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Bug 141925

Summary: Reliable layer overrides without artificial module dependencies
Product: platform Reporter: Jesse Glick <jglick>
Component: FilesystemsAssignee: Jesse Glick <jglick>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: blocker CC: anebuzelsky, apireviews, jtulach, rmichalsky, saubrecht
Priority: P2 Keywords: API, API_REVIEW_FAST
Version: 6.x   
Hardware: All   
OS: All   
Issue Type: ENHANCEMENT Exception Reporter:
Bug Depends on: 181460, 195827    
Bug Blocks: 71439, 187991, 199823    
Attachments: Possible patch
Revised patch

Description Jesse Glick 2008-07-28 17:50:08 UTC 
Currently if you wish to override a layer entry with path "folder/data" defined in module m1 with an entry folder/data
defined in m2, then m2 needs to have a dependency on m1 to ensure that it is loaded "after" m1. (In project.xml, this
would be a <run-dependency> with no <build-prerequisite> or <compile-dependency>.) We do this in a number of places in
nb.org modules, and even have

http://deadlock.netbeans.org/hudson/job/trunk/lastSuccessfulBuild/testReport/org.netbeans.core.projects/ValidateLayerConsistencyTest/testIfOneFileIsDefinedTwiceByDifferentModulesTheyNeedToHaveMutualDependency/

to verify that we get it right. But it is pretty painful, and most developers have no idea they need to do this:

http://openide.netbeans.org/servlets/ReadMsg?listName=dev&msgNo=34876

Furthermore, it introduces an artificial dependency between modules, when in fact m2 might run perfectly well without m1
installed.

We should have some other system of ensuring that one layer entry overrides another. The simplest thing I can think of
is to define a special numeric-valued file attribute 'weight' (default 0), where "heavier" entries override "lighter"
entries. (For compatibility, in the case of conflicting entries with the same weight, the "later" layer wins, as now.)
This could be interpreted in MultiFileSystem with no reference to the module system. So for example

---%<--- m1/src/m1/layer.xml
<filesystem>
 <folder name="folder">
  <file name="data" url="m1-contents"/>
 </>
</>
---%<--- m2/src/m2/layer.xml
<filesystem>
 <folder name="folder">
  <file name="data" url="m2-contents">
    <attr name="weight" intvalue="100"/>
  </>
 </>
</>
---%<---

would suffice to ensure that Repo.gD().gDFS().fR("folder/data").getInputStream() would produce m2-contents rather than
m1-contents, regardless of module load order.

'priority' could also be used instead of 'weight' but I fear this might be mistaken for 'position', which is quite
unrelated.

ValidateLayerConsistencyTest could then be changed to just check that if multiple modules define the same file, each
specifies a different weight. This would be easy to test and failures would be easy to fix (either by removing duplicate
registrations or assigning weights according to priority).
Comment 1 Jesse Glick 2008-07-28 18:06:07 UTC 
You could override findResource in ModuleLayeredFileSystem to make it affect just XML layers. This might be inefficient,
however (the default impl uses private infrastructure in MFS/MFO), and also would not work from unit tests that do not
load core.jar. Would probably be better to implement directly in MultiFileSystem.

One catch is that customizations, in $userdir/config/, should always override layer entries even if they specify a
weight. I suggest the code always pick the resource from layers[0] (the writable layer) if it exists, regardless of
weight in other layers. This ensures that after setting the content on a MFO, the observed content is what you just set.
Could also use createWritableOn to find the priority FS more accurately, taking care to ignore IOException's which are
meaningless in this context.
Comment 2 Jesse Glick 2008-07-28 19:28:29 UTC 
Created attachment 65843 [details]
Possible patch
Comment 3 Jesse Glick 2008-07-28 19:31:19 UTC 
I attached a patch which might work. (Only unit tested, not tried on a real example.) A full patch would also need API
changes & documentation, change of VLCT, fixup of nb.org modules to use the new attribute, and perhaps a change to
o.n.m.apisupport.project.layers to generate the weight attribute on new layer overrides (to e.g. 100 more than any
previous weight).
Comment 4 Jesse Glick 2009-07-22 20:14:13 UTC 
Relates to apisupport.
Comment 5 rmichalsky 2009-07-23 07:30:25 UTC 
Ok, I'll add weight generation once this feature is done.
Comment 6 rmichalsky 2009-08-12 12:00:11 UTC 
Jirko, any possibility to get this into 6.8?
Comment 7 Jesse Glick 2010-02-22 08:40:10 UTC 
It is probably better if I take over the base (non-apisupport) patch. I can work on VLCT and use that as a way to find layers in nb.org that need to be changed.
Comment 8 Jesse Glick 2010-02-22 15:13:31 UTC 
Please review.
Comment 9 Jesse Glick 2010-02-22 15:16:16 UTC 
Created attachment 94399 [details]
Revised patch

Includes filesystems changes to recognize the new 'weight' attr; API change documentation; rewritten VLCT test; and fixes to a few modules to make them pass the test (cluster.config=bloated) - to use weight in the few cases where overriding was actually intended, otherwise to not override.
Comment 10 Jesse Glick 2010-03-01 09:04:15 UTC 
core-main #860290e5753e
Comment 11 Quality Engineering 2010-03-01 22:09:50 UTC 
Integrated into 'main-golden', will be available in build *201003020200* on http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/nightly/ (upload may still be in progress)
Changeset: http://hg.netbeans.org/main/rev/860290e5753e
User: Jesse Glick <jglick@netbeans.org>
Log: Issue #141925: provide a simpler way to declare which layer entries override others.
Comment 12 simpatico 2010-11-02 04:48:09 UTC 
http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/javadoc/org-openide-filesystems/overview-summary.html

the dtd specified attr and not attributed as reported in the documentation page above:

<filesystem>
    <folder name="my-snippets">
        <file name="common.xml" url="special-snippet.xml">
            <attribute name="weight" intvalue="100"/>
        </file>
    </folder>
</filesystem>
Comment 13 Quality Engineering 2010-11-03 03:58:11 UTC 
Integrated into 'main-golden', will be available in build *201011030000* on http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/nightly/ (upload may still be in progress)
Changeset: http://hg.netbeans.org/main/rev/b5d7c37dae43
User: Jesse Glick <jglick@netbeans.org>
Log: #141925 apichanges tweak: <attr> not <attribute>.