[x3d-public] X3DObjectUtil for X3DJSAIL

[Don Brutzman]

On 5/28/2017 8:02 PM, John Carlson wrote:
> I wonder if It would be good to create an X3DObjectUtil.java and put the conversions in there.

There is a utility class called org.web3d.x3d.jsail.ConfigurationProperties that collects a number of capabilities.

	http://www.web3d.org/specifications/java/javadoc/org/web3d/x3d/jsail/ConfigurationProperties.html

	"Concrete class that enables developers to set custom configuration properties when using X3D Java SAI Library (X3DJSAIL). Output serialization support is provided for indentation, X3D Canonicalization (C14N) and showing default attributes. TODO more to follow!"

> That way we can deploy X3DObject.java with just the XML output and not the stylesheet(s).

New methods handleArguments and validationReport were put in X3DObject because they would tend to be used there.

Will thinking about splitting off a separate utilities class if needed at some point.  So far am getting good traction by figuring out when/where functionality is needed and positioning it appropriately.

> That would make it easier to deploy to a browser, and browsers can offer alternate implementations of X3DObjectUtil.

Not sure there are any impediments or blockers at this point?

Not sure how many HTML browsers support Java, and existing X3D players with Java support tend to have their own concrete classes.  (Xj3D has three actually, can be pretty confusing.)

I've tried to keep X3DJSAIL as consistent as possible with X3D Java SAI, which is pretty old.  Suggested changes for future specification work are collected at

	http://www.web3d.org/specifications/java/X3DJSAIL.html#SpecificationChanges

	http://www.web3d.org/specifications/java/X3dJavaSpecificationChangesAndIssues.txt

> Let me know what you think.   I think it’s a good idea to be able to not be totally reliant on the stylesheets.  Plus we can put other Utils there.

Other implementation is always welcome.  I'll keep adjusting the stylesheets and checking results.

Before working on duplicative functionality, it would be good to work on things that are needed.  STL/PLY comes to mind, also X3D Projects Wish List.

	http://www.web3d.org/projects/wish-list

For your patches, I'd like to keep iterating on representative content problems and adapting/integrating those corrections directly into the X3DJSAIL code autogeneration.

Other utilities also welcome in this open-source asset.  X3DJSAIL wish list is found at

	http://www.web3d.org/specifications/java/X3DJSAIL.html#TODO

Future libraries will include Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) compression (OpenEXI and EXIficient), XML encryption and signature, X3D Canonicalization (C14N), etc. etc.  It would be good to apply jgeom.jar for NURBS too.

all the best, Don
-- 
Don Brutzman  Naval Postgraduate School, Code USW/Br       brutzman at nps.edu
Watkins 270,  MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000 USA   +1.831.656.2149
X3D graphics, virtual worlds, navy robotics http://faculty.nps.edu/brutzman