[cas-dev] easier configuration in CAS 3.1.2-SNAPSHOT

[Scott Battaglia]

Good suggestion!  A JIRA issue has been created to track the addition of a
README file:

http://www.ja-sig.org/issues/browse/CAS-612

The information listed in the readme file will also be placed into our
Confluence users manual.

Thanks
-Scott


On Jan 30, 2008 4:08 PM, Andrew Petro <apetro at unicon.net> wrote:

>  > I'm curious how others feel about this change.
>
> Change to auto-detect and honor configuration files in a particular
> appropriately located not-served-to-the-web directory sound in keeping with
> the trend towards "convention over configuration".  CAS3 has other
> convention-over-configuration behaviors, such as the defaults in many beans
> on which it falls back when particular configuration is not
> dependency-injected.
>
> So, loosely, I feel pretty good about this specific change.
>
> Things that make this more palatable include a README in the conventional
> directory documenting that files dropped in the directory will be parsed and
> honored, and being really very clear about *when* this happens, what the
> refresh behavior is if any, and what the failure behavior is (does dropping
> a malformed file into this directory squib the whole CAS init?  Just drop
> that file?)
>
> I hear the concern that this will be confusing -- that one might drop a
> new file in that directory, forget that one has done so, and be unpleasantly
> surprised on next CAS startup, e.g.  I think it's countervailed by having
> to enumerate these files, potentially get their names wrong, etc.,
> effectively duplicating configuration (sticking the file in the directory
> and enumerating the file in web.xml) also being confusing and error-prone
> in its way.
>
> I wouldn't want to go too far down this road of convention over
> configuration.  Auto-wiring the CAS Spring configuration files sounds a poor
> idea, a loss to literacy of the configuration.  But this change seems a step
> towards the right point on the spectrum for CAS.
>
> My two cents.
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
>
>
> Scott Battaglia wrote:
>
> The XML configuration files have to be placed in a specific directory that
> is under the WEB-INF directory.  The web.xml is configured to only load
> XML files in that specific directory.  It eliminates the need for every
> deployer to modify the web.xml.  It also allows us to break out the
> configuration files into smaller subsets and allow you to override specific
> ones without having to make a copy of the larger file (i.e.
> applicationContext.xml).
>
> -Scott
>
> On Jan 30, 2008 2:22 PM, William G. Thompson, Jr. <wgthom at rutgers.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > Not sure how I feel about loading *.xml files...seems like it could
> > lead to some unintended consequences.  Isn't it better, safer maybe,
> > to have these explicitly identified?  I'm curious how others feel
> > about this change.
> >
> > Bill
> >
> >
> > On Jan 30, 2008 11:56 AM, Scott Battaglia <scott.battaglia at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > > For the first time in a long time, I've actually had to do a
> > deployment of
> > > CAS from scratch (shocking, yes, I know).  So its the first time I've
> > had
> > > the pleasure of using the WAR overlay method of keeping track of your
> > > customizations.  [side note, if you're not using it I recommend it].
> > >
> > > However, when using it I noticed a few things that could be done more
> > > easily, so I've made a few modifications to the way we handle
> > configuration
> > > files:
> > >
> > > Except for the files that we reference constantly or need to be in a
> > > particular spot (I'm looking at you, deployerConfigContext.xml and
> > > cas-servlet.xml), all other Spring XML configuration files are either
> > > located in WEB-INF/spring-configuration/ or
> > WEB-INF/unused-configuration/
> > >
> > > The web.xml is set up to load deployerConfigContext.xml and
> > > WEB-INF/spring-configuration/*.xml.  You need to add a configuration
> > file or
> > > enable one?  Just put it in that directory (preferably using the WAR
> > overlay
> > > method).  Some of the things that are more frequently modified have
> > been
> > > broken out into their own configuration files.
> > >
> > > This is going in for the CAS 3.1.2 release.  If you have any
> > suggestions on
> > > breaking up the configuration files some more, etc. please let me know
> > > within the next day or two.
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > > -Scott
> > >
> > >  --
> > > -Scott Battaglia
> >
>
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>


-- 
-Scott Battaglia

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbattaglia
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