Package com.mucommander.conf

Provides classes to deal with software configuration.

See:
Description

Interface Summary

ConfigurationBuilder	Receive notification of the logical structure of a configuration instance.
ConfigurationListener	Listener interface for receiving configuration events.
ConfigurationReader	Interface for reading from a configuration source using callbacks.
ConfigurationReaderFactory	Interface used to provide instances of Configuration with a way of creating reader instances.
ConfigurationSource	Provides instances of Configuration with streams to configuration data.
ConfigurationWriter	Interface for writing to a configuration source using callbacks.
ConfigurationWriterFactory	Interface used to provide interfaces of Configuration with a way of creating writer instances.

Class Summary

Configuration	Base class for all configuration related tasks.
ConfigurationEvent	An event which indicates that configuration has been modified.
DefaultConfigurationBuilder	Default base class for the analysis of the logical structure of a Configuration.
FileConfigurationSource	Configuration source that open input and output streams on a local file.
ValueIterator	Iterator with support for value casting.
ValueList	Provides support for variables whose value is a list of tokens.
XmlConfigurationReader	Implementation of ConfigurationReader used to read XML configuration streams.
XmlConfigurationReaderFactory	Reader factory implementation used to create instances of XmlConfigurationReader.
XmlConfigurationWriter	Implementation of ConfigurationWriter used to write XML configuration streams.
XmlConfigurationWriterFactory	Writer factory implementation used to create instances of XmlConfigurationWriter.

Exception Summary

ConfigurationException	Encapsulates a general configuration error.
ConfigurationFormatException	Encapsulate a configuration format error.
ConfigurationStructureException	Encapsulate a configuration structure error.
ReaderConfigurationException	Encapsulate a reader configuration error.
SourceConfigurationException	Encapsulate a source configuration error.
WriterConfigurationException	Encapsulate a writer configuration error.

Package com.mucommander.conf Description

Provides classes to deal with software configuration.

Configuration variables

Configuration data is stored as a set of variables organised in sections. A typical variable name is: section.subsection.name where:

• section and subsection are both sections.
• name is the variable's name.

Configuration data is stored in instances of Configuration, which offers a set of methods manipulate variables:

• Basic retrieval, which returns a variable's value if known.
• Advanced retrieval, which returns a variable's value and set it to a default value if not known.
• Existence checking, which checks whether a variable exists or not.
• Renaming, which changes a variable's name as well as the section it belongs to.
• Removal, which deletes a variable from the configuration.
• Setting, which sets a variable's value.

Loading and storing configuration

The com.mucommander.conf package offers various ways of loading and storing configuration.
The most obvious way is by using the read and write methods, but this has the disadvantage of forcing application writers to manage streams themselves.
The preferred method is to create a dedicated ConfigurationSource class and register it through setSource. This allows an instance of Configuration to know how to read from and write to its configuration file (or socket or any other medium that provides input and output streams).

Changing the default configuration format

The default configuration format is described in XmlConfigurationReader. Application writers who wish to change this can do so by:

• Creating custom writers and readers.
• Creating associated writer factories and reader factories.
• Registering them through setWriterFactory and setReaderFactory.

Listening to the configuration

Classes that need to be notified when the configuration has changed can do so by:

• Implementing the ConfigurationListener interface.
• Registering themselves through addConfigurationLister.