Dynamically building web content using XML file(s)

Question

Hello All!
I was recently tasked with a project to design a monitoring web application for our "in-house" built web applications. There is a certain set of modules and parameters that we need to monitor: GSLB --> Web Tier --> App Tier --> Database.
Almost all (80%) of our applications share the same parameters that need to be monitored, but there are about a hundred of them. So here is what I'm thinking of doing....
1. Create an XML document for each application (An example layout is included at the end of this post) and save it in the Applications directory.
2. Setup a Spring Framework project, and create code to dynamically go through the Applications directory and kick-off the monitoring logic for each <application/> item. Basically, the code will just traverse through all of the xml files (I might even create just 1 xml file with all of the <application/> items in it), read the "metadata" for each application, and start the backend processing, as well as display the data in a dynamically-generated web GUI (based on the XML structure and data).
Again, most of our applications (80%) have the same modules/parameters, therefore adding an application would only require us adding another <application/> element to the already-existing xml document (or adding an additional XML document). The code would do the rest...In regards to the rest 20% of applications, I would create a customize XML document with additional metadata (the code, in that case, would be able to handle the additional metadata).
So here are my questions:
1. What do you think of the idea itself? I'm sure that I'm not the only one who's thought of this, so are there any best-practices in this regard?
2. The reason I thought of using Spring is that it is XML-based (there are many reasons for me using Spring actually -- Security, ORM integration, etc), and it might facilitate my efforts. I'm thinking that even if reading through the Applications directory isn't such a good idea, I can somehow utilize Spring's dependency injection & AOS to create the appropriate solution. Have anybody tried this before and willing to share ideas, implementation approach, etc?
3. Other than Spring, what might help me accomplish this task?
4. Is this feasible (from a time and effort stand-point), or should I just do it the old-fashioned way?
Thanks in advance!
Vladimir
I am including a sample (very rough-draft) XML file of what the input might look like:
     <applications>
          <application name="Remote Application">
               <vip>somethingUNIQUE.mycompany.com</vip>
               <sys-level>LAB</sys-level>
               <lb-type>GTM</lb-type>
               <farms>
                    <farm name="Farm 1" id="1">
                         <member-name>sslname.mycompany</member-name>
                         <ip-address>34.34.24.242</ip-address>
                         <application-servers>
                              <application-server name="Some Name1">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.983.238.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </application-server>
                              <application-server name="Some Name 2222">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </application-server>
                              <application-server name="Some Name 3425">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </application-server>
                         </application-servers>
                         <web-servers>
                              <web-server name="Some Name1">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.983.238.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </web-server>
                              <web-server name="Some Name 2222">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </web-server>
                              <web-server name="Some Name 3425">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </web-server>
                         </web-servers>
                    </farm>
                    <farm name="Farm 2" id="2">
                         <member-name>sslvpn01.downingtown</member-name>
                         <ip-address>34.34.24.250</ip-address>
                         <application-servers>
                              <application-server name="Some Name 3425">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </application-server>
                         </application-servers>
                         <web-servers>
                              <web-server name="Some Name1">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.983.238.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </web-server>
                              <web-server name="Some Name 3425">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </web-server>
                         </web-servers>
                    </farm>
               </farms>
          </application>
          <application name="Tech Tools">
               <vip>technicalUNIQUE.tools.mycompany.com</vip>
               <sys-level>LAB</sys-level>
               <lb-type>GTM</lb-type>
               <farms>
                    <farm name="Farm 1" id="1">
                         <member-name>tools.tech</member-name>
                         <ip-address>34.34.24.214</ip-address>
                         <application-servers>
                              <application-server name="Some Name 2222">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </application-server>
                              <application-server name="Some Name 3425">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </application-server>
                         </application-servers>
                         <web-servers>
                              <web-server name="Some Name1">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.983.238.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </web-server>
                              <web-server name="Some Name 2222">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </web-server>
                         </web-servers>
                    </farm>
                    <farm name="Farm 2" id="2">
                         <member-name>tools.tech222</member-name>
                         <ip-address>34.34.24.415</ip-address>
                         <application-servers>
                              <application-server name="Some Name1">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.983.238.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </application-server>
                              <application-server name="Some Name 2222">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </application-server>
                              <application-server name="Some Name 3425">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </application-server>
                         </application-servers>
                         <web-servers>
                              <web-server name="Some Name1">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.983.238.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </web-server>
                              <web-server name="Some Name 2222">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </web-server>
                              <web-server name="Some Name 3425">
                                   <ip-address>
                                        34.343.248.32
                                   </ip-address>
                              </web-server>
                         </web-servers>
                    </farm>
               </farms>
          </application>
     </applications>

Answer 1

Hello jschell!
Again, the question was more about the overall architecture and design rather than monitoring implementation.
So here is what I have now:
1. A spring application that will do the following:
Read in the "architecture.xml" file (a portion is shown below). This file will dictate not only the type of monitoring but also the layout (explained later).
The architecture.xml is marshalled to entity objects -- Model (s), with nested Model "children"
This array of Model(s) is what the server-side application will use to populate the monitoring parameters.
When the Impl gets a hold of the Model(s), it traverses through all of these entities and does whatever processing it needs to do (Health check, routing check, etc), and produces Item(s) objects, which are similar in structure to the Model(s) entities, but have actual values that need to be displayed on the front-end. Each item might have an array of other, children, Item(s)
2. A GWT application asks for the Items array, and displays them on the front-end.
What I did already:
*1. Created a base Spring project that accepts GWT requests and returns a set of Item(s) (statically-generated, since I don't have the proper Impl yet).*
*2. Created the GWT project and the layout. GWT communicates with the Spring app (which runs on tomcat for now) and upon retrieving the Item(s) it recursively renders them into displayable items, with different background, borders colors, width, etc (based on the populated values and their nested children, if any) . The last code snippet is the definition of the Item class.*
Basically, the architecture is setup and the next step is the actual implementation of the monitoring and routing logic -- which wasn't the point of this post, since I already did most of it for a different project :)
Thanks for the replies though....
Vladimir
<serviceView name="YYYYYYYY XXXX">
     <item layout="vertical">
          <!-- The top level application name -->
          <item name="Routing XXXXXXX  (RX)"/>
          <!-- The GSLB name and Active Farms printout -- Work in Progress-->
          <item  name="RX GSLB - xxxxxxx.xx.xxxxxxxx.com" layout="vertical">
               <dynamicText type="gslb_farms">
                    <param name="vip" value="xxxxxxxx.xx.xxxxxxxxx.com"/>
               </dynamicText>
          </item>
          <!-- The farms Row -->
          <item layout="horizontal">
               <!-- The 1st Farm -->
               <item name="Farm 1" layout="vertical">
                    <operationalState name="xxxxxxx.xx.yyyyyyy.com" type="gslb_farm">
                         <param name="vip" value="activate.g.comcast.com"/>
                         <param name="farmName" value="RX.WT.F1.VIP">
                    </operationalState>
                    <hc name="RX.WT.F1.VIP" type="poller"/>
                    <!-- DataCenter name -->
                    <item name="PDX" value="PDX"/>
                    <!-- Web Tier -->
                    <item layout="horizontal">     
                         <item name="WEB1" description="WEB1" detailedView="someservice_level_xmlname.xml">
                              <hc name="RE.WT.F1.rdw01" type="poller"/>
                         </item>
                         <item  name="WEB2">
                              <hc name="RE.WT.F1.rdw02" type="poller"/>
                         </item>
                    </item>
public class Item implements Serializable{
     private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
     public final static String _ROUTING_STATUS_ENABLED = "_ROUTING_STATUS_ENABLED";
     public final static String _ROUTING_STATUS_DISABLED = "_ROUTING_STATUS_DISABLED";
     public final static String _ROUTING_STATUS_UNKNOWN = "_ROUTING_STATUS_UNKNOWN";
     public final static String _HEALTH_STATUS_GOOD = "_HEALTH_STATUS_GOOD";
     public final static String _HEALTH_STATUS_BAD = "_HEALTH_STATUS_BAD";
     public final static String _HEALTH_STATUS_UNKNOWN = "_HEALTH_STATUS_UNKNOWN";
     // This is what will be printed out -- the static text
     private String name = null;
     // If detailedView is not empty, then a link for this item shows up
     // that opens up a Dialogue Box
     private String detailedView = null;
     // If detailedView is not empty, then a link for this item shows up
     // that opens up a completely new Service View
     private String serviceView = null;
     // Layout Information
     private boolean verticalLayout = true; // VERTICAL or HORIZONTAL
     // Coloring Information
     private String routingStatus = _ROUTING_STATUS_UNKNOWN; // ENABLED, DISABLED, UNKNOWN
     private String healthStatus = _HEALTH_STATUS_UNKNOWN; // HEALTHY or NOT-HEALTHY
     // Children
     private Item children[] = null;