Are frameworks boring?

Frameworks are boring. Frameworks operate well out of sight of most users and when a major product is built around a framework, it attracts little attention. It’s the features that attract users and when users have business needs they look to vendors with products that have those features that they require. And yet, in today’s modern development environment, frameworks are anything but boring.

When it comes to major development projects, whether it’s a solution or simply middleware and infrastructure, experience has taught us that the development process is greatly enhanced when time is taken to architect a framework upon which all new development relies. Whether it’s simply a common logging facility, embedding a tracing capability, or handling the presentation of information any routine that will be used by other processes benefits from becoming part of the framework.

This has definitely been the case at InfraSoft. When you like at what looks on paper middleware at the opposite ends of the communications spectrum, uLinga for DLSw (low level support for Data Linke Switching) or the more modern communications uLinga for CICS (higher level NonStop application to IBM application interfacing) it’s hard to imagine what possible processes could be sharable between the two. Perhaps the best illustration of the value that came with the framework is WebCON – all the configuration, tracing, logging, and user interface components (WebCON) are reusable across all uLinga products.

WebCON now features an intuitive graphical browser-based interface through which all command and control can be initiated. The exchanges are secured using TLS 1.2 and WebCON comes with its own configurable dashboard for monitoring purposes. But whatever middleware InfraSoft addresses in the future, we know it will feature WebCON just as we know the middleware first implemented in support of uLinga will feature as the framework of any new middleware we deliver!

Frameworks aren’t boring. We may not talk about them all that often. But for the NonStop community there’s considerable advantages that come with any chosen solution or middleware product offering that takes advantage of a well thought-through framework. After all, there’s not a structure being erected anywhere in the world that isn’t dependent upon the strength of its framework!

Peter Shell | Managing Director | Infrasoft Pty Limited
peter.shell@infrasoft.com.au | tel +61 411 105 330
www.infrasoft.com.au