Component Extended Tools and Tools for CBD

Component Extended Development Tools

Integrated Development environments (IDE) can often speed up the development process by providing tools and wizards which streamline the mechanical aspects of software development. By closely integrating a software component and its associated documentation within an IDE, component reuse becomes another feature of the IDE which further streamlines the development process.

Component Extended Application Tools

Many modern software applications allow for a plug-in or addin mechanism of one type or another. These addin's allow the applications functionality to be extended through a well defined interface. In such instances by using an addin you are able to apply a component based approach to extending the functionality of the application. Such instances of applications include:

• Microsoft's Excel XP/2003 - extended through accessing functionality contained within .NET Assemblies
• Star Office/Open Office - extended through accessing functionality contained within Java Class Libraries.

Tools for Component Based Development (CBD)

The component based development process like all development processes assign roles to different parts of the development cycle. Within any component (or service) based development process there exists the following two broad roles:

• Component Developers - parties who develop software components (or services)
• Component Assemblers - parties which assemble a software application from components (or services)

Tools for CBD consists of Applications and Frameworks which assist the Component Assemblers to construct Component Based Applications. Such tools and frameworks have two principle aims:

1. Simplify the process - Through simplifying the assembly process from an IT prospective a wider range of domain experts can get involved within the development process. Once the application is assembled and deployed these same domain experts should then be able to modify and customize the applications without developer input.
2. Speed up and regulate the Assembly Process - Many development frameworks such as those which are based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) paradigm (for example Java's Struts or ASP.NET) not only speed up the development process by taking care of the plumbing code but also force good practices within the development process.