Four Things To Consider When Creating Reusable Components In Java

In object-oriented programming (for example Java) and distributed object technology, a component is often termed as a reusable program building block that can be paired with other components in a similar or other computer systems in a distributed network to form an application. Some examples of a component can include a single button in a graphical user interface (GUI), a small interest calculator, and an UI to a database manager.

These components can either be business components or technical components. Let’s take a quick look at the definition of each component.

• Business components: These components hold business values simply written in a programming language such as Java, JavaScript, etc.
  
• Technical components: The technical components contain technical capabilities generally provided by the frameworks.
  

If you want to envision, design and implement reusable components that you can enthusiastically adopt in the future projects, it is essential for you to leverage creation of reusable components when driving systematic reuse initiatives. As a pro tip, keeping the business and technical components separate will make it easier for you to amend the code when you make a move to a new framework. So, take a look at the four essential things you must consider when planning to create reusable business and technical components for your Java project. 

1. How does separating business and technical components help in migrating to another framework in future?

If you start thinking about the solution of the problem without considering the framework, then you will able to create good business components. These business components will then be used by or wrapped inside the technical components.

2. Why should you give more importance to business components?

Technical components include frameworks. And framework may come and go, but the business remains for decades. Keeping this in mind, you must give more importance to business components in comparison to technical components.

3. Why should you focus on creating technical components better than business components?

As mentioned above, the business components have real value. However, the market demands knowledge and expertise pertaining to technologies, frameworks, and more. Certainly, technical components will keep changing over time, but business components will remain the same as it defines business in technical terms. Yet, the market demands technical knowledge base, as a result of which, technical components become the prime focus.

4. How will writing an application based on business and technical components enable you to change/upgrade framework with minimal efforts?

All you need to do is replace the framework with a new one. For instance, you have an existing application with Servlets and JSPs (i.e. technical components), that was written by keeping the business components (plain Java classes) and technical components (Servlets and JSPs) separate. You then need to migrate the application to Spring framework.

Do you need to re-create a well-tested business logic? No. You simply need to pick all the business components and wrap all of them within the Spring technical components. This will help you reduce time and effort in developing and testing the application because you already tested business components, which in turn, also reduces the costs.

In summary, creating reusable components can facilitate rapid application development (RAD). You can hire experts in Java to build reusable business and technology components in Java. If you have any thoughts or questions regarding reusable components, please share with us using the comments below.