[kepler-dev] Auto configuring actors for registered services?

[Zhijie Guan]

Hi, All,

I am working on a project which will use many external services. These 
external services may have implementations in one or more of the following 
categories: programs on the local machine, programs accessible on the 
remote server, and web/Grid services. Instead of creating actors for each 
of those external services, I'd like to use a general-purpose execute 
actor that is able to get the service information, auto configue itself, 
and call the program service accordingly.

So in my design, I first need a registry to record all of the info about 
the external services, such as the service type (local program, remote 
program, web/Grid service), service location (program path/name, service 
URL, etc.), and input/output parameter sets. These infomation should be 
stored in a XML file. And the registry should provide the user an 
interface to register/edit/port the info of any registry entries. Does 
anybody have any suggestions/recommendations on the implementation of the 
registry? Or any code/experience that I can "borrow"?

Then I need to build an actor that can auto configure itself to adapt to 
different services. The configuration should include functions that call 
different services according to the service type, set the parameters and 
input/output ports for the actor, and change the display of the actor 
icon/ports. I know the webservice actor can somehow auto configure itself 
when the user setups the web service URL. Is there any other examples that 
I can learn from?

Your suggestions/comments will be highly appreciated!


Regards,

Zhijie