7 Nov
2012
7 Nov
'12
2:41 p.m.
Hi,
I'd like to register servlets in the component manager and have them called by their
hint.
The oldcore struts servlet would be @Named("bin") and the rest servlet would be
@Named("rest")
Reasons to want to do this:
* There are things which are currently impossible without a servlet, things like REST, GWT
and WebDav.
* If somebody has servlet code and they want to make it run in XWiki, this is a real
answer for them whereas "rewrite your app using XWiki actions" isn't.
* Even if we had an Actions system which made it *possible* to implement REST, GWT, and
WebDav entry points, we would have to rewrite the universe since all external libraries
use Servlet.
* Web.xml is an eyesore, it's full of content which is the concern only of a
particular module, this could (mostly) be fixed by using injected servlets.
The big reason not to like it is because it could undermine the proposal for Actions.
The JIRA issue for actions http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-4713 was opened on January 1
of 2010.
It is stalled because nobody really knows how to make an abstraction which represents
Servlets or Portlets without any lost features.
If we make it easier for servlets to be used, we might begin down a slippery slope toward
everything being done using servlets and then we lose portlet compatibility.
But the alternative as I see it is to block progress in this direction and hope that
somebody steps up to implement Actions which are fully compatible with portlets and
servlets.
WDYT?
Are there reasons not to do this which I missed?
Caleb