Re: WebAdmin

Natalia Shilenkova wrote:
> I took a look at one of the TODO items, WebAdmin, that has been
> sitting there for a while. Here are my observations:
> 
> 1. It is probably a good idea make it work without avalon library.
> Should be easy to do, too.

Yes, I'm wary of dragging extra dependencies, especially from (now closed) 
avalon. I'd too prefer to remove it.


> 2. WebAdmin does not compile under jdk 1.3 (it requires 1.4), which I
> don't see as a problem, considering there is already a discussion
> about moving on to a newer java version.

I think we can be sure that xindice 1.2 can have minimum requirement of at least 
1.4, so that should not be a problem for 1.2 release. But for webadmin to be 
part of 1.1, it has to be Java 1.3 compatible.


> 3. Current version of webadmin allows users to change collection
> configuration. For example, collection filer can be changed from
> HashFiler to BTreeFiler. Ouch. This is really a bad idea as data files
> are not rebuilt. This feature should be removed.

Hmmm. *Some* configuration options probably should be made editable. But 
certainly free-form editing of config is too dangerous to have. I'm ok with 
removing this feature in first release of webadmin.


> 4. Would be nice to separate presentation logic. Currently, all
> html/xml is hardcoded.

Yes, but I don't think it should be a priority. First let's make it integrated 
and working.


> 5. Xindice allows a situation where some collection contains a
> document and a child collection with the same name. In this situation
> it is impossible to tell if WebDAV request applies to the resource or
> child collection, in both cases the path will be something like
> /db/collection/child.

There is a similar situation in the URIMapper class (of 
org.apache.xindice.core.request package). Even though this code looks to be 
unused, untested and/or not integrated, the approach taken there is to 
prioritize collection over documents. E.g., if there is same-name document and 
collection, it will use collection.


> I will start working on integrating the code, making all sort of
> changes in progress. Feel free to share any feedback, thought and
> ideas :)

Awesome! Please send patched in.

Vadim