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KnowledgeFrame was not built as a general-purpose Java Web application framework, the way Struts, JSF, Tapestry or WebWorks, Hibernate or Eclipse EMF have been built. KF will not do everything that the typical Java Web frameworks will do – but what it does do, it does well. It is specialized for data-centric business applications, similar to legacy tools in the enterprise space, such as Oracle Forms or Sybase PowerBuilder.
The visible difference is that KnowledgeFrame uses any plain standard-compliant Web browser with no plug-ins or modifications to deliver relatively rich data-centric functionality.
Behind the scenes on the server side, the meta-data and business rules focus allow very rich and dynamic data representation and behavior, allowing applications to represent variability of data, locales, conditions, security levels etc. in data itself, without coding additional screens of complex procedural code.
The database access is abstracted to proven and well-tested data patterns. On top of that, KF allows these patterns to be extended to give developers access to raw SQL power. This allows developers to encapsulate even complex data access patterns – recursive foreign keys, outer joins, sub-selects, many-to-many relationships, set operations, functional indexes, analytical and data warehousing SQL extensions etc. – and tune them to perform well even against tables with several million rows.
All this makes KF more suitable to larger-scale, more complex and demanding applications, and is better suited for developers who have previous experience with large and high-performance database systems.
Examples of applications where KnowledgeFrame can give business a significant advantage include:
- Migrations of legacy enterprise applications, built via mainframe technologies or tools Oracle Forms or Sybase PowerBuilder, to a pure-internet, open-standards architectures, with near-zero deployment and client support costs (no firewall issues, no browser plug-ins), and capable of instantaneous change and re-deployment.
- Scenarios where the legacy application has been built for in-house use, and the customer needs to enable it to remote and mobile users, business partners or open public access via the Internet.
- Highly security-sensitive applications, which need to avoid any data to be stored on the client, and which must be delivered via an end-to-end encrypted data stream (HTTPS with 128-bit encryption). KnowledgeFrame is optimized to enforce complete role-based security on module, business function, data entity and even individual data item levels, controlled via a central Party Registry.
- Rule-rich applications. In there applications, the volume or complexity of rules and their volatility to change significantly affect both the development time and cost. The long-term maintenance depends on business users understanding and being able to manage the rules.
- Rapid prototyping of applications where the database designs employ advanced data patterns, such as documented by David Hay (see Data Model Patterns: Conventions of Thought and Requirements Analysis: From Business Views to Architecture on e.g. Amazon.com) and Len Silverstone (see The Data Model Resource Book, Vol. 1: A Library of Universal Data Models for All Enterprises on e.g. Amazon.com).
- Applications where user productivity and the automation of complex workflow are a critical success factor.
- Applications where data variability really matters – the data characteristics, visibility and rules can vary based on territory, user privileges, product lines, team and project involved, complex configuration criteria, allowing for potentially thousands of possible combinations, some of which can change during each business cycle.
- Applications developed by teams that are not all Java gurus - where analysts, designers and business users are required to collaborate throughout the "design and build" cycles with developers.
- Applications that cover "end to end" business processes involving many of the organization's functions and even external partners, suppliers and customers.
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