DataFrame

A Data Frame is a compact, efficient, hierarchical, self-describing and utilitarian data format with the ability to marshal other formats. It is an open source project release under the MIT license and can be downloaded from the Data Frame project site.

A DataFrame can be used as a Value Object design pattern implementation, providing access to data without carrying any business logic. Value Objects tend to make service interfaces simpler and can many times reduce the number of calls to remote services through the population of the entire data model thereby avoiding multiple calls to the service. Value Objects can also be used to reduce the number of parameters on service methods.

DataFrame was first developed in 2002 to implement the Data Transfer Object (DTO) design pattern in distributed applications; passing a DataFrame as both argument and return values in remote service calls. Using this implementation of a DTO allowed for more efficient transfer of data between distributed components, reducing latency, improving throughput and decoupling not only the components of the system, but moving business logic out of the data model. Its compact format and quick marshaling made it superior to text-based formats such as XML and JSON in all but human readability.

DataFrame uses a binary wire format which is more efficient to parse and transfer than XML and other text formats. Marshaling occurs only when the data is accessed so unnecessary conversions are avoided.