Hi Morgan,
Well, I went back and re-read my assignment instructions and I couldn't find a specific requirement that requires the database file location to be configurable, so (if our assignment instructions are consistent on this point) there does not appear to be a requirement to do this.
Nonetheless, many people seem to be providing this capability. Perhaps the idea for providing this capability comes from the following quote in the assignment instructions:
All configuration must be done via a GUI, and must be persistent between runs of the program. Such configuration information must be stored in a file called suncertify.properties which must be located in the current working directory.
So, clearly there are some things that need to configurable. I haven't heard anyone argue, for example, that the database server host doesn't need to be configurable. So one of the items in the suncertify.properties file should be database server host.
If you're going to provide a suncertify.properties file for handling the database server host, then it doesn't seem like too much additional work to provide configuration for database file location. On the other hand, a configurable database file location does not seem to be required by the assignment instructions (neither explicitly nor implicitly). So, if you're looking to simplify the work necessary for the project, not making the database file location configurable might be a good bet.
If database file location is not one of the configurable items, then will there be anything in the suncertify.properties that is used when you run the application in standalone mode? Of course, I'm not arguing that this is a valid reason for making the database file location configurable, just trying to suggest why many people (myself included) seem to have thought it should be provided in the absence of any explict or implied requirement.
Hope this helps,
George
[ January 22, 2004: Message edited by: George Marinkovich ]