Application Framework

The application framework provides the common tools used to present and run enterprise systems. Metadata defines the supported forms, navigation, commands, validation, and other behavior.

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A web browser is a useful comparison. The browser supplies the technology that presents a page, while the page describes its content. In a similar way, a parameterized framework can change its implementation while preserving compatible business definitions.

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The architecture could support more than one compatible framework. Switching would require the new framework to interpret the metadata and support the required behavior. It would still need migration work and testing.

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Why Use a Common Framework?

• Improve common functions once. Concentrate development and quality work on functions used by many systems.

• Preserve business definitions. Reduce the amount of business design that must be rewritten when technology changes.

• Reduce repeated work. Generate supported data-maintenance definitions from the dictionary and reuse the framework that runs them.

The savings depend on how much behavior the framework supports and how much custom work an implementation needs.