I have been investigating commons-attributes for use with XML-RPC, specifically to denote which methods on a given class should be exposed via an XML-RPC server. I have done some reading on the web about metadata, including JSR175.
I would like to get feedback from some more experienced developers about some implementation decisions. In particular, both attrib4j and commons-attributes make the following assumptions:
- There is one set of metadata for a given language structure
- An attribute set and the attribute values are immutable
These assumptions seem to be unnecessary and they limit what can be accomplished using metadata. I could not find language addressing them in JSR175.
First, the assumption that there is only one set of metadata for a given language structure is already more restrictive than the current usage of deployment descriptors in J2EE. A class might have separate types of metadata for different runtime or deployment time usage. Attributes used for EJB code generation might be better kept separate from attributes for persistence, security, RPC, and other concerns.
Second, I do not understand the need for an attribute to remain constant for a particular version of a class. Some attributes might be better defined by the application deployer than by the class programmer. Future users of the class might want to assign additional attributes to language structures that were not foreseen by the programmer. A container might be able to leverage a facility for runtime attribute modification in order to perform its duties.
If anyone can shed some light on these issues, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks, -- Ryan Hoegg ISIS Networks http://www.isisnetworks.net
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