Applyinq AspectJ to J2EE application development

(AOP) programming is a technique that allows programmers to modularize crosscutting concerns (behavior that cuts across the typical divisions of responsibility, such as concurrency or security). Aspect-oriented programming and the AspectJ language can reduce code size and defects while increasing understandability. Video Monitoring Services of America (VMS) began to investigate the adoption of AOP into the development of Adbase, the Java 2 Enterprise Edition-based application. Adbase supplies a Web-based search and e-commerce interface on VMS's library of advertising data. It uses a wide range of J2EE technologies, both commercial and open source. The Adbase team varied from four to seven full-time developers during the time frame covered by this article. We followed a modified version of extreme programming with a focus on emergent design and adherence to XP practices such as programmer testing-and pair programming.