A New Application Framework Design

Document Purpose

This document is intended to introduce a high level design of an application framework for the Apache Open for Business project.

Overview

The application framework will be written in Java and it will provide the basic structure to write an application. The framework will provide the following basic functionality:

• Configuration.
• Globalization (locale, time zone, currency).
• Logging.
• Security (authentication/authorization).
• Persistence (file system or database).
• Services.
  
• Actor Management (profiles, roles - required for security; Actors - people, external services) Think of UML Actor. Required to remove dependency on Party
• Data Store (entity engine).
• Lang package to provide classes that are fundamental to the framework
• Services.
• Runtime management.

Design Goals

• Single jar file.

• Compact, small memory footprint.
• Scalable from SBCs to enterprise-class ERP systems.
• Reuses existing technologies.

• Easy to configure and maintain.

  Note
  title Design Participants Note
  Please take some to watch this presentation by Joshua Bloch: How to Design a Good API & Why it Matters.

Basic Architecture

Configuration

• Library: OFBiz Configuration
• Java package name: org.apache.ofbiz.foundation.config

Globalization

• Library: IBM ICU4J
• Java package name: org.apache.ofbiz.foundation.globalization

Logging

• Library: SLF4J

Security

• Library: Apache Shiro, OFBiz
• Java package name:org.apache.ofbiz.foundation.security

...

Actor Management

• Library: OFBiz
• Java package name: org.apache.ofbiz.foundation.actor

Data Store

• Library: OFBiz Entity Engine, JDBC
• Java package name: org.apache.ofbiz.foundation.persistenceentity

Services

• Library: JMS, Quartz Scheduler
• Java package name: org.apache.ofbiz.foundation.service

Lang - Data Types

• Library: Apache Commons Lang, Apache Commons Convert, OFBiz
• Java package name: org.apache.ofbiz.foundation.lang

...

Cache

• Library: OFBiz eHCache
• Java package name: org.apache.ofbiz.foundation.time

Money

• Library: OFBiz
• Java package name: org.apache.ofbiz.foundation.money

Cache

• cache

...

digraph module_dependencies{
node [shape="box", color="lightseagreen", style="filled,rounded", fillcolor="lightyellow1"];
edge [color="lightseagreen"];
"Security"->"Configuration";
"Security"->"Globalization";
"Security"->"Logging";
"Security"->"Data Store";
"Data Store"->"Configuration";
"Data Store"->"Globalization";
"Data Store"->"Logging";
"Data Store"->"Cache";
"Services"->"Configuration";
"Services"->"Globalization";
"Services"->"Logging";
"Services"->"Data Store";
"Services"->"Security";
"Globalization"->"Configuration";
"Cache"-> "Configuration";
"Lang"->"Globalization";
"Logging"->"Configuration";
}

...