Object-Oriented Software Engineering

Chapter 3:
Basing Software Development on
Reusable Technology
 Building on the Experience of Others
•Software engineers should avoid re-developing software
already developed

•Types of reuse:
– Reuse of expertise
Experience, Article and blog of expert software engineer
– Reuse of standard designs and algorithms
There are thousands of algorithms, designs and documentation
– Reuse of libraries of classes or procedures
Libraries and commands represent implemented algorithms,
data structures and other facilities
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Building on the Experience of Others
– Reuse of powerful commands built into languages and
operating systems
– Reuse of frameworks
Frameworks represent more than libraries, they represent
the structure of entire applications or subsystems
– Reuse of complete applications
Use full application and adapting it to the need of a client
by adding a small amount of extra software.
Extra code often called glue code.
Scripting language is used
 Frameworks: Reusable Subsystems
•A framework is reusable subsystem that implements a
generic solution to a generalized problem.
– It provides common facilities applicable to different
application programs.

•Principle: Applications that do different, but related, things

tend to have similar designs

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 Frameworks to promote reuse
•A framework is intrinsically incomplete
– Certain classes or methods are used by the framework,
but are missing (slots)

– Some functionality is optional

• Allowance is made for developer to provide it (hooks or
extension points)

– Developers use the services that the framework provides

• Taken together the services are called the Application Program
Interface (API)

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 Object-oriented frameworks
•In the object oriented paradigm, a framework is composed of
a library of classes.
– The API is defined by the set of all public methods of these classes.
– Some of the classes will normally be abstract and there are often
many Interfaces

•Example:
– A framework for payroll management
Payment, tax, deduction
– A framework for frequent buyer clubs
frequent flier or frequent buyer for a supershop
– A framework for university registration
– A framework for e-commerce web sites
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 Frameworks and product lines
– A product line (or product family) is a set of
products built on a common base of
technology.
• The various products in the product line have
different features to satisfy different markets
• The software common to all products is included in a
framework
• Each product is produced by filling the available
hooks and slots
– E.g. software products offering ‘demo’, ‘lite’ or ‘pro’
versions

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 Types of frameworks
•A horizontal framework provides general application facilities that a
large number of applications can use
•A vertical framework (application framework) is more ‘complete’ but
still needs some slots to be filled to adapt it to specific application
needs

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 Types of frameworks
Hybrid framework
Composed of vertical and horizontal framework
e-commerce framework consists of horizontal and vertical e.g.
secure payment framework
A Java interface can be considered an extreme example of
horizontal framework
There is no implementation.
All slots are empty and to be filled
The Client-Server Architecture
•A distributed system is a system in which:
– computations are performed by separate programs
– … normally running on separate pieces of hardware
– … that co-operate to perform the task of the system.
•Server:
– A program that provides a service for other programs
that connect to it using a communication channel
•Client
– A program that accesses a server (or several servers)
to obtain services
– A server may be accessed by many clients
simultaneously
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Example of client-server systems
– The World Wide Web
– Email
– Network File System
– Transaction Processing System
– Remote Display System
– Communication System
– Database System

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A server program communicating with two
client programs

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 Activities of a server
1. Initializes itself
2. Starts listening for clients
3. Handles the following types of events originating from clients
1. accepts connections
2. responds to messages
3. handles client disconnection
4. May stop listening
5. Must cleanly terminate

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 Activities of a client
1. Initializes itself
2. Initiates a connection
3. Sends messages
4. Handles the following types
of events originating from
the server
1. responds to messages
2. handles server disconnection
5. Must cleanly terminate

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Threads in a client-server system

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Thin- versus fat-client systems
•Thin-client system (a)
– Client is made as small as possible
– Most of the work is done in the server.
– Client easy to download over the network
•Fat-client system (b)
– As much work as possible is delegated to the clients.
– Server can handle more clients

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 Communications protocols
– The messages the client sends to the server form a
language.
• The server has to be programmed to understand that
language.
– The messages the server sends to the client also form a
language.
• The client has to be programmed to understand that
language.
– When a client and server are communicating, they are in
effect having a conversation using these two languages
– The two languages and the rules of the conversation,
taken together, are called the protocol

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 Tasks to perform to develop
client-server applications
1. Design the primary work to be performed by
both client and server
2. Design how the work will be distributed
3. Design the details of the set of messages that
will be sent
4. Design the mechanism for
1. Initializing
2. Handling connections
3. Sending and receiving messages
4. Terminating

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Advantages of client-server systems
– The work can be distributed among different machines
– The clients can access the server’s functionality from a
distance
– The client and server can be designed separately
– They can both be simpler
– There is a choice about where to keep data:
• All the data can be kept centrally at the server
• Data can be distributed among many different clients or
servers
– The server can be accessed simultaneously by many
clients

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 Technology Needed to Build Client-Server
Systems
•Internet Protocol (IP)
– Route messages from one computer to another
– Long messages are normally split up into small pieces
•Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
– Handles connections between two computers
– Computers can then exchange many IP messages over a connection
– Assures that the messages have been satisfactorily received
•A host has an IP address and a host name
– Several servers can run on the same host.
– Each server is identified by a port number (0 to 65535).
– To initiate communication with a server, a client must know both the
host name and the port number

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 Establishing a connection in Java
•The java.net package
– Permits the creation of a TCP/IP connection between two
applications

•Before a connection can be established, the server

must start listening to one of the ports:
ServerSocket serverSocket = new ServerSocket(port);
Socket clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();

•For a client to connect to a server:

Socket clientSocket= new Socket(host, port);

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 Exchanging information in Java
– Each program uses an instance of
• InputStream to receive messages from the other
program
• OutputStream to send messages to the other program
• These are found in package java.io

output = clientSocket.getOutputStream();
input = clientSocket.getInputStream();

output =new ObjectOutputStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());

input =new ObjectInputStream(clientSocket.getInputStream());

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Sending and receiving messages
• without any filters (raw bytes)
output.write(msg);
msg = input.read();

• or using DataInputStream / DataOutputStream filters

output.writeDouble(msg);
msg = input.readDouble();

• or using ObjectInputStream / ObjectOutputStream filters

output.writeObject(msg);
msg = input.readObject();

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The Object Client-Server Framework
(OCSF)

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 Using OCSF
•Software engineers using OCSF never modify its three
classes

•They:
– Create subclasses of the abstract classes in the framework

– Call public methods that are provided by the framework

– Override certain slot and hook methods (explicitly designed

to be overridden)
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 The Client Side
•Consists of a single class: AbstractClient
– Must be subclassed
• Any subclass must provide an implementation for
handleMessageFromServer
– Takes appropriate action when a message is received from a
server

– Implements the Runnable interface

• Has a run method which
– Contains a loop that executes for the lifetime of the thread

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 The public interface of AbstractClient
•Controlling methods:
– openConnection -- connects to a server if it can
– closeConnection -- stops communication
– sendToServer -- sends a message to server

•Accessing methods:
– isConnected -- to inquire whether client is connected to a server
– getHost -- which host the client is connected to
– setHost -- change the host of a disconnected client
– getPort -- which port the client is connected to
– setPort -- change the port of a disconnected client
– getInetAddress – provides detailed information about the client

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The callback methods of AbstractClient

•Methods that may be overridden:

– connectionEstablished
– connectionClosed

•Method that must be implemented:

– handleMessageFromServer

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 Using AbstractClient
– Create a subclass of AbstractClient
– Implement handleMessageFromServer slot
method
– Write code that:
• Creates an instance of the new subclass
• Calls openConnection
• Sends messages to the server using the sendToServer
service method
– Implement the connectionClosed callback
– Implement the connectionException callback
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 Internals of AbstractClient
•Instance variables:
– A Socket which keeps all the information about the
connection to the server
– Two streams, an ObjectOutputStream and an
ObjectInputStream
– A Thread that runs using AbstractClient’s run
method
– Two variables storing the host and port of the
server

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 The Server Side
•Two classes:
– One for the thread which listens for new
connections (AbstractServer)

– One for the threads that handle the connections to

clients (ConnectionToClient)

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 The public interface of AbstractServer
•Controlling methods:
– Listen -- listen on the port
– stopListening-- no new clients will be accepted
– close -- disconnects all client
– sendToAllClients -- send message to all clients

•Accessing methods:
– isListening -- determines if server is listening
– getClientConnections -- returns an array of instances of
ConnectionToClient
– getPort -- what port the server is listening on
– setPort -- set a port to listen
– setBacklog -- set the size of the client queue length
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The callback methods of AbstractServer
•Methods that may be overridden:
– serverStarted – called when starts accepting connections
– clientConnected – when new client connects
– clientDisconnected – disconnect a client using close Method of
ConnectionToClient
– clientException – client disconnects itself or network failure
– serverStopped – whenever server stops accepting connections
– listeningException -- whenever server stops accepting
connections due to some failure
– serverClosed – when server closes down
•Method that must be implemented:
– handleMessageFromClient
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The public interface of ConnectionToClient

•Controlling methods:
– sendToClient – communicate with client
– close – causes the client to be disconnected

•Accessing methods:
– getInetAddress – internet address of the client
connection
– setInfo – arbitrary information to be saved
– getInfo – retreival of information
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Using AbstractServer and ConnectionToClient

– Create a subclass of AbstractServer

– Implement the slot method
handleMessageFromClient
– Write code that:
• Creates an instance of the subclass of AbstractServer
• Calls the listen method
• Sends messages to clients, using:
– the getClientConnections and sendToClient service methods
– or sendToAllClients
– Implement one or more of the other callback
methods
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 Internals of AbstractServer and
ConnectionToClient
– The setInfo and getInfo methods make use of a Java class
called HashMap

– Many methods in the server side are synchronized

– The collection of instances of ConnectionToClient is

stored using a special JAVA class called ThreadGroup

– The server must pause from listening every 500ms to see if

the stopListening method has been called
• if not, then it resumes listening immediately
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An Instant Messaging Application: SimpleChat

•ClientConsole can eventually be replaced by ClientGUI

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 The server
• EchoServer is a subclass of AbstractServer
– The main method creates a new instance and starts it
• It listens for clients and handles connections until the server is
stopped
– The three callback methods just print out a message to
the user
• handleMessageFromClient, serverStarted and
serverStopped
– The slot method handleMessageFromClient calls
sendToAllClients
• This echoes any messages
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 Key code in EchoServer
public void handleMessageFromClient
(Object msg, ConnectionToClient client)
{
System.out.println(
"Message received: "
+ msg + " from " + client);
this.sendToAllClients(msg);
}

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 The client
•When the client program starts, it creates instances of two classes:
– ChatClient
• A subclass of AbstractClient
• Overrides handleMessageFromServer
– This calls the display method of the user interface
– ClientConsole
• User interface class that implements the interface ChatIF
– Hence implements display which outputs to the console
• Accepts user input by calling accept in its run method
• Sends all user input to the ChatClient by calling its
handleMessageFromClientUI
– This, in turn, calls sendToServer

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 Key code in ChatClient
public void handleMessageFromClientUI(
String message)
{
try
{
sendToServer(message);
}
catch(IOException e)
{
clientUI.display (
"Could not send message. " +
"Terminating client.");
quit();
}
}

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Key code in ChatClient - continued
public void handleMessageFromServer(Object msg)
{
clientUI.display(msg.toString());
}

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Risks when reusing technology
– Poor quality reusable components
• Ensure that the developers of the reusable technology:
– follow good software engineering practices
– are willing to provide active support

– Compatibility not maintained

• Avoid obscure features
• Only re-use technology that others are also re-using

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Risks when developing reusable technology
– Investment uncertainty
• Plan the development of the reusable technology, just
as if it was a product for a client

– The ‘not invented here syndrome’

• Build confidence in the reusable technology by:
– Guaranteeing support
– Ensuring it is of high quality
– Responding to the needs of its users

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Risk when developing reusable technology –
continued
– Competition
• The reusable technology must be as useful and as high
quality as possible

– Divergence (tendency of various groups to change

technology in different ways)
• Design it to be general enough, test it and review it in
advance

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Risks when adopting a client-server approach

– Security
• Security is a big problem with no perfect solutions:
consider the use of encryption, firewalls, ...

– Need for adaptive maintenance

• Ensure that all software is forward and backward
compatible with other versions of clients and servers

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