Federico Barbieri wrote:
>
> Last days I was wondering what is the best way to define mail servlet
> interface.
If you're defining an interface, these are no more mail "servlets" in
the strict meaning implied by the world "Servlet" (as defined by the
Java Servlet Api specification).
IMVHO we should, first of all, to avoid any confusion, find a new name.
I had several talks with James Duncan Davidson (the previous maintainer
of the Java Servlet Specification) and, as shown by the new 2.2 version
of the spec, servlets are more and more evolving towards a unique HTTP
model (even if they still keep a basic difference between javax.servlet
and javax.servlet.http packages).
In the past year, I realized that servlets are oriented to a request
response mechanism, while, what we are looking at right now, is a modify
and forward mechanism.
The difference between those two models is that in the request-response
mode, the stream generated by the "servlet" is sent back to the same
client, while in the modify-forward is sent somewhere else.
> I looked both at Serge implementation and Stefano and Pier Mail Servlet
> draft and I realyze there is a limitation: both definitions allow a mail
> servlet to receive only one mail as "request" and generate only one
> "response".
That's a limitation, in fact, imposed by the request-response model. We
need to switch to a modify-forward (or modify-forward*) model, instead.
> This is enought for mail servlet like a mailinglistservlet which only,
> from the request message, expand recipient list and add some footer.
> My point is: do we need a mail servlet to produce more than a response
> from an incoming message?
I don't see how we need to generate a different content for a single
servlet call, but surely we need to be able to multiplex this output to
different recipients:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (request)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] examines and modifies the contend (modify)
and then sends it to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (forward)
to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (forward)
to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (forward)
So, we can have request->modify->forward*
> I was thinking to something like a mailservlet whitch examine incoming
> messages and produce a new mail if some condition occurs. In this case
> one message enter the mail servlet and one or two (the old untoched
> message and the new one) different messages exit.
I cant' get what you want to do...
> Another example can be some translation servlet which translate incoming
> messages to the user preferred language:
> I can write
>
> <processor match="to=mario@[localhost] or to=natasha@[localhost]"
> class="Translator">
> <translate user=mario language=italian/>
> <translate user=natasha language=russian/>
> </processor>
I'd better see different processors based on the same class aliased on
two different addresses, rather than one that does different things
depending on "request data"...
> This meand the servlet take the same message sent to mario and natasha
> and produce two different output messages.
Gotcha... But I'd prefer to see two different processors doing the same
job...
> Since such things cannot be done using both Serge or Pier and Stefano
> pattern I was wandering if someting more powerful could be needed.
> Am I on the right way or just thinking too big?
It is, IMVHO, too complicated and "not clean" (it's a feeling, can't
explain it better)...
Pier
PS. When the hell are you going to get here, DAMN! :)
--
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- P I E R -
stable structure erected over water to allow the docking of seacraft
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.betaversion.org/~pier/>
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