Configuration App:

The configuration app provided/provides an Action 'Download Defintion' (orange) which provided an "export" of the defintion in use/the bean in memory as a yaml export.

This was extremely handy for:

• Migrations from JCR to Yaml
• Migrations of STK based templates
• Decorating any defintion in JCR
• Being able to see the real defintion in use (as the Definitions App does now)

The big big plus was, that one got the definition as it was in use in memory, basically the bean was exported into yaml. This means that anything changing the definition was taken into account such as:

• JCR extends (comparable to Yaml !includes & Yaml !inherits)
• And decorations

You basically just got the end result! No matter how complicated it was taken apart (overdone) into small bits of config pieces.

Current Situation:

Since Mangolia 6.x most of the definitions are now Yaml based (within Jars) and are not in the config workspace anymore (which is a good thing!)

Problem:

One can look into the definitions app to see the current config/bean in use, BUT:
If needing the end result one can not get it as a yaml file.

Also looking at the resource in the recourses app is not that much help, as any decorator or included yaml will not be taken into account. One must basically process the whole including and decorating of a defintion on the head to get the configurations.

Imagine you want to decorate a certain ActionBar Section of a subApp:
One can see it in the definitions app, BUT has to re-create manually the full path including every single node in the yaml, all names have to be typed etc.

Also is the definitions app, compared to have it as a yaml file, one can not:

• See the whole configuration at once
• Have some highlighting of the configuration
• Search only within one definition for certain terms
• Do search & replaces for testing
• Use it for decorator files and remove the stuff not to change

Gain / Justification:

Having the possibility to download any defintion-bean from memory as a yaml file help tremendously for:

• Creation of decorators to change an existing definitions. Saves a huge amount of time.
• Debugging any configuration -> download it, add it to any light module, change and test it (FS over Classpath ). All done within seconds
• Migrations of definitions that grew out of control by to many decorations and includes -> download the end result. Remove all old config files and add the exported one, done.
• One can actually look at a whole definition at once, that is a huge gain! The definitions app just provides a really small view even on a huge display
• All is "expanded" at once, as its a file
• One can search within a whole definition for words.
• One can copy & paste configs within one defintion and try out & debug.

Conclusion

I think it would be a huge boost for projects & light development, for not much development investment.

All beans are in memory, only a Yaml export of them has to be triggered.