Plugins are really only helpful to people using a Servlet 2.2 container. If you're using Servlet 2.3 you should use a ServletContextListener.
I don't know (but I doubt) that there is a determinate order to how containers process "contextInitialized" On the other hand, Struts processes plugins in order. I know one developer who leverages this predictability to initialize a series of "specialist" classes, and then finally a facade type class which proxies for the others. I don't know the details, but this is one other possible use case.
Also, PlugIns are "module aware" -- the initialize method gets a ModuleConfig object. That might matter to some implementations.
I suspect in many cases where I use PlugIns, I could be using ServletContextListeners instead, but I haven't broken the habit yet. But the gist is the same -- some component you write needs to know when the application context has been initialized.
Joe
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Joe Germuska [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://blog.germuska.com "If nature worked that way, the universe would crash all the time." --Jaron Lanier
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