DINAADINAA is an acronym for Data Independent Network Application Architecture. In any enterprise application, data will pass through multiple layers as it passes from the database or various back-end systems, through the business logic and application tiers, across the network, until it reaches the user's screen. Similarly, data passes through many layers as it passes from the user's screen back to the database, when reports are produced, or as data is fed into or out of external systems. In a traditional application, each layer will contain some form of storage to temporarily hold data. Simple customisations, such as adding or changing the data stored in the database, usually require changes in multiple parts of the application. Some application architectures try to bypass this problem by allowing screen-related code to directly access the database, but this results in badly structured applications and long term maintenance problems. ToolTwist provides a different approach. Rather than have each part of the application contain variables, beans or other structures to hold and pass application data, industry standard XML is used to pass data within the application (XML is commonly used as the format for data when it is imported or exported from an application, but it is not usually used within an application). ToolTwist provides extensive facilities for manipulating XML within application code. The result is that most of the application can work with data as it passes through the application, without being hard coded for actual content of the data. This means that extra data fields can be added or changed in an application, usually without the need to change existing programming logic. In other words, many customisations can be developed quickly and easily, without rewriting application code. |