Created a new method to return a sorted list of plugins by type.

Replaced many list comprehensions in Core.py with a new method named
plugins_by_type(), which does the same thing with an added twist: this
new method also sorts the list of plugins by a new field named
sort_order. It also uses the name of the plugin where the sort_order
values are the same.

This lets us control the processing sequence of plugins that need to
build on the results of a plugin that runs prior to them. The
immediate example is Deps, which should run after Packages has
generated the full list of packages to be installed. Prior to this
commit, it was impossible to control the order in which they ran. A
future commit will (hopefully) take advantage of this capability.

This commit also splits the Core.validate_data() method into two: one
for validate_structures() and one for validate_goals(), instead of
passing in a base class and using if logic. This approach seemed a
little clearer to me.

1 files changed, 1 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/lib/Server/Plugins/Metadata.py b/src/lib/Server/Plugins/Metadata.py
index 7fc34f178..bfe1ac053 100644
--- a/src/lib/Server/Plugins/Metadata.py
+++ b/src/lib/Server/Plugins/Metadata.py
@@ -222,6 +222,7 @@ class Metadata(Bcfg2.Server.Plugin.Plugin,
     __version__ = '$Id$'
     __author__ = 'bcfg-dev@mcs.anl.gov'
     name = "Metadata"
+    sort_order = 500
 
     def __init__(self, core, datastore, watch_clients=True):
         Bcfg2.Server.Plugin.Plugin.__init__(self, core, datastore)