[news.eclipse.technology.ecf] makeSharedObjectContainer & org.eclipse.ec

[Li-Te <li-te_cheng@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Started to try out the initial provider implementation.  Thanks for 
making it available so quickly!  So far it works pretty well, and I'll 
probably have more comments later after digging into it some more...

Something that struck me immediately was the pattern to set up a server 
versus the pattern to set up a client, i.e.

Here is some example/test code that creates a client instance of this 
new provider:

client pattern:

ISharedObjectContainer clients[i] = 
SharedObjectContainerFactory.makeSharedObjectContainer("org.eclipse.ecf.provider.generic.ContainerInstantiator");

server pattern:

           ID serverID = 
IDFactory.makeStringID("ecftcp://localhost:3282/server");
           Object [] args = new Object [] { new Boolean(false), serverID };
           server = 
SharedObjectContainerFactory.makeSharedObjectContainer("org.eclipse.ecf.provider.generic.ContainerInstantiator",args);

1.  The documentation on makeSharedObjectContainer says

"@param descriptionName  = the SharedObjectContainerDescription name to 
lookup"


It might be helpful to note the mapping between descriptionName and the 
"name" field in extension to org.eclipse.ecf.containerFactory in the 
plugin.xml.  e.g. "SharedObjectContainerDescription names can be found 
in the 'name' field of any extension to the 
org.eclipse.ecf.containerFactory extension point. If there is no name 
field defined, the ContainerInstantiator class name is used."

2.  The server pattern involves some extra "configuration" steps 
(setting up an ID, setting up arguments).  It might be nice to ALSO 
allow alternate extensions to the org.eclipse.ecf.containerFactory 
extension point to provide default arguments.  e.g. something like...

<extension
     point="org.eclipse.ecf.containerFactory">
  <containerFactory
          class="org.eclipse.ecf.provider.generic.ContainerInstantiator"
          description="Generic Container Instantiator"
 	  name="client"/>
  <containerFactory
          class="org.eclipse.ecf.provider.generic.ContainerInstantiator"
          description="Generic Container Instantiator"
 	  name="server">
       <arg type="boolean">false</arg>
       <arg type="stringID">ecftcp://localhost:3282/server</arg>
  </containerFactory>
</extension>

This way, the you can set up a server as quickly as a client:

server = 
SharedObjectContainerFactory.makeSharedObjectContainer("server",args);

Also, this pushes server configuration information into plugin.xml, so 
you can tweak this info without touching sourcecode.

Plus, others can extend org.eclipse.ecf.containerFactory with the same 
ContainerInstantiator class, use a different name, and define different 
default arguments.

This might also be useful for different client configurations as well.

Li-Te