[kepler-dev] Use of kepler-configs.jar

Matt Jones jones at nceas.ucsb.edu
Wed Feb 1 04:29:36 PST 2006


Dan,

If I remember correctly, this was done to support Java Web Start, which 
requires that all resources be distributed in jar files, without 
exception.  One workaround would be to unjar the config files into 
.kepler as an initial step in the Kepler startup and then use those 
local file copies for subsequent operations, but this might cause yet 
another delay in startup.

Matt

Dan Higgins wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
>     If you look into the details of how Kepler is currently launched (at 
> least from ANT) you will find that a jar file called 
> 'kepler-configs.jar' is created and configuration information is read 
> from the jar file. Various classpath relative files are read from this 
> jar. Even the ANT target 'run-dev' builds this jar (although it avoids 
> jarring all the sources).
> 
>      There are some some disadvantages to jarring all the configuration 
> files. One of these is that it makes it more difficult for a user to 
> edit configuration settings (like the $Kepler/lib/configs.xml file or 
> the configs/ptolemy/configs/kepler/\uiSettings.properties file. A 
> non-java programmer would have a difficult time unjarring the config 
> jar, editing the file, and then rejarring it. Similarly, all the 
> examples linked to the Intro.html file are in the jar. Saving changed 
> versions of these workflow demos has confused several new users because 
> Kepler cannot save back to the jar file it read to display the demos. 
> And we have been including non-jarred versions of the demos in the 
> workflows directory as well as non-jarred versions of the config files.
> 
>     So I would like to propose that we not use the kepler-configs.jar 
> file and just add some additonal entries to the classpath. If you include
> 
> ./:./configs:./lib:./lib/images
> 
> to the start of the classpath, the kepler-configs.jar can be eliminated 
> without moving or deleting any files/directories in $Kepler. The only 
> other thing that needs to changed is the paths in the 'Intro.html' file 
> that links to example workflows. (Apparently, all relative paths are 
> relative to the location of the html file with the link.) Currently, the 
> links all start with "workflows/..." since the workflow directory is 
> copied to a location relative to the configs/kepler/ directory. If we 
> just change 'workflows' to '../../../../workflows' in the html files, we 
> can have a relative link to any examples (and the workflows are opened 
> as files (rather than as jar urls.)
> 
>     Any thoughts on these proposed changes? [Note that the main value of 
> such change is for Kepler distributions where users will presumably not 
> be re-compiling Kepler.]
> 
> Dan
> 

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matt Jones
jones at nceas.ucsb.edu                         Ph: 907-789-0496
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
UC Santa Barbara     http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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