Provides an interface for plug-in registration. Each plug-in must have a corresponding Plugin Configuration XML File which is named converter.xml. If the plug-in is stored in a jarfile, this converter.xml file is typically stored in the following location in the jarfile:

META-INF/converter.xml

The Plugin Configuration XML File must validate against the converter.dtd file provided with this package. Since a jarfile can contain multiple plug-ins, this DTD supports specifying multiple plug-ins per jarfile. Please refer to the SDK document for more information about how to implement a Plugin Configuration XML File for a specific plugin.

All information in the Plugin Configuratino XML File is bundled into one or more ConverterInfo object. The ConverterInfoReader object is used to build a Vector of ConverterInfo objects from a jarfile.

The ConverterInfoMgr manages the registry of ConverterInfo. It is a singleton class, so that only one registry manager will ever exist. It is the client program's responsibility to register ConverterInfo objects that correspond to the plug-ins that are to be used.

TODO/IDEAS list

1. The ConverterInfo object could contain org.w3c.dom.Document fragments that are accessed in a generic fashion rather than get/set methods for each item in the DTD. This would provide a more flexible approach, especially for adding custom tags to a specific Plugin Configuration XML file (tags that are only used by its associated plug-in).
2. ConverterInfo should allow the merge/serialize/deserialize logic to be included in separate plug-ins, if desired.
3. ConverterInfoMgr could use the Java Activation Framework (JAF) to manage registration.