Hi folks, this is an old Issue (see https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/PLC4X/API+Extension+for+1.0). What I generally would like to have is a way to communicate with the API / the Driver without needing a Connection to e.g. „talk“ about the address input and probably also the connection parameters.
To give you an example, consider I want to have a mask where users could enter their url and address. It would be nice to get all available protocols Map<String, Driver> map = driverManager.getAllRegisteredProtocols() to show it in a drop down. When user selects one I could generate a form to enter all connection parameters driver.getConnectionParameters(); And then, when he wants to enter a Field Address I could go on like that and could do many things already with the Driver without hte need to have a Conneciton in Place already. Like: driver.validate(„%DB.asdf“) <-- fails driver.getValidatingRegex() <-- Could be used in my forms or even get more detailed information, like an abstract address specification that I could use to build a form. For S7 this could for example be List<AddressPart> driver.getAddressParts() which could be something like MemoryPart <- Enum-Like „DB, Q, I, ...“ and so on. Tob e clear: I ONLY want to extend the current API and not change anything setup. So all APIs would stay in Place as is but this would help people who allow their users to input PLC4X Informations like we do or e.g. Streampipes (thus, added as CC here). WDYT? Julian
