Plugin Classloader and Web Start
Our application JAR currently contains a Class-Path: entry pointing to another JAR that contains plugins. Now since the user shall be able to use other plugins than that one we provided, we need to remove the Class-Path: entry from the application JAR and instead provide a facility that names the JARs to scan for plugins. In fact, this should be as easy as providing a external properties file read by a Plugin Classloader.
Now the problem is that we like to deploy our application and the plugins using JNLP. So we think the planned solution is incompatible with JNLP due to two reasons: (a) It would require to access a properties file, (b) it would require that the JARs not beeing renamed (as Web Start does it).
So what can be a possible solution?
Are we the only ones that use plugin architectures together with JNLP?
