[jboss-jira] [JBoss JIRA] (JBWEB-273) ProxyDirContext does not handle overlays when caching is turned off (Servlet 3.0 spec incompatibility)

[Phil Phil (JIRA)]

Phil Phil created JBWEB-273:
-------------------------------

             Summary: ProxyDirContext does not handle overlays when caching is turned off (Servlet 3.0 spec incompatibility)
                 Key: JBWEB-273
                 URL: https://issues.jboss.org/browse/JBWEB-273
             Project: JBoss Web
          Issue Type: Feature Request
      Security Level: Public (Everyone can see)
    Affects Versions: JBossWeb-7.0.15.GA
            Reporter: Phil Phil
            Assignee: Remy Maucherat


We have a Servlet 3.0 based web application that makes use of the 'modular webapp' functionality.  In particular, we utilize the ability to place resources in each module's {{META-INF/resources}} (as defined in section 4.6 of the Servlet 3.0 spec).

We have noticed that {{org.apache.naming.resources.ProxyDirContext}} does not respect overlays when caching is turned off.  Meaning, it fails to find resources defined in a module's {{META-INF/resources}} directory when caching is turned off.  This is documented behavior in the javadoc (notice: "when caching is enabled")
{code}
 * Proxy Directory Context implementation. This implementation looks up the
 * resources from a main DirContext, with secondary DirContext allowed 
 * to provide overlays for the main one, when caching is enabled.
{code}

I would like the ability to turn off caching, while still honoring the overlays.   And since the Servlet 3.0 spec does not mention the ability to ignore overlays when caching is disabled, I think this is a case where jboss is not adhering completely to the spec.

Specifically, our UI developers would like to turn off caching of static resources (by setting {{cachingAllowed="false"}} in {{context.xml}}) so that they can do rapid UI development on a running server by just modifying files in the overlays w/o having to redeploy.  


Note that the {{list*}} methods already honor the overlays when caching is off.  However, other methods such as the following do not honor the overlays when caching is off.
* {{lookup*}}
* {{getAttributes}}

In general, it seems like the overlay concept is only partially implemented in ProxyDirContext even when caching is turned on.  For example, the {{search}} methods do not look in the overlays.  This seems like it does not adhere to the Servlet 3.0 spec either.


--
This message is automatically generated by JIRA.
If you think it was sent incorrectly, please contact your JIRA administrators
For more information on JIRA, see: http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira