Summary

-Definitions-

Overview

Illustration 1

Illustration 2

Illustration 3

The Framework - a flyby

Conclusion

Biography

Resources

Before we delve into that statement, let's quickly define a few terms for clarity and completeness of this document.

Component

a component is a "black box" with well-defined interfaces that serves a specific purpose and can be used as a building block to compose other components and applications via a plug-and-play mechanism.

Component Definition

a component definition is the blueprint of the component (like a Class in OO paradigm) that defines the component's behavior. A component definition may include static configuration files (XML, .properties files etc.) that help in defining the behavior of the component, in addition to its code itself.

Component Declaration

a component declaration is the usage of a component in the definition of another component. The defining component is known as container or parent component and the used component is known as contained or child component. It's like an attribute declaration in a Class in OO paradigm.

Component Instance

a single copy of a component definition (like an Object in OO paradigm) created from a component declaration.