IVY-1615: implement retrieval of ivysettings from url in standalone

[arcticgeek]

When using ivy in standalone mode via CLI, allow the -settings option to read xml settings from a URL instead of a filesystem path. This allows convenient access to centralized settings.

[jaikiran]

Hello @arcticgeek,

I think its better to introduce a new param which expects a URL instead of using the same param for file path and/or URL. That should make it easier and clearer to maintain their semantics instead of guessing based on either exceptions or some other way.

[arcticgeek]

I appreciate your input.

Supplying settings to ivy is a foundational task.
As the top option in the standalone help output, it seemed to me that making that one option which performs this important task location-transparent would be the most straightforward for the user. The user does not have to look up or remember to specify an different variant option which does the same fundamental thing. They simply supply a URL to the option they already understand. This location-transparent approach also means there is no concern for what happens when both option variants are supplied together on the same invocation in terms of function or error reporting.

Also, the semantics are "load settings from a location". Please look a bit closer: This patch is basing its decision on URI scheme, not exception handling, and then calling the appropriate Ivy.configure() method which is already present in the source code but not exposed to the standalone CLI interface. As such a small patch where all changes are very local to the code being modified, I cannot see why the location-transparent approach I chose creates a maintainability problem.

[twogee]

👍

[arcticgeek]

Being able to load settings from URL in Ivy Standalone is useful. Months have gone by with no follow-up to my message above. Can we please see some activity on this?