Hey all. I'm working on an idea for allowing custom valves to be defined in config.xml. Currently this isn't possible since the tomcat classloader would not contain the custom classes for the valve. I've create a jira for tracking this issue [1] and it contains a few links to workarounds. IMHO, The solution we should be looking for is a way to add classes to a module without having to undeploy, modify the module config, and redeploying. I think this can be done by allowing a user to indicate jars that should be loaded by a module within the config.xml. These jars can then be added to the module's classloader for use by the module. I'm not extremely familiar with how our classloader works, but I've taken a look through the code and I think the ability to add to the classloader can be implemented without too much difficulty. I'm not quite sure what type of scope to give this change, though. Should I leave it as a change aimed solely at tomcat valves or should it be expanded to encompass any configuration? I realize this is only a rough idea of what i plan to do, but I'm still working out the details of how to proceed. I'm hoping for some feedback on what I intend to do and possibly some alternate ideas if anyone has some.
Thanks! [1] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GERONIMO-4335 -- ~Jason Warner
