assembler who knows what he wants from remote
objects (in fact, I believe that the same applies to local objects as
well). If we can determine list of services implemented by a block,
great, we can provide that list as a "default" value and safe the
assembler from some redundant work. But it should be possible to
overwrite that default, should the assembler want to do so.
--
Igor Fedorenko
Think smart. Think automated. Think Dynamics.
www.thinkdynamics.com
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