Data Façade Architecture

Before getting in to the overall architecture it is important to understand the key conceptual elements of Data Façade. The high level goal of this framework is to provide a clean, easy to configure user interface for data sources.

Mapping of DatFacade compoenents to Database Components

The web based configuration interface provides declarative (contrast to programmatic) process for mapping of Database components to Data Façade components.

Data Sources represent the Databases hosting the data to be exposed. Declaration of data sources involves specifying the jdbc drivers, connection url, database security credentials and connection pool parameters. Data Façade bundles JDBC drivers for Oracle, SQL server, DB2 and ODBC Bridge. Note: After configuring data sources, hosting tomcat instance(s) has to be restarted.

DBObjects are the core components of the Data Façade framework. DB Object represents a database table, it's visual aspects, security and relationships with other tables.

Following are the visual aspects that can be configured.

1. Title
2. Application Group (A logical grouping of DB Objects typically representing an application)
3. Menu access path
4. Sort order
5. Drill Down mode
6. Display mode with respect to a Parent DB Object
7. Record list/search mode
8. Display characteristics such as width and height

Additionally each DB Object maintains a collection of DB Columns and "Actions" associated with it.

DB Columns are visual representation of data base columns of a given table (associated with the parent DB Object).

Following are the visual properties that can be configured.

1. Description
2. Display order (Vertical and Horizontal)
3. Field format (e.g. Date, numeric)
4. Tool Tips
5. Display Tabs (Logical grouping of data fields displayed in a given tab)
6. Enumerations/Lookups
7. Accessibility (Viewable, List able, Updateable, Filterable, Null able)

Based on the data types, format and other settings Data Façade automatically picks appropriate display components (e.g. Calendar, Drop Down, Combo Box, Check Box etc)

Note: Some of the declarations (e.g. Description, Format, Tool Tips) accept HTML constructs for rich user experience.

Actions are the java based extension points provided by Data Façade to extend the behavioral aspect of the application. Data Façade ships with an array of actions that can be used for various customizations. Additionally one can write there own actions by extending the Action API for further customization. Please see the Advance user guide for details. The actions can be tied to database record level or table level.

Data Facade Architecture.