There are several points where the user can extend the existing Application Framework functionality.

Each Java bean property is internally represented as a com.softwareag.centrasite.appl.framework.mapping.Property instance.

The recommended way of creating a new property is by extending, directly or indirectly, the BaseProperty class (com.softwareag.centrasite.appl.framework.mapping.BaseProperty).

To map the information from a given annotation to the new Property correctly, a user-defined Property Processor that implements the PropertyAnnotationProcessor (com.softwareag.centrasite.appl.framework.PropertyAnnotationProcessor) must be created.

Then the newly created PropertyProcessor must be added to the list of processors in the BeanTypeAnnotationProcessor (com.softwareag.centrasite.appl.framework.BeanTypeAnnotationProcessor) using the addAnnnotationProcessor(Class<?> annotationType, PropertyAnnotationProcessor annotationProcessor) method.

Each property value must be transferred to/from the underlying registry object. For that purpose, CSAF provides the (com.softwareag.centrasite.appl.framework.persistence.mapper.PropertyMapper) interface.

Users can provide their own implementation of the PropertyMapper interface by hooking it to a given type of Property. Such a property mapper is registered using the com.softwareag.centrasite.appl.framework.persistence.mapper.PropertyMapperFactory.addHandler (PropertyMapperFactory.Handler) method.

The preferred method of creating a custom-defined predicate is to extend the DefaultPredicate (com.softwareag.centrasite.appl.framework.persistence.search.impl.DefaultPredicate) class directly or indirectly. Another way is to directly implement the Predicate interface (com.softwareag.centrasite.appl.framework.persistence.search.Predicate), although this is not recommended because it does not offer default behavior.

To use this newly-created predicate, the user must create a custom defined predicate handler, which must implement the PredicateHandler interface (com.softwareag.centrasite.appl.framework.persistence.search.PredicateHandler). This predicate handler must be added to the PredicateFactory (com.softwareag.centrasite.appl.framework.persistence.search.impl.PredicateFactory) list of predicate handlers by calling addPredicateHandler(PredicateHandler handler).