RoadMapAssembler: a new pattern-based J2EE development tool

The quality of a J2EE web application depends on both the correctness of the code as well as the efficiency and flexibility of its architecture. Unfortunately, the design and development process is complex and includes tedious coding details, making it error-prone. Part of the problem lies in the incomplete abstractions provided by the J2EE specification. The artifacts of the distributed system environment are still present in applications and cannot be ignored, notably interfaces for distributed objects, name space information, and deployment information. In this paper, we present the detailed design of our design-pattern-based J2EE development system, RoadMapAssembler. This system shows that a J2EE architectural framework can be generated by assembling a set of design patterns in an incremental fashion, exploiting our knowledge of pattern implementations and inter-pattern relationships. This same knowledge also allows us to generate code for the distributed system artifacts that pollute J2EE applications. We demonstrate these features through the development of an example J2EE application.