A pattern language for metadata-based frameworks
Eduardo Guerra, Jerffeson Souza, Clovis Torres Fernandes · 2009
Abstract. Metadata-based frameworks are those that process their logic based on the metadata of the classes whose instances they are working with. Many recent frameworks use this approach to get a higher reuse level and to be more suitably adapted to the application needs. However, there is not yet a complete best practices documentation or reference architecture for the development of frameworks by using the metadata approach. As a result, this paper presents a pattern language that addresses preliminarily the internal structure of metadata-based frameworks, helping in the understanding and development of such kind of framework. 1. Context According to (Beck, 2007), there are three styles of use that a framework can support: instantiation, implementation and configuration. Instantiation is the simplest style of use, where the client instantiate a framework class and use it invoking its methods. In implementation, the client implements a framework interface or extends the framework class to include logic during its execution. In configuration, the client invokes