"compounding" layers

Hi,

Here's a question about what's the best way to implement something.

I'm developing a layer that's really an aglomeration of other layers.
The idea is to have a "StateLayer", that renders data for one US State,
and that loads data from a few different sources, most of them, but not
all, ESRI shapefiles. I'd like to define in one place how a generic
state will be composed (a "state.properties" file), and then in the
"map properties" file, just do something like:

  layerStates.class= ...
  layerStates.prettyName=Western States
  layerStates.states=CA WA OR HI AK

I'm thinking of having the States layer go through the list of
states that it needs to load, then read the "state.properties" file
that defines the layers used for one state, and load all the layers
required for all the states. (7 per state) In the above example,
I'd have 35 individual layers loaded in memory.

I wonder if this approach is somehow flawed, if it is wasteful of
resources, or if there is a better way to achieve the same results.

Any ideas? Any suggestions?

        thanks!

        --G
 

-- 
Guillermo Payet
O C E A N    G R O U P
email: gpayet@oceangroup.com
web: http://www.oceangroup.com
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