Transparent Persistence Frameworkfor Multiple Persistence Mechanisms

Abstract

Persistence is the term used in computer science which describes the characteristics of data that outlives the execution of the program that created it. There is a growing need to simplify the interactions among separate systems and to build complex computer systems that are made out of components with well-defined services that require persistence of its data.Persistence frameworks have gained tremendous interest in the industry and academia due to its nature of addressing very fundamental and essential needs of applications. This dissertation presents the research approach, design and implementation of the transparent persistence framework in Java called PersistF (Persistence Framework). Most of the existing frameworks require complicated configuration steps that are imposed onto the developer. As such, they are complicated to use with a steep learning curve for the developer. Our aim with this work was to present a framework that will not require such complicated configuration steps and would provide its service to the target application with virtually no configuration of the framework's handling of domain classes. A common constraint of existing frameworks is that they are targeted to work with a given persistence mechanism type, mainly the relational database. There is little support for multiple persistence mechanisms beyond relational databases. PersistF provides support for multiple persistence mechanism types - relational databases, XML files and a proposed support for object-oriented databases. Support for different persistence mechanism types is internally handled inside the framework and requires no change to the application code that uses the framework.Transparent persistence is a much desirable characteristics of a persistence framework as it provides its services in a non-intrusive way to the domain objects. Research presented here achieves transparent persistence with the use of reflective features found in the Java programming language. Our research produced a solid persistence framework that has a flexible and extensible design based on application of design patterns and object-oriented design techniques. This design leads to a persistence framework tool that provides a basis for productivity increase for the developers who use it, while at the same time reduces errors in code as it robustly handles the persistence aspects of the application. PersistF, therefore, increases overall software product quality.