JSpider start-up process

The JSpider engine has quite a complex start-up process that uses a range of property files, static factory methods, abstractions and reflective invocation. These notes are to clarify the origin of runtime properties, configuration and storage facilities. Most class references refer to JSpider library classes.

JSpider main entry point

The primary JSpider class takes two arguments: a base URL to start spidering, and a configuration directory reference. If no configuration is specified, a directory called "default" is checked for configuration property files.

The JSpider class completes the following steps:

1. Loads the relevant configuration using the static ConfigurationFactory.getConfiguration method.
2. Creates a new JSpider instance.
3. Calls the start method on the JSpider instance.

ConfigurationFactory

The two configuration factory methods that may be called by JSpider create a singleton JSpiderConfiguration instance from a PropertiesConfiguration. Methods also exist to assign a JSpiderConfiguration directly and "clean" the configuration by assigning a null reference.