Summary

We could quickly summarize this chapter by saying, "Administrators are people too." This phrase is meant to reinforce the fact that applications need to be put into a production environment. The programmer does not manage the production environment, nor does the user . The administrator manages the production environment and will most likely not use the application being managed. Therefore, the programmer's objective should be to develop an application that the administrator can manage without too much trouble.

A good manageable application implements three tools: plug-ins, configuration files, and logging routines. Each of these pieces makes it easier for the administrator to create an environment that will make the application manageable and robust. The plug-ins make it easy for the administrator to add in external functionality. The configuration files allow the administrator to tune the application for optimum performance. Lastly, the logging files make it possible for the administrator to figure out what went wrong. An administrator who has these tools at his disposal will have fewer questions for the developer.

Some people may argue that plug-ins, configuration files, and logging routines make an application slower. Granted, these three do present some performance issues, but these problems are easily offset by the fact that the administrator can figure out what to do with the application. The performance issues will not be issues if the configuration files and logging routines are properly engineered into the application. The problem is that developers often add such functionality as an afterthought.

On the CD The sources to the concepts presented in this chapter are located under the directory [CDROM]/jseng/src/com.devspace. jseng .configuration . For the section Activating the Logging Process a sample configuration file is located at [CDROM]/jseng/src/classes/ simplelog.properties .