File suffix for Synapse extension archives

[Andreas Veithen]

Hi all,

With the improvements I proposed in SYNAPSE-377 it will become  
possible to deploy (including hot deployment) Synapse extensions, i.e.  
mediators and startups, not only in the form of simple JAR files, but  
also in the form of archive files with embedded JARs, meaning that the  
extension can be bundled and deployed together with its dependencies.  
This is similar to how AAR files for Axis2 services and MAR files for  
Axis2 modules work. To distinguish this kind of archives from normal  
JARs, it will be necessary to chose a new file extension. Initially I  
proposed SXAR for Synapse eXtension ARchive, but after giving it some  
thought, I believe that XAR sounds better. I would like to have the  
opinion of the developer and user community on this. Any comments and  
suggestions are welcome!

Regards,

Andreas