Model-Glue config file builder smarter

[Chuck Savage <chuck@…>]

Currently, if you have a Model-Glue.xml file that has some <include template="file1.xml" /> <include template="file2.xml" /> etc, file1 cannot reference anything in file2, event-type's, event-handler's etc.

An enhancement request would be to have the parser build the model-glue file completely before executing anything. Or similarly make this a cold-spring like bean, that can cross-inject cross-dependencies.

[DanWilson]

This is a very good idea and while it is common in programming to have to declare a variable before using it, semantically it seems like it should be different when configuring a framework.

We've looked in to this enhancement, and haven't yet found a way to do this without doubling or tripling the load time of the Model Glue application.

Our most common complaint is load times, so I'm going to wait on fixing this until we find a more performant way to get it done.

[DanWilson]

What I do in this case, is include my event types as the first include, then they can be used by the other includes in my application. So, while there is a workaround, I can see the original point.

[boomfish]

The statement "file1 cannot reference anything in file2" is an exaggeration:

* File1 can have a message broadcast with a corresponding message listener in file2.

* File1 can have a result that directs to an event handler in file2.

The only reference dependency I can identify is between event handlers and event types. In other words, event types defined in file2 will not be applied to event handlers defined in file1.

It might be possible to resolve this dependency without a huge load-time overheard by making significant changes to the implementation of event types. For example, we could turn the 'before' and 'after' sections of event types into their own private EventHandler objects and inject copies of them into event handlers that have those types.

However I seriously doubt we could resolve this issue in time for the 3.1.x-next-patch milestone.

Does any one know of any other specific reference dependency other than event types?