Loading providers from META-INF/services: spec too vague or J2SE 5 bug ?

Hi,

I have implemented the loading of JMXConnector[Server]Provider
implementations from META-INF/services.
I have few doubts :)

MX4J's mx4j-tools.jar has now 7 providers in the files in the
META-INF/services directory.

If I try to instantiate the MX4J soap connector in J2SE 5, it happens
that the first provider listed in
META-INF/services/javax.management.remote.JMXConnector[Server]Provider
is returned, no matter if it is really the soap one or not.

Now, the spec does not say that service providers should follow a naming
pattern such as:

<package>.<decoded protocol>.[Client|Server]Provider

(where <decoded protocol> converts for example "soap+ssl" in
"soap.ssl").
It can be any class name.

Now I think there must be a way to check that the provider found in the
provider list under META-INF/services is really a provider for the
chosen protocol, otherwise

service:jmx:invalid-protocol:///

cannot be recognized as a non supported protocol.

A solution would be to specify that the service provider sticks to the
naming convention; JSR 160 implementations just check that the provider
class ends with "<decoded protocol>.[Client|Server]Provider before
trying to instantiate it.

Another solution, more expensive, is to instantiate the
JMXConnector[Server] and provide a getAddress() method (not present in
JMXConnector), to match the protocol.

I have modified MX4J to follow the naming pattern, but this is something
that is probably to be clarified by JSR 255.

Am I missing something, or misunderstood the service provider mechanism
?

Simon


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