[NUTCH-609] Allow Plugins to be Loaded from Jar File(s)

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Auto Closed
• Affects Version/s: 1.0.0
• Fix Version/s: 2.5

Environment

All

• Patch Info: Patch Available
• Assignee: Dennis Kubes
• Reporter: Dennis Kubes
• Due: 13/Feb/08
• Created: 09/Feb/08 18:55
• Updated: 13/Oct/19 22:35
• Resolved: 13/Oct/19 22:35

Description

Currently plugins cannot be loaded from a jar file. Plugins must be unzipped in one or more directories specified by the plugin.folders config. I have been thinking about an extension to PluginRepository or PluginManifestParser (or both) that would allow plugins to packaged into multiple independent jar files and placed on the classpath. The system would search the classpath for resources with the correct folder name and would load any plugins in those jars.

This functionality would be very useful in making the nutch core more flexible in terms of packaging. It would also help with web applications where we don't want to have a plugins directory included in the webapp.

Thoughts so far are unzipping those plugin jars into a common temp directory before loading. Another option is using something like commons vfs to interact with the jar files. VFS essential uses a disk based temporary cache for jar files, so it is pretty much the same solution. What are everyone else's thoughts on this?