[dsml-comment] LDAP/DSML Revival

[suendermann@zenturion.de]

Dear all,

I am not completely new to the Castor world - I have used Castor for about one
year now - but have not appeared officially in this mailing list so far.

I currently have some spare time, and would like to support the Castor project a bit,
so I'd like to start an initiative to revive the DSML/LDAP part. I myself have been
much involved in both XML and LDAP in the past, and have some ideas about
features
I would like to add to Castor.

Here my ideas for LDAP integration into Castor (and Castor in general):

A. DSML V2.0 is out and official

DSML V2 allows to generate XML Files which describe sets of
LDAP Requests and the LDAP Results.
I'd suggest to establish JNDI and Mozilla integration, as for DSML V1.

Is there a need for other vendors' APIs?

B. LDIF and DSML

The LDAP Data Interchange Format called LDIF covers more or less
the same topics as DSML V2, using a human-readable ASCII format.

I'd be interested to hear if there is a need for LDIF to DSML
conversion and vice-versa.

C. Style Guide for writing XML Schema

When working with Castor SourceGenerator, I found that XML Schema
files are often not optimized for use with Castor
(and other Java Binding tools as well).

I'd offer some input from my experiences as a kind of "Style Guide"
or "Best Practice" in XML Schema writing.
Example: Avoid using unsignedInt XML Schema type if you mean to enforce a
non-negative integer for an attribute.
I know of a couple more of such pitfalls
(and have some ideas how to bypass them).
If in my last project, XML Schema writers had looked at the prospective usage
of the Schema files (generate sources by Java Binding tools, for example),
this would have saved us a lot of time, money, and arguments.

Regards, Annette

--
Dr. Annette Sündermann
Zenturion GmbH
Postfach 1248,  85730 Ismaning
Tel.: 089/638 76 706 Fax: 089/638 76 707
Internet: http://www.zenturion.de