Plaant Life Cycle

Development : How a new version of an existing Plaant system is created

No system will satisfy its owners/users forever. As the time passes, competition attacks, legislators strive to show up, tastes and habits come and go, the application is required to grow and stretch. Actually, despite all attempts of all involved parties to deliver absolutely perfect product, the grow and stretch process usually beginns well ahead of the 1.0 version is introduced to routine operations. No reason for tears for users of Plaant.

Consulting and analysis

Once again, before the customer's wishes are carved into the code, analysis of requirements is usually accomplished and some sort of functional specifications is written.

Data structure modifications

The programmer or skilled consultant modifies the data structures as well as the screen forms in accordance with the functional specifications. By means of PlaantTools the programmer loads XML application descriptors and makes requested changes, including localization, static lists, etc. If the modifications involve changes of existing data structures, the data will be transported and transformed between the structures by means of Plaant ETL tool.

Extension of application logic

If the functional specifications imply changes in the application logic, the programmer loads (with the help of his/her favorite Java-enabled RAD instrument) application classes and makes all needed modifications.

Application deployment

As soon as the changes are completed, the deployer executes incremental upgrade of data structures and subsequently deploys the compiled java classes of application logic on the server. For both operations PlaantTools provide the needed services, though the deployment can be done manually using the resources of operating system for copying.

Next part : Deployment