[teiid-dev] Proposal to further refine the JCA Connectors

After the 7.0 M3 release, and based some initial user feed back and issues we have seen, we would like to propose change in the how the Connector are defined. Traditionally in Teiid <= 6.2 and in Metamatarix Connector Binding = Translation Layer + Source Connection With the JCA changes, "Connector Binding" became the JCA Connector. However, in the container a Source is defined with a "Data Source", especially for relational sources the equation became Data Source = Managed Connection = Source Connection Connector Binding = Translation Layer + Data Source since the "Data Source" is defined with its own connector (i.e. -ds.xml file) in the container, to support the "Connector Binding" in container, we exposed the "Translation Layer" as another JCA Connector. So, now this became Connector Binding = JCA Connector + Data Source But, JCA Connector = Managed Conection Connector Binding = Managed Connection + Managed Connection Now, this became an issue to have a managed connection over managed connection. Teiid does not *really* need the "Managed Connection" for the translation layer, but it *really* needs in the "source connection", so we want propose splitting the "Connector Binding" into two Translation Layer --> becomes a non-managed connection (not JCA) Source Connection --> becomes managed connection (JCA) This has some pros and cons Pros 1) Translation layer would be independent of connection layer 2) Since translation layer is independent of the environment changes, they are portable and can be included in the VDB to migrate from one environment to another. 3) Since the Connection layer is independent of Translation layer it becomes more general purpose JCA connector, that can be used with other applications. With out these changes, this connector was previously only to be used with Teiid. This also paves easier way to handle any type JCA connector. Cons. 1) Only JDBC Connector had two distinct configurations to define the connector before. Going forward Teiid would need to devide the code in all the Connectors between the translation layer and connection layer and package as such. One as the regular jar file and as the JCA connector. 2) Two separate configuration files to define the layers 3) Dependent jar management for the translation layer. 4)