Streamlined Alogrithm Deployment via JavaBeans

Patrick Chisan Hew
2002 Journal of Object Technology  
This paper introduces JavaBean Calculation Engines (JBCEs), a procedure for deploying algorithms in a standard JavaBean framework. For the algorithm developer, JBCEs are a finishing point for deploying an algorithm as a "qualified product". For the GUI developer, JBCEs shield internal computations behind a JavaBean interface. By standardising the interface between computational and GUI code, JBCEs improve reusability and maintainability. STREAMLINED ALGORITHM DEPLOYMENT VIA JAVABEANS 76 J
more » ... OF OBJECT TECHNOLOGY V OL. 1, NO. 4 BACKGROUND Motivation This work arose out of the needs of the Theatre Operations Branch (TOB) at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation. TOB supplied operational analysis support to the Australian Defence Force, motivating a software toolkit that deployed algorithms in a user-friendly form. While skilled practitioners, TOB developers were not professional "code cutters"; moreover, the GUI needed to be developed in an evolutionary fashion. The algorithms themselves, however, were expected to be relatively "stable" as reusable assets (Schmidt 1999a). Hence, and in order to get the best value out of contractor support, algorithms needed to be packaged for streamlined deployment into a GUI, while maintaining "black box" isolation. JavaBeans JavaBeans 1 are a popular commercial standard for software components (Doherty et al 2000) . The most visible examples of JavaBeans are GUI libraries like Swing, and JavaBeans can be further wrapped into Enterprise JavaBeans 2 , enabling distributed applications (Asbury et al 1999) . JavaBeans are characterised by their standardised interaction with the outside world.
doi:10.5381/jot.2002.1.4.c6 fatcat:y4nz5pxzwbgzvgv4qyhz4t3bwy