Self-Configuring Components for Client-/Server-Applications

A mechanistic view of software component assembly implies exact matching and fitting of the particular components. We argue that components for large-scale software construction should have automatic configuration capabilities in order to significantly enhance their reusability and maintainabilty. The paper sketches a pragmatic approach for implementing selfconfiguring components, relying on framework technology, meta-information and naming conventions. A case-study drawn from the client-/ server-domain illustrates the concepts. 1 Beyond Open Implementation Gregor Kiczales [1] discusses the problems of blackbox abstraction: The implementation details of a module/component are hidden. In many cases, clients are affected by the implementation and its specific restrictions so that programmers have to “code around” the component implementation. Thus implementations should be opened up to allow clients more control over these issues. Figure 1 illustrates the basic concept of an open component implementation, which provides two interfaces, a primary interface and a meta-interface. A client requests the functionality of a component through the primary interface. The meta-interface allows the parameterization of the various component implementation strategies. primary interface metainterface primary client code