.eob vs .ear

Hello.

I'm sorry to be picky, but why does EOB use an .eob and not just a =
normal
.ear file?  It seems like 'yet another package format'.   In fact, =
couldn't
the eob application.xml file be formatted to use a (slightly) modified
version of Sun's application.xml file?

Example:

<application>
    <name>myapp</name>
    <description>My EOB Appliction</description>
    <publish type=3D"SocketCustomStream" bind-to=3D"*" port=3D"7124"/>
    <module>
       <bean>eob1.jar</bean>
    </module>
    <module>
       <bean>eob2.jar</bean>
    </module>
    <module>
       <java>dependency.jar</bean>
    </module>
    <module>
       <java>util.jar</java>
    </module>
    <module>
       <web>
         <web-uri>webapp.war</web-uri>
          <context-root>webapp</context-root>
        </web>
    </module>
</application>

Which would be structured as:

  myapp.ear
     /META-INF
       application.xml
     eob1.jar
     eob2.jar
     dependency.jar
     util.jar
     webapp.war

It seems like this would lower the learning curve for EOB and make it =
easier
to use existing tools.  Granted, the above application.xml is not valid
under Sun's DTD, but it's at least similar.

Moreover, one could then do something like Merlin's classpath loader =
which
could be hooked into a remote Maven repository:

    <module>
       <bean>group:eob1:1.0</bean>
       <bean>group:eob2:1.0</bean>
       <java>xerces:xmlParserAPIs:2.4.0</bean>
       <java>xerces:xercesImpl:2.4.0</java>
       <web>
         <web-uri>group:webapp:1.0</web-uri>
         <context-root>webapp</context-root>
       </web>
    </module>

(I kinda like not having to write out separate <module/> elements, but =
it
doesn't matter)

This might seem like an odd request, but I actually have a use case for =
it.
This would allow a single local application.xml file to load up modules
which could be downloaded from a remote repository.

Finally, I'm haven't looked how EOB hands off web apps to Jetty, but by
using the above schema, handlers could be registered for different =
module
types.  New module definitions could then be easily added.

If there's interest, then I'll look into the patches necessary.

J. Aaron Farr
=A0 SONY ELECTRONICS
=A0 DDP-CIM
=A0 (724) 696-7653
=A0




-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.NET email is sponsored by: eBay
Great deals on office technology -- on eBay now! Click here:
http://adfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/ck/711-11697-6916-5