$Id$


                          Commons Digester Package
                              Version 1.8-RC2
                               Release Notes


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

This is a minor bugfix and maintenance release. A few small features have been added.
New projects are encouraged to use this release of digester, but there is no urgency
for existing projects to upgrade; Digester 1.7 has proven to be a stable release.

This release is 100% binary and source compatible with the previous release.

IMPORTANT NOTES
===============

none

Dependencies
=============
Digester 1.8 works with all sets of dependencies that worked for Digester 1.7.
Users should upgrade to the recommended dependency set below where possible.

The Recommended Dependency Set for Digester 1.8 is:
   Digester 1.8 + Logging 1.1.x + BeanUtils 1.7

Other Compatible Dependency Sets:
   Digester 1.8 + Logging 1.1.x + BeanUtils 1.x + Collections 2.x
   Digester 1.8 + Logging 1.1.x + BeanUtils 1.x + Collections 3.x

It is also possible to use Logging 1.0.x instead.

NEW FEATURES
=============

Kaffe/GNU-Classpath compatibility
-------------------
All Digester unit tests now pass with the Kaffe 1.1.6 JVM. It is expected
that Digester works with other free Java implementations that also use the
GNU Classpath libraries.

Xmlrules Enhancements
----------------------
The xmlrules module has had the following updates to provide access
to functionality that was previously accessable only via the digester
API:
     -- node-create-rule tag added to provide access to NodeCreateRule.
        Patch provided by Kevin Ross; [DIGESTER-75]

Stack Monitoring
----------------

Method "setStackAction" has been added to the Digester class. This allows user
code to monitor all objects pushed onto and popped off digester stacks. In
particular, this makes it easier to store source file/line info for all
objects created during parsing.

Namespace Access
----------------

Method "getCurrentNamespaces" has been added to the Digester class. This allows user
code to get a snapshot of all the prefix->url mappings applicable at a point in time.
This is particularly useful for elements that contain xpath expressions that should
be evaluated later using the same namespaces defined for the element.

Maven 2.x build support
-----------------------

This release now comes with a pom.xml file to allow digester to be built using maven 2.x.

APIs that accept URLs
---------------------

[DIGESTER-110] Digester class now provides alternative public APIs
               that accept URLs directly.

BUGS FROM PREVIOUS RELEASE
==========================

Reports Addressed
------------------
* [DIGESTER-29] raises issue with jarfiles being "locked" on Windows machines.
  A bug in Sun's java libraries can cause a jarfile to become "locked"
  when a jarfile is the source of an xml or dtd file used by Digester.
  In particular, this can cause problems when redeploying a J2EE webapp.
  A workaround for the Sun bug has been added to Digester to resolve this.

Fixes without JIRA entries
---------------------------
* digester-rules.dtd file defined xml attribute "param" for xml element
  object-param-rule. This has been removed as it wasn't being used.

DEPRECATIONS
============
None