This article will discuss one strategy for combining frameworks using three popular open source frameworks. For the presentation layer we will use Struts; for our business layer we will use Spring; and for our persistence layer we will use Hibernate. You should be able to substitute any one of these frameworks in your application and get the same effect. Figure 1 shows what this looks like from a high level when the frameworks are combined.
Figure 1. Overview of framework architecture with Struts, Spring, and Hibernate.
Application Layer
Most non-trivial web applications can be divided into at least four layers of responsibility. These layers are the presentation, persistence, business, and domain model layers. Each layer has a distinct responsibility in the application and should not mix functionality with other layers. Each application layer should be isolated from other layers but allow an interface for communication between them. Let's start by inspecting each of these layers and discuss what these layers should provide and what they should not provide.
At one end of a typical web application is the presentation layer. Many Java developers understand what Struts provides. However, too often, coupled code such as business logic is placed into an org.apache.struts.Action. So, let's agree on what a framework like Struts should provide. Here is what Struts is responsible for:
- Managing requests and responses for a user.
- Providing a controller to delegate calls to business logic and other upstream processes.
- Handling exceptions from other tiers that throw exceptions to a Struts Action.
- Assembling a model that can be presented in a view.
- Performing UI validation.
Here are some items that are often coded using Struts but should not be associated with the presentation layer:
- Direct communication with the database, such as JDBC calls.
- Business logic and validation related to your application.
- Transaction management.
Introducing this type of code in the presentation layer leads to type coupling and cumbersome maintenance.
The Persistence Layer
At the other end of a typical web application is the persistence layer. This is usually where things get out of control fast. Developers underestimate the challenges in building their own persistence frameworks. A custom, in-house persistence layer not only requires a great amount of development time, but also often lacks functionality and becomes unmanageable. There are several open source object-to-relational mapping (ORM) frameworks that solve much of this problem. In particular, the Hibernate framework allows object-to-relational persistence and query service for Java. Hibernate has a medium learning curve for Java developers who are already familiar with SQL and the JDBC API. Hibernate persistent objects are based on plain-old Java objects and Java collections. Furthermore, using Hibernate does not interfere with your IDE. The following list contains the type of code that you would write inside a persistence framework:
- Querying relational information into objects. Hibernate does this through an OO query language called HQL, or by using an expressive criteria API. HQL is very similar to SQL except you use objects instead of tables and fields instead of columns. There are some new specific HQL language elements to learn; however, they are easy to understand and well documented. HQL is a natural language to use for querying objects that require a small learning curve.
- Saving, updating, and deleting information stored in a database.
- Advanced object-to-relational mapping frameworks like Hibernate have support for most major SQL databases, and they support parent/child relationships, transactions, inheritance, and polymorphism.
Here are some items that should be avoided in the persistence layer:
- Business logic should be in a higher layer of your application. Only data access operations should be permitted.
- You should not have persistence logic coupled with your presentation logic. Avoid logic in presentation components such as JSPs or servlet-based classes that communicate with data access directly. By isolating persistence logic into its own layer, the application becomes flexible to change without affecting code in other layers. For example, Hibernate could be replaced with another persistence framework or API without modification to the code in any other layer.
The Business Layer
The middle component of a typical web application is the business or service layer. This service layer is often the most ignored layer from a coding perspective. It is not uncommon to find this type of code scattered around in the UI layer or in the persistence layer. This is not the correct place because it leads to tightly coupled applications and code that can be hard to maintain over time. Fortunately, several frameworks exist that address these issues. Two of the most popular frameworks in this space are Spring and PicoContainer. These are referred to as microcontainers that have a very small footprint and determine how you wire your objects together. Both of these frameworks work on a simple concept of dependency injection (also known as inversion of control). This article will focus on Spring's use of setter injection through bean properties for named configuration parameters. Spring also allows a sophisticated form of constructor injection as an alternative to setter injection as well. The objects are wired together by a simple XML file that contains references to objects such as the transaction management handler, object factories, service objects that contain business logic, and data access objects (DAO).
The way Spring uses these concepts will be made clearer with examples later in this article. The business layer should be responsible for the following:
- Handling application business logic and business validation
- Managing transactions
- Allowing interfaces for interaction with other layers
- Managing dependencies between business level objects
- Adding flexibility between the presentation and the persistence layer so they do not directly communicate with each other
- Exposing a context to the business layer from the presentation layer to obtain business services
- Managing implementations from the business logic to the persistence layer
The Domain Model Layer
Finally, since we are addressing non-trivial, web-based applications we need a set of objects that can move between the different layers. The domain object layer consists of objects that represent real-world business objects such as an Order, OrderLineItem, Product, and so on. This layer allows developers to stop building and maintaining unnecessary data transfer objects, or DTOs, to match their domain objects. For example, Hibernate allows you to read database information into an object graph of domain objects, so that you can present it to your UI layer in a disconnected manner. Those objects can be updated and sent back across to the persistence layer and updated within the database. Furthermore, you do not have to transform objects into DTOs, which can get lost in translation as they are moved between different application layers. This model allows Java developers to work with objects naturally in an OO fashion without additional coding.
First, we will create our domain objects since they will interoperate with each layer. These objects will allow us to define what should be persisted, what business logic should be provided, and what type of presentation interface should be designed. Next, we will configure the persistence layer and define object-to-relational mappings with Hibernate for our domain objects. Then we will define and configure our business objects. After we have these components we can discuss wiring these layers using Spring. Finally, we will provide a presentation layer that knows how to communicate with the business service layer and knows how to handle exceptions that arise from other layers.
Conclusion
This article covers a lot of ground in terms of technology and architecture. The main concept to take away is how to better separate your application, user interface, persistence logic, and any other application layer you require. Doing this will decouple your code, allow new code components to be added, and make your application more maintainable in the future. The technologies covered here address specific problems well. However, by using this type of architecture you can replace application layers with other technologies.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment