// if problems are later discovered that the original object needs its original artifactScope value,
            // cloning may
            // again be appropriate
            nearestArtifact.setScope(farthestArtifact.getScope());
        }

        return updateScope;
    }

                            if (!downloaded) {
                                // prevent additional checks of this artifact until it expires again
                                destination.setLastModified(System.currentTimeMillis());
                            }
                        } catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) {

            might come in handy for anyone working from a notebook or other
            mobile platform, to enable easy switching of entire proxy
            configurations by simply specifying the profile id, again either from
            the command line or from the defaults section below.
          </description>
          <association>
            <type>Proxy</type>
            <multiplicity>*</multiplicity>

                    }
                }

                // TODO should this be inside the above check?
                // touch file so that this is not checked again until interval has passed
                if (file.exists()) {
                    file.setLastModified(System.currentTimeMillis());
                }
            }
        }

        try {

might want to separate between installation and activation, it might be nice to allow a user to activate/deactivate a plugin instead of having to uninstall and reinstall a plugin in particular cases. This would prevent having to reconfigure the plugin again. For example it might be nice to turn off LDAP authentication without having to uninstall the plugin.

These particular phases in a plugin’s lifecycle can probably be generalized to all plugins so could be something implemented in all plugins....