[jboss-as7-dev] (JDBC) Driver Registry

Following up with some of the discussion we'd been having in the past few weeks, I would like to call for comments on the idea of a central, domain level driver registry that can be used to query specific deployments like JDBC drivers. Creating datasource configuration is currently way to complex for the average user. Once you've deployed the JDBC driver you need provide the correct driver name, driver class and version besides the regular data source attributes. Since we are lacking a way to query for installed JDBC drivers this currently means providing the required attributes as string values. A more simple and less error prone approach would be to provide a selection of drivers to chose from. But this would require something like a domain level driver registry. The same mechanism might be used to query available resource adapters or other specific deployment types that are typically referenced by applications. Any reasons why this cannot be done? Any objections why it shouldn't be? Other ideas how this situation can be improved? Ike