Understanding and Implementing Pluggable Application Architectures

Pluggable application architectures are everywhere. Applications like Photoshop, Eclipse and other IDEs, and even application servers are all examples of applications that allow other developers to 'install' new functionality. There are plenty of reasons for wanting to install new functionality into an application that is already developed and deployed… from dynamic upgrading to the creation of a 'component marketplace', where end users can purchase components with 'extra' capability.

How can we design an application that will dynamically use new functionality that is written months, if not years, after the 'original' application has shipped? In what circumstances might we want to do this? Done right, pluggable application architectures allow you (and potentially others) to deploy new capabilities into your applications. Done wrong, they become a tightly coupled configuration management nightmare. Learn how to implement them properly in this presentation, and look at what is already available to build upon.

About David Bock

David Bock is a Principal Consultant at CodeSherpas, a company he founded in 2007. Mr. Bock is also the President of the Northern Virginia Java Users Group, the Editor of O'Reilly's OnJava.com website, and a frequent speaker on technology in venues such as the No Fluff Just Stuff Software Symposiums.

In January 2006, Mr. Bock was honored by being awarded the title of Java Champion by a panel of esteemed leaders in the Java Community in a program sponsored by Sun. There are approximately 100 active Java Champions worldwide.

David has also served on several JCP panels, including the Specification of the Java 6 Platform and the upcoming Java Module System.

In addition to his public speaking and training activities, Mr. Bock actively consults as a software engineer, project manager, and team mentor for commercial and government clients.

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