first round of NRPA changes:

- added color customization in render-config.xml
- added ability to scale size of Venice logo in footer
- added ability to customize size of site logo, as well as add a hyperlink
- moved to use of LOG4J 1.1.3, LOG4J now installed in Venice lib directory
  instead of in JRE extensions directory (only Java extensions should go in
  JRE extensions directory)
- close to requiring JAXP 1.1 (will still work with 1.0 though)

src/com/silverwrist/util/DOMElementHelper.java

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
  * WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific
  * language governing rights and limitations under the License.
  * 
- * The Original Code is the Venice Web Community System.
+ * The Original Code is the Venice Web Communities System.
  * 
  * The Initial Developer of the Original Code is Eric J. Bowersox <erbo@silcom.com>,
  * for Silverwrist Design Studios.  Portions created by Eric J. Bowersox are
@@ -21,19 +21,28 @@ import org.w3c.dom.*;
 
 public class DOMElementHelper
 {
+  /*--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+   * Attributes
+   *--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+   */
+
   private Element elt;  // element housed by this helper class
 
+  /*--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+   * Constructor
+   *--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+   */
+
   public DOMElementHelper(Element elt)
   {
     this.elt = elt;
 
   } // end constructor
 
-  protected void finalize()
-  {
-    elt = null;
-
-  } // end finalize
+  /*--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+   * Internal static operations
+   *--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+   */
 
   private static String getTextOfElement(Element e)
   {
@@ -64,6 +73,11 @@ public class DOMElementHelper
     
   } // end getTextOfElement
 
+  /*--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+   * External operations
+   *--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+   */
+
   public Element getElement()
   {
     return elt;
@@ -110,6 +124,24 @@ public class DOMElementHelper
 
   } // end hasChildElement
 
+  public Integer getAttributeInt(String name)
+  {
+    String tmp = elt.getAttribute(name);
+    if (StringUtil.isStringEmpty(tmp))
+      return null;
+    try
+    { // convert to an Integer
+      return new Integer(tmp);
+
+    } // end try
+    catch (NumberFormatException nfe)
+    { // return a null value on error
+      return null;
+
+    } // end catch
+
+  } // end getAttributeInt
+
 } // end DOMElementHelper