[CONFIGURATION-575] Use immutable node structures in hierarchical configurations

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.9
• Fix Version/s: 2.0
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Oliver Heger
• Created: 20/Apr/14 19:17
• Updated: 24/Mar/16 20:20
• Resolved: 21/Apr/14 11:48

Description

Currently, hierarchical configurations use ConfigurationNode objects to represent their hierarchical node structures. These objects are mutable; there are set methods for altering node names, values, children, attributes, and more. This is problematic for various reasons:

• Client code can alter the structure directly circumventing mechanisms of the configuration object.
• In a multi-threaded environment all accesses have to be synchronized because one cannot be sure when an underlying structure is modified.