RELEASE-NOTES.txt - commons-configuration - Git at Google

 $Id$

                            Commons Configuration Package
                                Version 1.6
                                Release Notes


 INTRODUCTION
 ============

 This document contains the release notes for this version of the Commons
 Configuration component, and highlights changes since the previous version.
 Commons Configuration provides a generic configuration interface which enables
 an application to read configuration data from a variety of sources.

 This release is in line with the previous 1.5 release: there are no big changes
 or spectacular new features, but a lot of smaller bug fixes and enhancements.
 By removing some bugs and inconsistencies, which are rather annoying than
 critical, the library has been made more stable. There are also a few new
 features, e.g. support for the xml:space attribute in XMLConfiguration, or
 multiple enhancements of DefaultConfigurationBuilder.

 Commons Configuration 1.6 is fully binary compatible to the previous version.
 Apart from the bug fixes existing code should not be impacted when switching
 from 1.5 to 1.6. Commons Configuration 1.6 is also still compatible with Java
 1.3 (with one exception outline below).

 Following is a complete list of all changes in the new release:

 BREAKING CHANGES in 1.6
 =======================
 * Parsing of date properties in PropertyListConfiguration does not work on
   Java 1.3. Later Java versions are not affected.

 BUG FIXES IN 1.6
 ================
 * [CONFIGURATION-348]
   AbstractHierarchicalFileConfiguration.getKeys() now also checks whether a
   reload is required.

 * [CONFIGURATION-347]
   AbstractFileConfiguration.getKeys() now returns an iterator that points to a
   snapshot of the keys of the configuration. This prevents
   ConcurrentModificationExceptions during iteration when a reload is performed.

 * [CONFIGURATION-346]
   ConfigurationUtils.convertToHierarchical() now creates multiple configuration
   nodes for properties with multiple values. This improves compatibility with
   queries.

 * [CONFIGURATION-345]
   PropertiesConfiguration now per default uses the encoding "ISO-8859-1" for
   loading properties files.

 * [CONFIGURATION-344]
   CombinedConfiguration could cause a deadlock when it was accessed while
   concurrently a reload of one of its child configuration happened. This was
   fixed by reducing synchronization where it is not strictly necessary.

 * [CONFIGURATION-341]
   The "force reload check" mechanism of CombinedConfiguration now also works
   with sub configurations created by configurationAt().

 * [CONFIGURATION-339]
   When performing interpolation the methods getList() and getStringArray() of
   CompositeConfiguration did not take the order of child configurations into
   account. This could lead to wrong interpolated values when the key was
   contained in multiple child configuration. Interpolation is now always done
   in the correct order.

 * [CONFIGURATION-334]
   Made handling of parent nodes more consistent when setRoot() or setRootNode()
   of HierarchicalConfiguration are involved.

 * [CONFIGURATION-334]
   Properties written through a DataConfiguration to a wrapped
   PropertiesConfiguration got lost when the PropertiesConfiguration was saved.
   This has been fixed.

 * [CONFIGURATION-328]
   A bug in XMLConfiguration.addNodes() made it impossible to add attribute
   nodes using this method. This has been fixed.

 * [CONFIGURATION-322]
   ConfigurationDynaBean now works properly with indexed properties stored
   internally in the underlying configuration as arrays.

 * [CONFIGURATION-321]
   The iterator returned by HierarchicalConfiguration.getKeys(String prefix) now
   also contains the prefix if this key is contained in the configuration.

 * [CONFIGURATION-320]
   XMLPropertyListConfiguration is no longer limited to 32 bits integers.

 * [CONFIGURATION-318]
   When an XMLConfiguration is created using the copy constructor, the name of
   the root element is now preserved.

 * [CONFIGURATION-316]
   Changing the text of the root element of an XMLConfiguration had no effect
   when the configuration was saved. This has been fixed.

 * [CONFIGURATION-315]
   CombinedConfiguration used to send two EVENT_COMBINED_INVALIDATE events for
   each modified child configuration. Now this event is sent only once after the
   affected child configuration was updated.

 * [CONFIGURATION-309]
   Instantiating an XMLPropertyListConfiguration no longer fails if the DTD is
   missing from the classpath.

 * [CONFIGURATION-306]
   INIConfiguration now preserves whitespace in quoted values.

 * [CONFIGURATION-302]
   If a change has been detected by FileChangedReloadingStrategy, the
   reloadingRequired() method will now return true until reloadingPerformed()
   has been called.

 * [CONFIGURATION-301]
   Fixed a NullPointerException that could be thrown under certain circumstances
   when saving an XMLConfiguration that was created using the constructor that
   takes a HierarchicalConfiguration.

 * [CONFIGURATION-300]
   It's now possible to read a configuration file containing a '#' in its name
   (requires Java 1.4 or above).

 * [CONFIGURATION-260]
   Fixed the date format for XMLPropertyListConfiguration.

 IMPROVEMENTS IN 1.6
 ===================
 * [CONFIGURATION-353]
   Allow system properties to be set from a configuration file.

 * [CONFIGURATION-351]
   Allow variable resolvers to be defined and configured in
   DefaultConfigurationBuilder.

 * [CONFIGURATION-350]
   Added MultiFileHierarchicalConfiguration, DynamicCombinedConfiguration and
   PatternSubtreeConfigurationWrapper.

 * [CONFIGURATION-349]
   The visibility of DefaultConfigurationBuilder.XMLConfigurationProvider was
   changed from package local to public. This makes it easier to implement
   providers that create configuration classes derived from XMLConfiguration.

 * [CONFIGURATION-338]
   PropertiesConfiguration now also performs interpolation when searching for
   include files. This means that the name of a file to include can be
   determined by another property.

 * [CONFIGURATION-337]
   DefaultConfigurationBuilder now supports defining new configuration providers
   in the configuration definition file.

 * [CONFIGURATION-336]
   When converting a flat configuration to a hierarchical one it is now possible
   to specify the expression engine to be used for this purpose. This may be
   necessary if the flat configuration contains keys with special characters
   interpreted by the expression engine. CombinedConfiguration defines the new
   setConversionExpressionEngine() method. The expression engine passed to this
   method will be used when converting flat child configurations to hierarchical
   ones.

 * [CONFIGURATION-335]
   XMLConfiguration now allows disabling the attribute splitting mechanism
   introduced in the 1.5 release (as part of the fix for CONFIGURATION-268).
   This may be necessary for correctly processing attributes containing both the
   list delimiter and the attribute delimiter character. The new property
   "disableAttributeSplitting" was added for this purpose.

 * [CONFIGURATION-331]
   XMLBeanDeclaration now defines a factory method createBeanDeclaration() for
   creating the declarations for complex nested properties. This method can be
   overridden by derived classes for injecting custom BeanDeclaration
   implementations.

 * With HierarchicalINIConfiguration a complete new Configuration implementation
   for parsing Windows INI files is available. This new class is a full
   replacement of INIConfiguration and addresses some of its shortcomings.
   Being derived from HierarchicalConfiguration it offers the enhanced
   functionality of hierarchical configurations.

 * [CONFIGURATION-327]
   INIConfiguration misinterpreted variables in the global section with a dot in
   their name as section names. HierarchicalINIConfiguration fixes this problem.

 * [CONFIGURATION-326]
   INIConfiguration does not support obtaining a subset for the global section.
   HierarchicalINIConfiguration provides the getSection() method that returns
   the content of the global section if null is passed in as section name.

 * [CONFIGURATION-325]
   INIConfiguration does not return the global section in its getSections()
   method. HierarchicalINIConfiguration fixes this problem.

 * [CONFIGURATION-324]
   HierarchicalINIConfiguration adds support for line continuation.

 * [CONFIGURATION-307]
   XMLConfiguration now supports the xml:space attribute. This attribute can be
   used to preserve whitespace in the content of XML elements.

 OTHER CHANGES
 =============
 * Some dependencies to other Commons components have been updated to the recent
   versions. Affected are Commons Lang, Commons Collections, Commons Logging,
   Commons BeanUtils, and Commons JXPath. The older versions should still work.

 * INIConfiguration has been deprecated. Its functionality is now available
   through the new HierarchicalINIConfiguration class.
	$Id$

	Commons Configuration Package
	Version 1.6
	Release Notes


	INTRODUCTION
	============

	This document contains the release notes for this version of the Commons
	Configuration component, and highlights changes since the previous version.
	Commons Configuration provides a generic configuration interface which enables
	an application to read configuration data from a variety of sources.

	This release is in line with the previous 1.5 release: there are no big changes
	or spectacular new features, but a lot of smaller bug fixes and enhancements.
	By removing some bugs and inconsistencies, which are rather annoying than
	critical, the library has been made more stable. There are also a few new
	features, e.g. support for the xml:space attribute in XMLConfiguration, or
	multiple enhancements of DefaultConfigurationBuilder.

	Commons Configuration 1.6 is fully binary compatible to the previous version.
	Apart from the bug fixes existing code should not be impacted when switching
	from 1.5 to 1.6. Commons Configuration 1.6 is also still compatible with Java
	1.3 (with one exception outline below).

	Following is a complete list of all changes in the new release:

	BREAKING CHANGES in 1.6
	=======================
	* Parsing of date properties in PropertyListConfiguration does not work on
	Java 1.3. Later Java versions are not affected.

	BUG FIXES IN 1.6
	================
	* [CONFIGURATION-348]
	AbstractHierarchicalFileConfiguration.getKeys() now also checks whether a
	reload is required.

	* [CONFIGURATION-347]
	AbstractFileConfiguration.getKeys() now returns an iterator that points to a
	snapshot of the keys of the configuration. This prevents
	ConcurrentModificationExceptions during iteration when a reload is performed.

	* [CONFIGURATION-346]
	ConfigurationUtils.convertToHierarchical() now creates multiple configuration
	nodes for properties with multiple values. This improves compatibility with
	queries.

	* [CONFIGURATION-345]
	PropertiesConfiguration now per default uses the encoding "ISO-8859-1" for
	loading properties files.

	* [CONFIGURATION-344]
	CombinedConfiguration could cause a deadlock when it was accessed while
	concurrently a reload of one of its child configuration happened. This was
	fixed by reducing synchronization where it is not strictly necessary.

	* [CONFIGURATION-341]
	The "force reload check" mechanism of CombinedConfiguration now also works
	with sub configurations created by configurationAt().

	* [CONFIGURATION-339]
	When performing interpolation the methods getList() and getStringArray() of
	CompositeConfiguration did not take the order of child configurations into
	account. This could lead to wrong interpolated values when the key was
	contained in multiple child configuration. Interpolation is now always done
	in the correct order.

	* [CONFIGURATION-334]
	Made handling of parent nodes more consistent when setRoot() or setRootNode()
	of HierarchicalConfiguration are involved.

	* [CONFIGURATION-334]
	Properties written through a DataConfiguration to a wrapped
	PropertiesConfiguration got lost when the PropertiesConfiguration was saved.
	This has been fixed.

	* [CONFIGURATION-328]
	A bug in XMLConfiguration.addNodes() made it impossible to add attribute
	nodes using this method. This has been fixed.

	* [CONFIGURATION-322]
	ConfigurationDynaBean now works properly with indexed properties stored
	internally in the underlying configuration as arrays.

	* [CONFIGURATION-321]
	The iterator returned by HierarchicalConfiguration.getKeys(String prefix) now
	also contains the prefix if this key is contained in the configuration.

	* [CONFIGURATION-320]
	XMLPropertyListConfiguration is no longer limited to 32 bits integers.

	* [CONFIGURATION-318]
	When an XMLConfiguration is created using the copy constructor, the name of
	the root element is now preserved.

	* [CONFIGURATION-316]
	Changing the text of the root element of an XMLConfiguration had no effect
	when the configuration was saved. This has been fixed.

	* [CONFIGURATION-315]
	CombinedConfiguration used to send two EVENT_COMBINED_INVALIDATE events for
	each modified child configuration. Now this event is sent only once after the
	affected child configuration was updated.

	* [CONFIGURATION-309]
	Instantiating an XMLPropertyListConfiguration no longer fails if the DTD is
	missing from the classpath.

	* [CONFIGURATION-306]
	INIConfiguration now preserves whitespace in quoted values.

	* [CONFIGURATION-302]
	If a change has been detected by FileChangedReloadingStrategy, the
	reloadingRequired() method will now return true until reloadingPerformed()
	has been called.

	* [CONFIGURATION-301]
	Fixed a NullPointerException that could be thrown under certain circumstances
	when saving an XMLConfiguration that was created using the constructor that
	takes a HierarchicalConfiguration.

	* [CONFIGURATION-300]
	It's now possible to read a configuration file containing a '#' in its name
	(requires Java 1.4 or above).

	* [CONFIGURATION-260]
	Fixed the date format for XMLPropertyListConfiguration.

	IMPROVEMENTS IN 1.6
	===================
	* [CONFIGURATION-353]
	Allow system properties to be set from a configuration file.

	* [CONFIGURATION-351]
	Allow variable resolvers to be defined and configured in
	DefaultConfigurationBuilder.

	* [CONFIGURATION-350]
	Added MultiFileHierarchicalConfiguration, DynamicCombinedConfiguration and
	PatternSubtreeConfigurationWrapper.

	* [CONFIGURATION-349]
	The visibility of DefaultConfigurationBuilder.XMLConfigurationProvider was
	changed from package local to public. This makes it easier to implement
	providers that create configuration classes derived from XMLConfiguration.

	* [CONFIGURATION-338]
	PropertiesConfiguration now also performs interpolation when searching for
	include files. This means that the name of a file to include can be
	determined by another property.

	* [CONFIGURATION-337]
	DefaultConfigurationBuilder now supports defining new configuration providers
	in the configuration definition file.

	* [CONFIGURATION-336]
	When converting a flat configuration to a hierarchical one it is now possible
	to specify the expression engine to be used for this purpose. This may be
	necessary if the flat configuration contains keys with special characters
	interpreted by the expression engine. CombinedConfiguration defines the new
	setConversionExpressionEngine() method. The expression engine passed to this
	method will be used when converting flat child configurations to hierarchical
	ones.

	* [CONFIGURATION-335]
	XMLConfiguration now allows disabling the attribute splitting mechanism
	introduced in the 1.5 release (as part of the fix for CONFIGURATION-268).
	This may be necessary for correctly processing attributes containing both the
	list delimiter and the attribute delimiter character. The new property
	"disableAttributeSplitting" was added for this purpose.

	* [CONFIGURATION-331]
	XMLBeanDeclaration now defines a factory method createBeanDeclaration() for
	creating the declarations for complex nested properties. This method can be
	overridden by derived classes for injecting custom BeanDeclaration
	implementations.

	* With HierarchicalINIConfiguration a complete new Configuration implementation
	for parsing Windows INI files is available. This new class is a full
	replacement of INIConfiguration and addresses some of its shortcomings.
	Being derived from HierarchicalConfiguration it offers the enhanced
	functionality of hierarchical configurations.

	* [CONFIGURATION-327]
	INIConfiguration misinterpreted variables in the global section with a dot in
	their name as section names. HierarchicalINIConfiguration fixes this problem.

	* [CONFIGURATION-326]
	INIConfiguration does not support obtaining a subset for the global section.
	HierarchicalINIConfiguration provides the getSection() method that returns
	the content of the global section if null is passed in as section name.

	* [CONFIGURATION-325]
	INIConfiguration does not return the global section in its getSections()
	method. HierarchicalINIConfiguration fixes this problem.

	* [CONFIGURATION-324]
	HierarchicalINIConfiguration adds support for line continuation.

	* [CONFIGURATION-307]
	XMLConfiguration now supports the xml:space attribute. This attribute can be
	used to preserve whitespace in the content of XML elements.

	OTHER CHANGES
	=============
	* Some dependencies to other Commons components have been updated to the recent
	versions. Affected are Commons Lang, Commons Collections, Commons Logging,
	Commons BeanUtils, and Commons JXPath. The older versions should still work.

	* INIConfiguration has been deprecated. Its functionality is now available
	through the new HierarchicalINIConfiguration class.