The Financial Object Toolkit (FOTO) is a toolkit of components written entirely in JavaTM. This ensures that FOTO is fully object-oriented, unlike some earlier object based toolkits, which are effectively C code run through a C++ compiler. FOTO has been developed using an extension of the Model-View-Controller (MVC) approach that also incorporates storage considerations, resulting in an MVCS approach.
This allows the business objects that comprise the model to be separated from their presentation to the users (the View), the control aspects of the system (the Controller) and storage considerations.
Encapsulation is further enforced by supplying accessing and setting methods for all object attributes, thus hiding their internal representation from other objects in the system.
The design principles described above have allowed the FOTO components to be packaged as CORBA services and as Enterprise Java Beans without any significant redevelopment thus making pre-packaged components available in two major industry-standard component models.
The business model within FOTO has been designed to support all aspects of front and back office functionality, as well as risk management and other "middle office" activities. However the initial implementations concentrate on trading and risk management activities.
A major purpose of toolkits is to allow the user interface for systems to be tailored to the particular environment in which it will operate. For this reason it is important to separate the UI elements from the business model. Great care has been taken with FOTO to achieve this separation. FOTO includes a set of components that extend the facilities provided within the JavaTM AWT and Swing interfaces. These include facilities for interrogating lists, justifying text fields and providing browsers. In addition FOTO contains a number of generic dialogues to allow entering and maintenance of all the major business objects implemented.
FOTO contains a generic System Control class. This has been produced both as a skeleton for building end-user systems and as a basis for the FOTO demonstration. This model will expand to provide supports distributed computing through both Enterprise Java Beans, and the IDL (CORBA) interface, which allows communication with a variety of other object-oriented applications across CORBATM compliant Object Request Brokers (e.g. VisibrokerTM).
Other client/server solutions can be developed as required.
A design aim of the Toolkit has been to separate issues of persistent storage of objects from functional and business considerations. This approach has fitted well with the Enterprise Java Bean model, which supports Container Managed Persistence leaving the container vendor with responsibility for managing object storage.
Additionally FOTO supports a persistence strategy based on Excelon Inc.'s PSE ProTM and ObjectStoreTM products. These provide for transaction based object storage and retrieval and are particularly well suited to CORBA based developments.
Support for JDBC and other relational interfaces can also be provided.
Contact Financial Object Toolkits for further details.
54 Berrylands Road
Surbiton
Surrey KT5 8PD
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 8399 7000
Fax: +44 (0)870 054 7931
These pages are maintained by Geoff Seel.
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