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Building Application Framework with C#

Page 2 of 3
  1. Introduction
  2. Application Framework using C#
  3. Implementing the Framework

Application Framework using C#

In the following article, you'll see how to implement a basic infrastructure for Application Framework Model. The fundamental concept in building application framework is the template method, which is hidden inside the application and controls the flow of the application. This method is characteristically implemented in the base class and cannot be changed.

The first step is to construct the base class for the framework. The base class is the most important class when building application framework. It consists of override able method, which the end user should override to provide customized application. Apart from these, there is also a template method that as mentioned controls the framework processing.

The framework that we are going to built consist of three abstract methods for the end user to implement. These are init, run and destroy which must be implemented in sequence.So the base class for that kind of framework can be implemented as following.

// The class is defined abstract because the customized methods have no definitions
  abstract class AppFramework
  {
  // the constructor which calls the template methods
  public AppFramework()
  {
  templateMethod();
  }

// the method required to be implemented by the end user

public abstract void init();
  public abstract void run();
  public abstract void destroy();

// the template method which is the heart of the framework
  private void templateMethod()
  {
  Console.WriteLine("Initializing Template Engine");
  // template method calling the necessary function in sequence
  init();
  run();
  destroy();
  Console.WriteLine("Ending Template Engine");
  }
 
  }

One thing that you should avoid is to make the template method virtual. Because it then gives the end user ability to override the template method hence changing the whole framework process flow.

Comments

  1. 30 Nov 2005 at 02:20
    None serious actual framework uses inheritance or templating. Inversion of Control (aka Dependency Injection Pattern) is a much better design and seems to be the way most popular frameworks had taken.
  2. 10 Feb 2003 at 07:39

    Developing Java for a few years and understanding most of the concepts and theory of the language this tutorial gave me a better idea as to what to expect when making the jump to C#.  Although not in-dept, intricate enough to get the 'just' of the language and framework building.  EXCELLENT JOB!!!!!!!

  3. 06 Jan 2003 at 14:58

    The title gives an impression that we are going to delve deep into application frameworks...but the article is just basic, although its OK.  Better change the title to avoid such comments.

  4. 18 Dec 2002 at 17:04
    Horrible!!

    I thought this was an article about Frameworks??? Instead I get a brief on the basics of Inheritence. A Framework is a much larger issue, and cannot be covered in three HTML pages.


  5. 02 Jul 2002 at 08:53

    A very good article and written in a very good understandable form.
    Frameworks are rightly easing the amount of effort required to put in to code development by developers.
    Frameworks provide set of services , but dot NET goes beyond that by managing the code that uses those services. So, dotNET can be viewed as playing dual role (Provision of services and managment of code).



  6. 01 Jan 1999 at 00:00

    This thread is for discussions of Building Application Framework with C#.

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