Hi Geeks
It's me again with my favorite topic EJX. After investigation EJX
I found it a quite well, but bare bone tools (with EJX I also include
Rickard's AWT).
Because EJX is a bare bone tool I think we NEED to make EJX/AWT
available in jBoss CVS to enhance and fix problems with EJX. At
the moment I could not found something like this. For the upcoming
EJX/AWT HowTo I wrote I stripped down EJX to it's minimum
and created a Ant-build.xml file to compile it (at the moment AWT
is still an external project but I do not think this is a big task to add
it). What do you think?
Things I think we should address now:
- Add EJX/AWT into CVS and add it to the jBoss build.xml to
build it after changing the code.
- Not all data must come from a file therefore I would suggest that
EJX doesn't use a file but an URL. This means the FileManager/
FileManagerFactory should be renamed to ResourceManager/
ResourceManagerFactory and support URL instead of File. Then
an appropriate protocol handler (have a look at JDC for an tutorial
on this topic) which can load and save data to any source/destination
you like (web, JNDI, JMX Connector, CVS etc.).
- Create a tool which allows the EJX plugin to define a GUI on the
fly (like the information from the MBean see also the HTML-Adaptor
on port 8082)
- Extend EJX to support JavaHelp, dynamically change the EJX-Menu,
selection bar on the left hand side like in M$ Management Console
(you would see a list of available plugins, within a plugin you see the
instances you run and within them you could see items defined by
the EJX-plugin).
- Extend AWT to support more advanced GUI elements (at the
moment I am not quite sure what is supported but I will delve into it.
It would be also interesting if we can create a properties file telling
the AWT to display a particular GUI element for a particular type
(own text field instead of the default JTextField).
That's it for now but let me say something personal now and please
don't take it to hard but I like to say something instead of carring
unpleasant feelings around:
Even when Marc said that we (the people) are here to carry out
the ideas and prototyps of Rickard I think it is the responsibilty and
task to support a handing over when Rickard likes to go on and hunt
new ideas ESPECIALLY when he urge us to use his tools. I only
got a response from Rickard when I questioned EJX but when I
asked for support: nada, nothing, nichts, niet (I don't know the
swedish word for nothing).
I would prefer spending my time on designing a JMX agent or
designing a sexy GUI instead of hunting down EJX/AWT by
myself. It's not only Rickard who can create a great design and
brings in good ideas but to keep all other busy is also a way to
keep him ahead of all others (I don't say that's Rickard intention but
it is the way I feel).
I commited myself to use EJX for the jBoss administration GUI because
it is simple, small and already part of jBoss but I think we have to
put a lot of effort into it to make it suitable as a jBoss administration
GUI because this is what the users see and that's important.
I also like to thank Simone Bordet helping me to bring this topic
further by valuable input and comments.
Have fun - Mad Andy
