The thing to keep in mind at this point is that all we touched was the interface and base code. No matter how many variations we may have produced from this base code, none of them had to be altered in any way, yet they will now all support this new functionality, as will any new implementations that we might produce in the future. By creating a framework, even for something as simple as producing the options for a select statement, we create the opportunity to enhance all of our applications at once without having to physically alter any of them.

Now what?
We've made quite a jump from where we started, but there are still other improvements and additions that we can make. Next time, we'll take a look at growing our simple framework even more, and we'll also look at other potential uses for it now that we have it available to us.

Jeff Chilton (jchilton@teametg.com) is Vice President of Fulfillment at Echo Technology Group, Inc., an IT consulting firm that specializes in enterprise-focused best practices. He can be reached at jchilton@teametg.com.