Todays Goetools IRC touched on the topic of an Info class - think FeatureType.getInfo(). This would act similar to Query.getHandle() allowing our code base to produce error messages in user terms.
As promised here are some links to the same ideas in GeoServer and UDIG:
< http://svn.refractions.net/geoserver/trunk/geoserver/src/org/vfny/geoserver/global/FeatureTypeInfo.java>
<http://svn.geotools.org/udig/trunk/plugins/net.refractions.udig.catalog/src/net/refractions/udig/catalog/IGeoResource.java>
<http://svn.geotools.org/udig/trunk/plugins/net.refractions.udig.catalog/src/net/refractions/udig/catalog/IGeoResourceInfo.java>
An ideas for Service:
<http://svn.refractions.net/geoserver/trunk/geoserver/src/org/vfny/geoserver/global/DataStoreInfo.java>
<http://svn.geotools.org/udig/trunk/plugins/net.refractions.udig.catalog/src/net/refractions/udig/catalog/IService.java>
<http://svn.geotools.org/udig/trunk/plugins/net.refractions.udig.catalog/src/net/refractions/udig/catalog/IServiceInfo.java>
Basically both projects have come up with near identical wrapper to capture this information, collaboration may be in order now that GeoServer 1.3 is into development.
Jody