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Application framework

 
Computer Desktop Encyclopedia: application framework
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(1) The building blocks of an application.

(2) A set of common software routines that provides a foundation structure for developing an application. Frameworks take the tedium out of writing all the program code for an application from scratch. Object-oriented application frameworks, which are the norm today, are structured as a class library.

Each class library has its way of doing things, and although the purpose of a framework is to eliminate a certain amount of programming drudgery, programmers must first learn the structure and peculiarities of the framework in order to use it. Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) is a widely used application framework for writing general-purpose Windows applications. Struts is an example of a popular framework for Web-based Java applications.

Specialized Application Frameworks

There are also frameworks geared to specific purposes; for example, a framework for a content management system (CMS) would include the infrastructure for developing Web e-commerce, document maintenance and interactive user activities such as blogs and wikis (see Joomla!). See class library, MFC, Struts, AFC, JFC, OWL and enterprise framework.

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Wikipedia: Application framework
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 This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

In computer programming, an application framework or application development framework consists of a software framework used by software developers to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific development environment (such as an operating system or a web application).

Application frameworks became popular with the rise of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), since these tended to promote a standard structure for applications. Programmers find it much simpler to create automatic GUI creation tools when using a standard framework, since this defines the underlying code structure of the application in advance. Developers usually use object-oriented programming techniques to implement frameworks such that the unique parts of an application can simply inherit from pre-existing classes in the framework.[citation needed]

Contents

Examples

Apple Computer developed one of the first commercial application frameworks, MacApp, for the Macintosh. Originally written in an extended (object-oriented) version of Pascal, it later appeared rewritten in C++. Other popular frameworks for the Mac include Metrowerks' PowerPlant and MacZoop (both based on Carbon). Cocoa for Mac OS X offers a different approach to an application framework.

Free software frameworks exist as part of the Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, GNOME and KDE projects.

Qt (pronounced like "cute") offers a cross-platform application framework. Using Qt, one can develop applications and user interfaces once, and deploy them across many desktop and embedded operating systems without rewriting the source code.

Microsoft created a similar product for Windows called the Microsoft Foundation Classes or MFC.

A number of frameworks will create identical applications for Linux, Macintosh, and Windows from the same source code, such as the widget toolkits wxWidgets or FOX toolkit.

Oracle Application Development Framework (Oracle ADF) aids in producing Java-oriented systems.

See also

External links

References


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