Re: Jakarta/Apache XML/RDF configuration file format(s)

On Mon, Jul 12, 1999 at 12:00:44PM +0200, Stefano Mazzocchi wrote:
> Dan Brickley wrote:
> 
> > Is the detail of the XML format finalised, or up for discussion? There
> > was some talk last autumn of an XML/RDF representation of Apache
> > configuration files.
> 
> A little history might help:
> 
> During the ApacheCon '98 party at the SF Exploratorium (in October),
> Eric and I talked a lot about XML and the new stuff the W3C was
> creating. Eric is a very smart guy and we shared lots of ideas about how

The trick is to selectively repeat the smart things one hears other
people say.

> the web was going and how we could use those new technologies to do
> better things. (Some of that very early discussion made me create Cocoon
> a few months later to investigate it further, but this is another
> story).

Cool, I'd like to check this out. My apologies if you already told me
about it and I completely forgot about it. URL?

> If all this information is based on a common meta-configuration
> definition language (Eric thought about RDF for this, but I don't know
> RDF enough to express a final opinion on this), then one tool may be
> used to configure every possible software that can express such RDF for
> its configurations.

I discuss the advantages of using RDF-friendly XML in
http://www.w3.org/1999/07/9-http-server-conf.html#Advantages_of_Using_an_RDF-friendly_XML_DTD
(go figure). I haven't done much work on it, but it does mention some
the the major points.

> This is so flexible (being on different files) that old vi-style people
> are not bothered by unnecessary information in their XML configuration

I assume you are referring to the separation of the application
dependent data from the data that the GUI configuration program uses.

> file, but people willing to use more coherent tools (such as Comanche)
> for different software in their network. This tool might also be nicely
> wrapped by SNMP logic and so on.

This sounds really interesting (maybe jsut to me as I know nothing
about SNMP).

> The key point is the separation of configurations (in XML with some DTD)
> parsed by the configured software and meta-configurations (in another
> XML using the RDF DTD) parsed by whatever configuration tool. An
> important thing is that meta-configurations are used as "templates" for
> the creation of an XML configuration and might even be used by
> installers to present interactive information to the user during
> installation.
> 
> For example (I'm not using RDF for this, just to show my intentions):
> 
>  <element name="port" required="true">
>   <template-value>80</template-value>
>   <gui type="counter">
>   <comment xml:lang="en">This is the port used by the server</comment>
>   <comment xml:lang="it">Questa č la porta usata dal server</comment>
>   <comment xml:lang="fr">Cette est la porte utilisče par le
> serveur</comment>
>  </element>
>   
> as you see, a configuration tool that is able to interpret this document
> would be able to generate the <port> element and query the user
> (depending on its language).

I believe Daniel Lopez Ridruejo has a lot of experience on this
topic. Daniel - have you figured out the ultimate configuration schema
to describe the universe?

> Unfortunately, the list is dead for some time now. But the ideas, IMO,
> as still solid and useful.

Actually, I'm systematicly bouncing this thread to
www-rdf-config@w3.org. Could others resonding the other messages in
this thread do the same? thanks.

> P.S. Eric, Daniel, sorry to make you jump on this. For more information

woof!

> about Jakarta, look at jakarta.apache.org. Send any comment to me and
> I'll forward to the mail list (or you might consider to subscribe to the
> list if interested)


-- 
-eric

(eric@w3.org)

Received on Monday, 12 July 1999 18:15:44 UTC