To help explain CLEAR, I'll start by talking a little bit about each of the words that make up the acronym:
- Configuration
- LookUp
- Every Application
- Runtime
1. Configuration
As a software engineer, almost every application I've worked on or built requires some sort of configuration to be functional. By configuration, I'm talking about information such as a datasource url, an SMTP host, or even a simple 'from' email, to name a few. The list of different configuration properties goes on and on and is ultimately dependent on the business needs of the application.
2. LookUp
Not only do most applications require configuration, but most require that the configuration information change depending on where the application is running.
For instance, taking a datasource url as an example, you might want to set that URL to something different in a development or QA environment than what you have it set to in a production environment.
Or, using an email as another example, lets imagine you have a contact form in your web application and, when submitted, that form sends user information to a special 'contact@mywebsite.com' email address. Well, while implementing this functionality, it would be nice to be able to change this email to, maybe, a personal email for testing.
The LookUp mechanism in CLEAR provides for this type of configurability.
3. Every Application
CLEAR is designed to work in every type of system and support every type of business need. From enterprise to brochure web solutions, to mobile, to everything in between, you can use CLEAR to configure your Java or Groovy project.
4. Runtime
As hinted to above, CLEAR is used to configure your application's runtime and supports configuration for many different runtime settings.
In "CLEAR: Part 2" I'll go into specifics and discuss how you can use it in your application.
In the meantime, if you're interested in more information please head on over to Github:
