Classloader-based plug-in architecture would permit LCF to be prebuilt

The LCF architecture at this point requires interaction with the build script in order to add connectors. This is because the connector JSPs and jars need to be added to the appropriate war files. However, there is another architectural option that would eliminate this need, which is to use a custom classloader to pull components from jars that are placed in a specific directory or directories.

In order for this to work, however, the UI components of every connector must become part of a jar. That implies that they will need to cease being JSPs, and become instead methods of each connector class. (There is no proscription against using something like Velocity for assembling the necessary output for a connector, however.) Limiting the backwards-compatibility impact of this change will be difficult, especially after a first release is made, so it seems clear that any change along these lines should be attempted before version 1.0 is released.