It shouldn't be too hard to create a struts2-standard.jar, which contains the contents of struts2-core plus several choice plugins. Spring puts out a spring.jar, which contains their trusted modules, and I don't see why we couldn't do anything similar. Of course, we'd have to choose plugins that don't conflict and we'd have to write a tool that would combine their struts-plugin.xml into one file, but both should be trivial.
Don On 9/12/07, Brian Pontarelli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Ted Husted wrote: > On 9/11/07, Brian Pontarelli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > If we keep it a plugin then I would suggest removing zero-config from core > so that they don't conflict. I'd probably also want to rework the > DispatcherFilter to make it more pluggable so that the majority of the work > is from injections and then it can be changed without modifying the web.xml. > Lastly, the configuration providers need to be easier to setup. This would > probably require a more robust configuration mechanism that would pre-inject > configuration providers and then inject the rest of the container. > > I think this is the strongest argument for plugging in as much as > possible ourselves. If we can do it, then someone else can do it too! > > Don put in the plugin architecture less than a year ago, and our first > stable release was only four months ago. Already, we have a couple of > dozen plugins, including SmartURLs, and we're learning how to extract > other functionality like Ajax and Portlets into plugins too. > > I'd say we should continue to exploit the plugin architecture, so that > Struts becomes a lightweight core adorned with plugins. We should > encourage people to think of Struts plugins they way we think about > Eclipse or Maven plugins. > > I do think this sounds pretty good. I like the plugin architecture, but it > needs more functionality and extensibility to make it a complete solution. > Right now not enough of the core infrastructure is exposed to plugins and it > is difficult to make things just drop in and work. > > I think it can be done, it just needs some good discussion and some changes > to core. > > > > However, all that said, I think this should be in core. The beauty of > frameworks like Rails and Grails is that they give all the conventions right > out of the box. I feel like Struts should try to strive to match the ease of > these other frameworks. Otherwise, it requires the users to actually know > that the plugin exists, go find it, install it and then learn it all. > > I'd say it's way too early to say we've hit the best and brightest way > to do this. (Or that Rails or Grails has either!) > > If we starting rolling things like this into the core, then as you > pointed out, we start to foreclose possibilities for alternate > plugins, or at least make it harder for other people to innovate. > > There is a lot more to Rails or Grails type functionality than zero > configuration and code behinds. To really do "Struts on Rails", we'd > need to encourage people to use Maven prototypes to create starter > applications, which could easily include items like the CodeBehind 2 > plugin, along with starter actions and pages, test cases, and so > forth. We also need to think about items like Hibernate or iBATIS > plugins. > > I'll definitely agree on that point. In fact I've already started work on a > system just like the one you describe. However, I selected the frameworks > and unlike systems like AppFuse, I decided to not give choices for > frameworks, but give more functionality. It's called Vertigo and it contains > an entire build system with project creation (based on Ant and Savant for > dependencies), database migrations, emailing via FreeMarker and concurrency > utils, environment aware configuration with a hierarchy, injection via > guice, JPA support, security (via ACEGI, which does require Spring, but that > will soon be refactored), common actions like country drop downs, ECommerce > transactions (currently only via authorize.net), a good set of domain > classes and base classes, and more is being added all the time. > > Take a look if you guys get a chance: > > http://code.google.com/p/vertigo-java > > > One compromise would be to keep CodeBehind/ZeroConfig as a plugin, in > its own JAR, but to ship it in the struts-lib distribution, and make > it a standard part of any applications or prototypes we offer. People > won't have to go and get it, because it will already be there. But, if > someone wants to try something different, they can pluck it out. > > I like this the best. I think Struts should have a standard convention > based system that comes with the distribution and is part of the core > documentation. Folks that don't want it, just yank the JAR out of > WEB-INF/lib. Those that want it, have it. I think the key is to have it as > part of the core documentation so that folks know about it up front. > > -bp > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
