Adaptive Linkage: an Interface Level Adaptable Component Development Technique

Business requirements change consequentially causes software system business functions change and changing components which participate in performing the business functions, so flexible components can well adapt to the change of business functions. In order to solve component flexibility problem, this paper proposes an adaptable component development technique------adaptive linkage, which at interface level enables component to flexibly support business functions change. The proposed logical structure of adaptive component which owns multiple interfaces and multiple implementations, the introduced adaptive linkage descriptor provide the basis for adaptive linkage development technique, a formal model of adaptive linkage descriptor is addressed as a theory basis for its code autogeneration; then we implement this technique with XML and based on encapsulation and inheritance programming mechanisms in object oriented software development technology. At last, in the example system development process we adopt this technique to develop the components which participate in the performance of computing students required courses average score function to show how to use this technique, at the same time this also illustrates that developing adaptable component with this technique can effectively simplify developers´ work when amending a component, and moreover, the amending of a component does not effect the performance of other business functions which don´t hope the component to change and in whose performance the component participants.