To start with I will assume converting between storage types is the primary use case. I have started to prototype some archive conversion strategies for storage archives. Eventually we will need to allow converting the storage type in an existing container archive, but I am starting with the just the conversion of storage archives, as it is a prerequisite.

Below is an example syntax I have been prototyping for very basic conversion:

MemoryMapArchive memoryMapArchive = new MemoryMapArchiveImpl("testArchive.jar");

VfsArchive newArchive = ArchiveConverter.convert(memoryMapArchive).to(VfsArchive.class);

MemoryMapArchive memoryMapArchive = new MemoryMapArchiveImpl("testArchive.jar");

VfsArchiveConverter converter = new VfsConverter();
VfsConverterMetadata = metadata = new VfsConverterMetatdata(File root);

VfsArchive newArchive = ArchiveConverter.convert(memoryMapArchive).using(converter, metadata);

// or ....

VfsArchive newArchive = ArchiveConverter.convert(memoryMapArchive).using(new VfsConverter(File root));

// or ....

VfsArchive newArchive = ArchiveConverter.convert(memoryMapArchive).using(new VfsConverter());

MemoryMapArchive memoryMapArchive = new MemoryMapArchiveImpl("testArchive.jar");

VfsArchive newArchive = VfsArchiveConverter.convert(memoryMapArchive).toVfs(File root);

I agree. I have taken some of the prototyping and implemented an ZipExporter as described. The example below demonstrates the usage.

@Test
 public void testExportZip() throws Exception
 {
 // Get an archive instance
 MemoryMapArchive archive = new MemoryMapArchiveImpl("testArchive.jar");

 // Add some content
 Asset assetOne = new ClassLoaderAsset("org/jboss/declarchive/impl/base/asset/Test.properties");
 Path pathOne = new BasicPath("test.properties");
 archive.add(pathOne, assetOne);
 Asset assetTwo = new ClassLoaderAsset("org/jboss/declarchive/impl/base/asset/Test2.properties");
 Path pathTwo = new BasicPath("nested", "test2.properties");
 archive.add(pathTwo, assetTwo);

 // Export as Zip InputStream
 InputStream zipStream = ZipExporter.exportZip(archive);

 // Validate the InputStream was created
 Assert.assertNotNull(zipStream);

 // Create a temp file
 File outFile = File.createTempFile("test", ".zip");
 // Write Zip contents to file
 writeOutFile(outFile, zipStream);

 // Use standard ZipFile library to read in written Zip file
 ZipFile expectedZip = new ZipFile(outFile);

 // Validate first entry
 assertAssetInZip(expectedZip, pathOne, assetOne);
 assertAssetInZip(expectedZip, pathTwo, assetTwo);

 }

BTW, the API for these should be in "api", the impls in "impl-base". API can be a factory that returns an exporter instance by creating one via reflection. Therefore we can lock down the API without a dependency upon impl-base.